Water Softener

[Flatpackback]

Has anyone had a water softening system installed? If you have, would you recommend it? The water here is very aggressive, eating its way through irons, washing machines and showers. I've bought a water filter Kettle so that's that one sorted and only use filtered water in the iron now but I'm looking at the bigger picture. Is it very expensive and is it worth doing? Is it really effective?

Fairly expensive but I'm so glad we did it.

My skin cleared up no end, I'd miserably battled eczema for years.

We use far less detergent and don't have limescale.

Thanks Poopy , can I ask you which make/company you used? I don't know where to start with this so would rather look at products that are recommended through experience.

Used to have it when I lived with family, was great for my psoriasis.
Not got it any more though.

thanks for replies. Do you recall any problems with drinking water? I've just been googling and some reviews mention the drinking water tasting salty and some manufacturers stating their system cannot be used for drinking water.

Ah lovely clean shower screens etc. So much less cleaning.
Would definitely do it again.

We have a separate drinking water tap which the company installed at the same time. You are also supposed to water plants with hard water.

We got ours from Harvey.

They also sorted a separate (filtered) drinking water tap for us.

Ours was expensive, but it is worth it. We live in a very hard water area. We have a separate tap for drinking water

We've got a block salt one (possibly a Harvey, certainly their blocks fit it). It's installed between the stopcock and the kitchen cold tap, so we have unsoftened water in that tap, but everything else in the house has softened water. That way we don't need a separate drinking water tap.

We were advised to get a softener that takes block salt rather than loose or pellets, as I would find it easier to manage 2 x 4kg bricks than a 25kg sack. Which is quite true!

We use vastly less detergent for everything and have no problems with limescale (except in the kettle, of course). It doesn't make as much difference to my skin as washing in naturally soft water does, but it is better than before.

We had a harvey water softener installed a few years ago.
It's ok ..not that impressed tbh.
I still have to dry the black granite worktops , have had the water checked and the whole system checked and the water still leaves marks??

We do use less soap etc and there is less cleaning of taps and loos etc.

we drink it ..tastes much the same

we drink it ..tastes much the same

Be careful - if it's a traditional water softener, they use salt so you might be drinking more sodium than you should....

Yep and it's fine. Reduces cleaning!

All water leaves some marks because there are always various chemicals dissolved in it. Limescale marks are worse because the mineral sticks to the surface it dries onto. The only water that leaves no marks is distilled water.

We have one that takes block salt. Not connected to kitchen cold tap so we drink that. It's made a big difference to my skin and the shower screen. I used to buy the Method Shower Spray but don't need to use it anymore.

@LizB62A ..water in our area has less than 400mg/l of calcium carbonate so when softened is considered to be of safe quality to drink.

ggirl Calcium carbonate is a measure of how hard the water is, not of how much salt there is in it once it has been softened.

In any case, the amount of salt in domestically softened water is so minute that it would not harm a healthy adult to drink it regularly. Someone with hypertension or kidney problems should not drink it, nor should you make up babies' bottles with domestically softened water.

StepAwayFromCake Yes I realise that -The amount of calcium carbonate in your water determines how much salt is needed to soften it
so if you have 400mg/l of calcium carbonate in your water then more salt will be needed to soften it making your water more salty. The water in my area has far less than 400mg/l .

Quite right - I misread, sorry.

We've recently had one - love it!! Advice from pigletjohn on here was to get a local company who repair/maintain softeners to fit one. Great advice, was £££ cheaper than the national companies (as in, less than half the cost!) and as they fitted it they can service/repair it if ever needed.

We use far far less detergent/soap etc, no limescale, etc. We have a seperate cold supply to the kitchen tap so no issues there.

Definitely recommend one!