Hard Water Filter?

Soldato
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Does anyone have an Hard Water filter? If you do, have you noticed the difference after it was installed and also what brand or filter did you go with?

Thanks.
 
The plumbed in salt dispensers work well, but the water isn't potable, so you still need a non salted tap in the kitchen, which is a pain.

Or do you mean the Brita types? Which do work well, and the filters are available quite cheaply from Amazon.
 
The plumbed in salt dispensers work well, but the water isn't potable, so you still need a non salted tap in the kitchen, which is a pain.

Or do you mean the Brita types? Which do work well, and the filters are available quite cheaply from Amazon.

I'm kinda after something that attaches to the main water supply for the house and then filters the entire house as opposed to certain outlets.

But if that is too expensive, I'd probably just filter the kitchen water supply.
 
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The units are quite big, so you'll need to turn over an entire kitchen cupboard, or install it in a utility room or garage (which is where my parents have theirs) You then have to buy 25kg bags of salt to top it up, and every couple of years it will need emptying of salt and draining down to clear out the congealed salt in the sump.

Plus, you will have to plumb a 'clean' water pipe to the kitchen tap, which might be tricky.

It's exactly the same as this one, but not Wickes branded:

http://www.wickes.co.uk/water-softener/invt/421700/
 
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The units are quite big, so you'll need to turn over an entire kitchen cupboard, or install it in a utility room or garage (which is where my parents have theirs) You then have to buy 25kg bags of salt to top it up, and every couple of years it will need emptying of salt and draining down to clear out the congealed salt in the sump.

Plus, you will have to plumb a 'clean' water pipe to the kitchen tap, which might be tricky.

Is the only solution a salt filter?
 
GFs parents have a filtered kitchen tap, not sure what type.

They don't like it very much and have reverted back to a Brita jug. Main issue seems to be low flow speed.
 
From the research I did a few years ago, the magnetic ones are not to be trusted.

There was another thread about it on here, I can't remember the title though.
 
I have fitted a Salamander Sesi Electrolytic Scale Inhibitor on the rising main, just after the stopcock.
Make sure if you fit one to fit it the correct way around, there are many different makes & prices available, need to shop around & read up on them.
Not sure how long mine has been there, so it might need replacing,lifespan is around 10 years, but I'm in a hard water area, it hasn't completely stopped the scale, but significantly reduced it.

http://www.screwfix.com/p/salamande...tracking url&gclid=CN_8p4nFurQCFUbKtAodOwUALw

http://www.sesi.uk.com/product-info/
 
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Have you noticed any difference?

Well, the kettle has just had it's first descale this year now, compared to it's usual monthly descale.

The new shower head I bought beginning of the year, is certainly better, only has a very thin deposit of scale after 12 months.
So, the shower head will get a soaking in some Kilrock-K Descaler or similar, just to remove the covering of scale.
But, as I said the scale inhibitor was already fitted when I moved here, been here three years now, so I might fit a new one.
 
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Well, the kettle has just had it's first descale this year now, compared to it's usual monthly descale.

The new shower head I bought beginning of the year, is certainly better, only has a very thin deposit of scale after 12 months.
So, the shower head will get a soaking in some Kilrock-K Descaler or similar, just to remove the covering of scale.
But, as I said the scale inhibitor was already fitted when I moved here, been here three years now, so I might fit a new one.


Thanks for the information.

Think i'm going to ring up a couple of plumbers and get a quote on roughly the cost of fitting either the Cracker or the SESI.
 
I use a Brita jug even with the soft water we get up here. It still tastes better than straight from the tap but thats perhaps to do with the older pipes my house has.

I have tried to drink the water from down south and it feels nasty during the drinking and it feels like you have a layer of scum on your teeth etc for a bit afterwards.... I feel sorry for you lot down South :o
 
We have a water softener as our water used to be terrible, the kettle needed de scaling weekly and there was scale around the taps. With the softener there is no scale anywhere at all and a couple of years ago I stripped down the washing machine to find the heating element was spotless.

I didn't bother with the "fresh water" tap as it IMO is pointless when I wanted the whole house softened.

Only outlay is the salt tablets but once you find a good local stockist you can get them cheap as chips.
 
There are also 'filtered water taps' taps available, again they varied in price, & you also need too factor in cost of replacement filter cartridge, they usually last six months or so.
Blanco make some superb filter taps, but are darn expensive, but cheaper makes offering same functions are available if you search.

http://www.blanco.co.uk/products/filteredwater

Finglonga: You need a unsoften tap water source if you have young kids, babies, as they can't cope with the sodium.
 
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