Hard water, softeners, dealing with limescale?

[zebra]

We got a leaflet for something called 'ScaleWatcher' which purports to electronically remove limescale.

Am trying to read up on all the types of products to deal with hard water, either to "soften" it or ionise or whatever, reducing the scale build-up. Must confess now to being totally confused. What if anything do any of you have, or do you think is effective/good idea? TIA.

i'd be interested too - v. confuaing all the products on offer out there!

we've had a water softener for about 6 years and we really notice the difference, particularly in the shower cubicle, if we accidently let if run out of salt.
It doesn make the water softer and the limescale almost non-existant (we live in a hard water area).

zeb - can you pass on any conclusions you come too - it is something we have thought of but never had time to investigate. I hate the scale buildup of hard water, but prefer the taste.

From what I've read you'd normally (I think this may be a legal requirement, actually) soften all the water in the house except the main tap in the kitchen, so you'd be ok for taste. That's because the softeners swap sodium for Ca/Mg in the water, which makes it bad for low-sodium diets or making up formula. Plus somewhere I read something about heart disease being lower in hard water areas.

The softeners are supposed to be relatively expensive to install or maintain...

But I can't get any sort of grip on how good the "water conditioners" are, the things that are supposed to magnetically/electrically or otherwise prevent limescale buildup, not by replacing the calcium/magnesium with sodium, but by ionising the Ca/Mg ions.... Not sure if these ideas aren't a load of cobblers, but they are a lot cheaper/simpler than water softening.

There, that's all I know, or think I know!

I've looked into this too - did wonder about getting one of those magnetic coil things that goes around the pipe, but have found several people that have used them and they're pretty useless apparently. They may have some effect in reducing limescale, but not enough to notice - ie. kettle and everything else still furs up.

Will be interested to see what other people think. My parents have just had one installed and it cost something like £1100 all inclusive, so you've got to be pretty convinced to spend that. They've only had it a month or two, but they think it's wonderful - no limescale in the showers and they say their skin is much better. Eczema and dry skin would be one of our main reasons for getting one.

Bump.

bumpeddy bump bump, dooby dooby doo tra la lala laaa....

We got a cheap £100 quid one - the wrap around pipe type. We definitely get more of a lather with soap/bubble bath etc than before and our sinks and taps seem a lot cleaner and shinier than those of local friends. Or I might just be a clean freak? We can let cutlery drip dry without scale staining if that makes any sense.

I only ever use filtered water in the kettle, so I only need to descale that once every six months. And that's only after someone else has filled it from the tap a couple of times - that's all it takes to fuzz it up without filtered water.

I use Calgon in every wash and my machine is very shiny!

Which one/make/brand is it, Mudda?
From what I read, the "cheap" lime scale reducers really can be effective, but it's hit and miss. They don't perform well in lab tests at all, but the anecdotal evidence is compelling (you're happy with yours...).

A twin tank water softener like this (so, sodium exchange with Ca/Mg, costs about £700 but they have expected lifetimes of 20+ years & can be moved from one house to another) looks like a good bet for us, but I cannot figure out how to choose one brand over another....The only advice is to get a written guarantee & choose a reputable dealer, but how do you know what's reputable?

Yes we have one and is very good. DH has v. dry skin and used to use oilatum in bath but doesn't need to. You also need less detergent/soap eg in washing machine. Yes they leave your main drinking water (usually kitchen sink tap) as 'normal' because there is a slightly higher salt content in the softened water. So baby's formula should be made up with unsoftened water. It also prolongs the life of washing machine, central heating boiler etc. We are very pleased with ours - I think it cost £300 but will ask DH.

We got it from one of those horrible "innovations" type catalogues.

It's here and annoying half the price that we paid 4 years ago

It's not an amazing transformation. The pricey ones would probably make a massive difference. But it's enough to keep taps and shower heads from packing in and obviously doesn't actually take anything from the water chemical composition itself - just stops scale sticking as easily. But the limescale isn't eradicated.