Anyone put in a Water Softner?

[CraneBoysMysteries]

We live in a hard water area. We have continuous issues from this relating to limescale and damage to our taps etc. For example, our reasonably new shower no longer properly turns hot and cold and we have a very small wiggle room to move it. It's seized up. The plug is covered in limescale despite constantly cleaning and often gets stuck and locked closed.

I've been looking at water softeners but I don't really understand them. What do you need to have in place to install them? And do they really make a difference?

Does anyone have any experience of them at all and tell me if they are worth it and hard to maintain?

I'm sick of calling out plumbers who put our issues down to hard water!

We have a Harvey - very simple model. Put 2 blocks if salt in and then 2 more when they are nearly gone (I think we use 2 blocks every 3 weeks but there are only 2 of us). It has made a MASSIVE difference. Because of where the stop cock is it had to be fitted just after it so our downstairs toilet gets hard water - you can see the limescale and it needs to be scrubbed to clean. The other toilets are sparkling! My chrome taps are shiny, my draining board is not flecked in white, cleaning is a wipe rather than a scrub. Get one! Yes you have to buy salt but you save on toiletries, washing powder / liquid, etc etc.

Thanks so much for your reply @SleepingisanArt . So our stop cock is in the downstairs loo too but the pipework is boarded up. Is it a big unit to fit?

I'm hoping a plumber will come next week to look at a leak in our kitchen and we also need to replace our kitchen taps which are leaking due to limescale build up. I'd love to ask him to look into this too.

Did you notice any change in your hair or skin? I've read it can sometimes take longer to wash your hair etc?

And can I be very cheeky and ask what it cost to have the system put in?

We were quoted for one 2 weeks ago by Harveys and the full installation, the unit, a bypass tap for drinking water and I think 3 months of salt blocks was coming in at around £2k. We're still debating it - we didn't think it would be that expensive but also we know it's a good investment as our house is a new build with all new shiny appliances and boiler etc so it would be great to keep them all in good condition from the beginning!

So our stopcock is also in the downstairs toilet and the pipework is boxed in. So the installer fitted the unit in the garage (the other side of the toilet wall) running pipes through into the unit. It's 50cm high, 43cm long and 2pcm wide (we have the Harvey Twintec). It was £3k supplied and fitted and we've had it at least 5 years now. If you find a plumber who is an approved installer they can advise the best place to fit it - ours couldn't be in the tiny downstairs toilet as there just isn't the space!

Skin feels better, much softer and it takes no time to wash my hair (it's very short and I use a tiny amount of shampoo) - my eldest long haired daughter misses the soft water now she doesn't live at home as she spends a fortune on shampoo and effort on getting it to lather!

Have no regrets and wish we'd done it sooner!

20cm wide!

I had a Harvey in my old home in a v hard water area. It was an absolute game changer. Cost about £1.3k to install (albeit this was 2010) and basically never had to descale anything ever again! We had a small hard water tap added to the kitchen sink for drinking water (ex DH preferred the taste to softened water) but the whole unit was easily installed under our kitchen sink and just needs salt blocks adding every couple of months.
Get it OP, you won’t regret it. You can reduce the detergent, shampoo, fabric softener etc. etc you use and your appliances (inc boiler) will last longer!

Oh I'm super pleased I started this thread. I've just spoken to Harveys and booked someone to come and have a look next week

In my head I was thinking it was £5k plus so although expensive, it's not as much as I had anticipated

Thanks so much for all the replies. I'll report back on the estimate but I also like the idea of a drinking tap as it was a concern my husband had about going to soft water - that his tea wouldn't taste the same!

Can you have them with combi boilers though?

@HowardKirksConscience I wasnt asked any questions about what system we have so I'd hope that if there were any that didn't work, they'd vet them via phonecalls to save the man hours of waster appointments!

But it's a good question though as we have a pressurised system (megaflo) and would hope it would be ok with that?

We have one that was already installed when we moved in so I can’t comment on the cost. It’s a total game changer when it comes to cleaning though- so I love it! Our shower screen never has limescale on it and we live in a hard water area.
With regard to drinking the softened water though, our plumber said it’s not ideal, although I couldn’t find much ‘evidence’ as such. We have one tap where the water doesn’t run through the softener which we use for drinking. That might be totally unnecessary though- I’m no expert!

I have one with a pressurised system, no problem at all.

We have a water softener too and live in a very hard water area. It really makes a difference.

We have two taps nots connected to the water softener, the kitchen tap and the utility tap. We were told that salt softened water is not ideal to drink.

Our unit is in the garage and just have to put a large solid block of salt into the unit when the previous one is used up.

We had one put in last year. Harvey’s wanted £2k but our builder’s plumber did it for £1.5k. I think VAT may have been on top.

I was keen for the benefits to appliances and I am definitely using less shampoo. But the biggest difference has been to DC1’s skin. He often gets a recurrent rash and chapped skin round his chin in winter. He hasn’t had it at all this year and all the random dry patches have gone. So on that basis, I’d recommend it.

They normally leave one tap unsoftened as not everyone should drink softened water - and we also have unsoftened water going to the heating part of our boiler as apparently the salts can damage it.

Harvey's tends to do free 3month trials. After the trial, they'll try to sell it to you. But you can then shop around with their authorised dealers who will invariably be cheaper

@WhoHidTheCoffee interesting r.e. your boiler. My heating engineer was quite enthusiastic about the softened water being beneficial there too. Perhaps it depends on your specific boiler type. Worth checking that out OP!

Thanks so much everyone for the responses. I will absolutely ask about boiler etc and the fact I have a mega Flo

I haven't actually found one online review that isn't positively glowing about having softer water (they might take issue with the company/product or installation but when it works, it seems to be a game changer).

So I guess I just need to find the right product and right company 👌🏻

We had a combi and mega flow. Loved our water softener.

Was this one, pretty small fit in a kitchen cupboard

www.atlantis-uk.com/copy-of-at210-technical-specificati-1

F

Yes. I do.

@CraneBoysMysteries I got mine about 10 years ago. LOVE IT. It was £1600 back then which seemed like a lot of money for something SO boring,but it's a life changer & if it broke & couldn't be repaired I'd replace it ASAP.

mine is in a corner cupboard near the sink. My kitchen is small so I wasn't thrilled to lose the space, but it was SO SO SO worth it.

I live alone and add new salt blocks about ever 5/6 weeks. (About £6 I think) very very easy to do. I order their salt blocks because I don't think it's worth trying to cheap out on it.

if I haven't put the blocks in, in time, I can see little bits if white appear in the sink drainer or the shower. I try not to leave it past the red line, but sometimes 'life happens!' & it soon sorts it it.

the installer was lovely, and it was all no hassle. Didn't take very long.

I had the filter tap out on as it was free/cheap - don't remember as it's better for baby bottle and people on certain medications, but I haven't used it. (I wasn't sure if I was staying/selling/renting...still not!)

I had a leak from it, years ago, I think I'd had it about 3/4 years by then. The bloke popped out and replaced the entire unit inside the casing and showed me the part (some seal they changed in later models) they'd had a few problems with, apologised and that was that.

@CraneBoysMysteries mine is Harveys!!

We got a Harvey water softener installed about 3 weeks ago and already noticing the difference! We paid 1.8k and also had a new tap installed so that there’s a hard water tap for drinking. We’ve done it as want to change bathroom and kitchen and don’t want the limescale problems we had with new things!
If you’re in Hampshire I can PM you the details of the guy that did ours, fantastic.

We got the Atlantis one because our local independent bathroom place only sell that one because it's so good and never needed to get any repaired!!

The bloke who designed it pinched all the best designs from all the various ones.

We are in Lincolnshire where the water is so hard it comes out of the taps carrying a Kalashnikov!

We got a Harvey put in about 12 years ago at the cost of £900. It takes 2 salt blocks every 3 or 4 weeks, but we buy in bulk to get a discount.

Like OP, we got sick of shower dials seizing up with that awful white gritty stuff. We kept one tiny tap in the utility as hard water as we both hated the taste of softened water in tea. I used to have a dead washing machine every 4 years. Since we fitted the Harvey 12 years ago, we have not had to replace the washer.

I even got a black kitchen sink and black pixel shower boards in the bathroom in a Thames Water Valley area (very hard water).

Loved it 💕