Spec me a water softener

MrRockliffe · 7 Mar 2021 at 09:13

Hi all

My father is fairly fed up of cleaning/replacing/fixing anything water related, due to limescale build up.

He’s fairly good at cleaning and keeping on top of things, but he’s just at the stage where he’d like to look into a solution to soften the water coming into the house.

I wanted to see if anyone has had anything installed previously, and could shed some light on what to avoid and what to consider.

Are there any particular go to systems?

House is a 5 bed - not sure if I need to provide any other relevant details, so let me know

Thanks in advance

fobose · 7 Mar 2021 at 13:05

I used https://www.aquastream-softeners.co.uk/. We have the kinetico premier compact (4 bed house, 2 bathrooms, 1 downstairs loo). It was expensive but my neighbor used the same company and I was really impressed with how neat the pipe work was, and how neat the unit looked without cutting holes in the cupboard to make it fit. Ours has been in since March 2019 without any issues (*touches wood).

fezster · 7 Mar 2021 at 15:15

Check out tapworks. I have the ad11. It's been reliable and has auto recharging. I don't see the point of the more expensive softeners with dual chambers etc, as an overnight recharge when needed means you don't need a seamless transition - an hour overnight of non softened water would work for most people.

Also, try to get one which takes standard salt tablets, as they are much cheaper than the salt blocks required by some manufacturers.

EH75 · 7 Mar 2021 at 16:44

fezster said:
Check out tapworks. I have the ad11. It's been reliable and has auto recharging. I don't see the point of the more expensive softeners with dual chambers etc, as an overnight recharge when needed means you don't need a seamless transition - an hour overnight of non softened water would work for most people.

Also, try to get one which takes standard salt tablets, as they are much cheaper than the salt blocks required by some manufacturers.

I have the same model which I bought off amazon a couple of years ago for somewhere in the region of £400-£500. I then paid a local plumber to fit it which was £250. This included fitting a drinking tap running off the hard supply. Apparently softened water is safe to drink but not good for babies and also my girlfriend hates the taste so a hard tap is worth getting. Use the softened supply for tea and coffee etc though, nice to have a cup of tea without those limescaley bits you get floating in it!

Had no issues with this set up whatsoever. A 25kg bag of salt costs me £8.50 from a local supplier and will last about 2 months. That's 2 adults and 1 small child who has a bath every night.

I did a lot of research before I purchased this (there's an enormous thread on the money saving expert forums about water softeners) and this seemed like the best option. Most of the big suppliers (Harvey's etc) are an absolute rip of who try to bamboozle customers with marketing nonsense about twin cylinder systems etc. These are largely a waste of time and money. You can pay in excess of £2k for one of these systems or go with a set up similar to mine. The end result will be the same. Its a fairly straightforward chemical process at the end of the day.

fobose · 7 Mar 2021 at 17:52

EH75 said:
Use the softened supply for tea and coffee etc though, nice to have a cup of tea without those limescaley bits you get floating in it!

I installed one of these to the hard water tap after our softener was installed. The filter costs about £38. This is the second filter I've put in and it last about 7-8 months for us which works out cheaper than the brita filter we used to use. You can buy cheaper ones of these on amazon too but they often don't come with the bracket and screw fitting 'manifold' type thing. Makes drinking water much nicer.

P.S I appreciate what you say about the salt cost. I did price it up and it does cost more for the block salt. I generally buy in bulk (20 x 8kg bags of block salt) at a time which helps keep the costs reasonable (£4.70 per bag), which is not as cheap as the 25kg bags but much easier to move around. I think you can get the tablet salt in 10kg bags which worked out only slightly cheaper than the block salt (at the time I was looking - March 2019).

arknor · 7 Mar 2021 at 23:48

whys a plugsocket under the sink?

fobose · 8 Mar 2021 at 09:56

arknor said:
whys a plugsocket under the sink?

Seems quite standard to have a plug socket installed under a sink. This was like this when I moved in, the dish washer connects to it.

MrRockliffe · 8 Mar 2021 at 10:01

Thanks everyone for your input - he was quoted £2300 by a local company to come and fit a single tank system, which seems a little excessive to me?

HungryHippos · 8 Mar 2021 at 10:54

I used a Harveys one:

https://www.harveywatersofteners.co.uk/

The people that did my kitchen bought and fitted it for me for a reasonable cost.

If going direct to manufacturer, a lot of people said you get them to do the in-home demo of it (they have to come and install it, and you trial it), at the end of the demo you can just pretend you don't want it and they'll knock the price down a bit so you agree to keep it, saves them coming out and removing it

krooton · 8 Mar 2021 at 11:31

Harveys here too, 3 people, 2 bathrooms and extra toilet, get through 2 salt bricks (1 bag) a month.

fezster · 8 Mar 2021 at 12:25

MrRockliffe said:
Thanks everyone for your input - he was quoted £2300 by a local company to come and fit a single tank system, which seems a little excessive to me?

Ridiculous money.

Buy one for £500 and pay a plumber ~ £250 to fit. The hardest part (depending on location) is having the drinking water tap bypass the softener. Make sure you consider access to replace the salt when having it fitted.

https://www.snhtradecentre.co.uk/product/ad11-tapworks-ad11-water-softener/

fobose · 8 Mar 2021 at 12:41

IIRC mine was about £1700 with the drinking water tap. The chap added the U shaped 22mm copper pipe and neatly drilled through to the next cupboard (not enough room in my under sink cupboard). The drinking water tap is connected to that plastic blue pipe (which I connected to the seperate water filter I pictured earlier). My outside tap is connected to the blue handled isolation valve above so that is hard water too.

Softener is in the next cupboard. Quite a small little thing. Doesn't require any power.

EH75 · 8 Mar 2021 at 14:12

MrRockliffe said:
Thanks everyone for your input - he was quoted £2300 by a local company to come and fit a single tank system, which seems a little excessive to me?

As mentioned above, this is stupid money and confirms the obscene profit margins some of these companies work on. If you are paying much more than £700-£800 including installation you are being taken for a ride.

krooton · 8 Mar 2021 at 15:49

We didn't even bother with a drinking tap, only the garden tap is isolated.

We do have a mains fed fridge that has it's own built in filter, but drinking softened water is only a problem if you are in a very hard-water area.

ahar · 8 Mar 2021 at 16:22

We got a separate drinking tap with a filter installed with our water softener. It's really hard water here, and after softening the water tastes nasty.

Replacement filters I think are about £25, each lasts 9-12 months.

D3K · 3 May 2021 at 08:08

Slight necro.

Struggling with all the info out there (and here) to find what I thought would be an easy solution.

Does no system exist that simply connects to your mains and feeds the entire house with soft, drinkable water?

MrRockliffe · 3 May 2021 at 09:16

D3K said:
Slight necro.

Struggling with all the info out there (and here) to find what I thought would be an easy solution.

Does no system exist that simply connects to your mains and feeds the entire house with soft, drinkable water?

The system my dad went for does exactly that. He then had a separate drinking water tap installed with a filter

D3K · 3 May 2021 at 10:07

MrRockliffe said:
The system my dad went for does exactly that. He then had a separate drinking water tap installed with a filter

Not sure I follow. It sounds like you are describing two systems - one for softening, one for drinking?

My water mains is at the front of the drive. Ideally I'd like to cut a hole in the middle of the drive and drop a single device in there to intersect the pipe, and then cover it up.

krooton · 3 May 2021 at 12:12

D3K said:
Not sure I follow. It sounds like you are describing two systems - one for softening, one for drinking?

My water mains is at the front of the drive. Ideally I'd like to cut a hole in the middle of the drive and drop a single device in there to intersect the pipe, and then cover it up.

Our mains is fed under the kitchen sink.

As we didn't have space indoors, our Harveys unit is set up just outside, and piping was laid through the wall.

So the main inside has a split, one going to the outside garden tap, and one going to the softerner, which in turn connects back inside to deliver softened water throughout the house (we don't mind drinking it).

That way the garden supply isn't softened, as it isn't ideal for plants.

MrRockliffe · 3 May 2021 at 12:13

D3K said:
Not sure I follow. It sounds like you are describing two systems - one for softening, one for drinking?

My water mains is at the front of the drive. Ideally I'd like to cut a hole in the middle of the drive and drop a single device in there to intersect the pipe, and then cover it up.

One system, connected to the water coming into the house but after the split to the taps.

So all water feeds are softened.

Then, in the kitchen, the water supply has been split into 2 taps:

one cold, direct from the water softener
Another cold, direct from the water softener, but filtered for better taste.

But all of it comes through the softener