Do you have a water softener? Please come this way

[Yellownotblue]

I’m in SW London where the water is very hard. I grew up abroad where the water was very soft by comparison. I’ve always thought London water tastes fairly awful, but after decades I’m used to it.

I’m renovating my home and want a water softener system put in for the whole house. However, I’m hearing all sorts of conflicting accounts on water taste with a WS.

Please can you tell me how your water has changed taste with a WS? We are also getting a bypass for cold water, so the softened water would be only for cooking and hot drinks (tea, coffee).

thank you 🙏

I dont like drinking softened water but cant put my finger on why - it just doesn't taste as fresh as ordinary tap water to me we our kitchen tap is from the mains.

I am very fussy about water taste.

When we installed our water softener I couldn't tell the difference, obviously cold drinking water was bypassed and we ran it through a long life under counter Brita filter.

I have a water softener but we bypass the kitchen and garden tap. Softened water has slightly more salt and is not recommended for those on low sodium diet or babies. I don’t want that in my stomach. I love showering with softened water though.

I have a Harveys water Softner, I wouldn't be without it!

...but that's for the lack of limescale on the taps etc.

I got the second tap & filter, but I still don't like tap water.

i can't find a filter/purifier that makes it paletable🥲

We’re in SE London and have a Harvey’s water softener. I always drink water from the one hard water tap that we retained but everyone else drinks the softened water. Personally I prefer the taste of the unsoftened water but others are happy with it.

We don't drink it, our kitchen cold tap is direct from the mains. Our natural hard water is delicious, the odd mouthful I drink from the soft water tap in the bathroom is nowhere near as nice.

We also bypassed the kitchen tap so our drinking and cooking water is not softened. I don't really notice much difference in the taste of the hard water v the domestically softened water. I can usually taste the difference in tap water in different areas of the UK (North Wales water is the best, followed by Lake District and then Yorkshire.) Domestically softened water doesn't taste nearly as delicious as naturally soft water. And it's not as soft, but it's still better, far better, than hard water for washing.

I think we must be quite near a chlorination point, because our tap water off smells quite strongly of chlorine. I've had it tested and it's fine. I usually leave a jug of tap water on the table, rather than fill a glass directly from the tap, because the chlorine evaporates (?) and the water tastes nicer after sitting for an hour or so.

We are also renovating and putting in a softener. Do you have an en-suite/upstairs bathroom? 1 thing our plumber mentioned, was putting in a bypass water tap upstairs. Therefore- if you get up in the night for a drink, you don't need to go downstairs to fill a glass. Can't comment on the taste as yet though.

I have a softener. thesoftened water makes better coffee, and much better tea

i use it for everything (not watering the garden)

it's fantastic for wiping clean mirrors and cleaning windows. shower glass and tiles don't need any attention. towels are softer.

wouldn't be without it.

@PigletJohn , why not for watering the garden?

I’m still wondering what the taste will be like. I may ask my local WhatsApp group if I can come to anyone’s house and taste their (softened) water…

Because there is a cost to doing this both in terms of salt for regeneration and wear on the softener. Are you having a qooker tap or similar? I don't understand why you would have to make your hot drinks with softened water if you don't want to? I have got a two way tap in the kitchen. I can get water straight off the main or I can get water that is run through a filter cartridge which removes most of the hardness and doesn't fur up the kettle. Its not as soft as softened water (and costs more per litre for treatment but tastes better than the softened stuff and makes better hot drinks than the untreated hard water. I love my water softener. Where we live its not as hard as London water but its pretty horrible. The improvement to skin and hair when we had the softener installed was amazing, also it results in softer laundry and white goods last loads longer.

I haven't noticed any difference to skin, hair and laundry and its too early to say re white goods as we've only had ours a year but the difference it makes to keeping the bathroom clean is immense.

I too can taste regional differences in water and the artificially softened water doesn't taste like naturally soft water, there is definitely a slight salt taste to it but I'm very happy drinking our naturally chalky water from the South Downs.

I have a water softener which came in a bundle deal with a reverse osmosis water tap system to make the softened water drinkable again. I like them, on tap filtered water plus no limescale.

I moved into a very hard water area ( one of the worst in the country) from a soft water area, previous owner had already installed a water softener. I hate the taste of the softened water because it is salty (due to the high level of minerals removed by the softener) so we had the kitchen tap bypassed and filter it with a filter tap.
Sadly didn't bypass the outside tap and used £5 worth of salt the other week just watering plants and filling the kids paddling pool!
Btw you can't filter softened water...the filters don't remove sodium.

Because it uses up the salt unnecessarily. Rainwater is best for the plants. I have a water butt to collect rainwater, and this is the first time in several years that it has run dry. It only collects the water from one small extension. If I could, I would fit water butts to ask my downspouts for watering the garden. But I would not use them for filling the padding pool. (You can easily bypass the water softener by turning to stopcocks. You just have to remember to do so before filling the pool! )

Thank you @Dilbertian and everyone, all very helpful.