Water Softener

[Aruffell]

So I live in Kent which is notorious for hard water and someone mentioned a water softener and it got me thinking.

Anyone got one, or used one before? Any drawbacks? I've seen the damage it's done in our current house and would like to prevent that if possible in our new place.

Any brands to go for?

Thanks in advance,

Andy

 

[Aruffell]

Thanks for the replies guys. Much appreciated.

Any recommendations of which one to go for?

I've had people recommend tapworks ad11 which I believe is a single cylinder with timer for night regeneration at less than £500 or kinetico with a twin design etc.. But closer to double the price.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Andy

 

[Aruffell]

So been looking around even more.

Kinetico is £1449 with free installation.
Electric based ones are about a £1000 less.

What benefit is there by going for the Kinetico over the electric ones as £1000 for something that essentially does the same thing, is a lot of money.

Thanks,

Andy

 

[Aruffell]

Twin tank for pressurised systems.

Normal electric one for the older gravity fed.

Another advantage to the twin tanks is that they do not use electricity, if that would be an issue during install.

I purchased a Harvey's MiniMax from ebay reconditioned for about £500, and had it fitted for about £180.

It's a combi boiler so twin tank would be better?

Is this the one you have - http://www.minimax.co.uk/water-softeners/m2-block-salt-softener

I know Harvey's make a lot of different ones and all are branded differently etc....

Any reason why you went for a non-electric version?

Thanks,

Andy

 

[Aruffell]

I have a mega flow type system, so no where to store softened water. Which I assume the Combi boiler would be the same too as water is fed directly to the boiler.


Mine is the Mini Max original, I believe the M2 is a refreshed version.
The only downside is the blocks, I have them delivered in packs of 3 (two in each pack) which can be quite heavy! I us 1 pack per month on average.

There are twin tanks that can cope with both Salt bags and blocks I believe, handy as the bags are readily available.

Also twin tanks do not affect the water pressure.

Thanks for that. It seems the M2 is the same as the Twintec S3 which is the same as the HV3. All manufactured by Harveys but to confuse people more, they brand different names etc...

 

[Aruffell]

I did a bit of research and found this:

Most popular water softeners have an automatic regenerating system. The most basic type has an electric timer that flushes and recharges the system on a regular schedule. During recharging, soft water is not available. Tapworks?

A second type of control uses a computer that watches how much water is used. When enough water has passed through the mineral tank to have depleted the beads of sodium, the computer triggers regeneration. These softeners often have reserve resin capacity, so that some soft water will be available during recharging.

A third type of control uses a mechanical water meter to measure water usage and initiate recharging. The advantage of this system is that no electrical components are required and the mineral tank is only recharged when necessary. When it is equipped with two mineral tanks, softened water is always available, even when the unit is recharging. Harveys?

http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/interior-projects/how-to/a150/1275126/

I'm still not convinced that a twin tank mechanical model offers any benefits over a single tank electrical timer model for a combo boiler.

As I say, our recharge happens at 3am and takes about an hour. It's not much of an inconvenience to not have soft water from 3am to 4am.

Thanks for that. The only issue I could potentially see is if your circumstances change. Say you have family visiting and end up using more water than normal and it gets to a point where it has to regenerate. That could be at 2pm during the day and then you have issues.

The other thing looking at the tapworks etc... is it only comes with a 2 year warranty compared to 10 years of the Harvey's and the like and that always gets me thinking as to why they've only offered that amount in comparison.

 

[Aruffell]

We have a Harvey twin tank block salt softener and it seems to be ok. I preferred the idea of mechanical over electric as it's always there when we need it and recharges as required. Plus as our bedroom is right over the kitchen we don't get woken at o-stupid am by it recharging (even though it's in a cupboard they're not exactly whisper quiet when recharging) so something to consider.

/edit
Our water is super hard here and the builder didn't fit anything. The house is 5 years old and when we moved in a year ago next door were having their hot water tank replaced. When he cut it open it was full of rock (I think we have high magnesium) so it's properly hard not like the chalk hardness we had in our last house, that pretty much sold it to me there and then to get some sort of softner.

Thanks for that

Which model did you go for? Got a pic of it under the sink?

Thanks,
Andy

 

[Aruffell]

So to answer your questions.

We have just moved into a house and we are considering one.

Couple of questions, I know some people say it’s not good for drinking and others say it’s fine however, if I have a fridge that offers filtered water (Hard connection) Will this filter it and reduce any potential salt?

What are the actual benefits other then less limescale?

Thanks

I drink it and it's fine. At first it had a slight taste difference but I don't really notice. We did fit a hard tap just incase people don't like it though. My American fridge freezer is fed by the softened water too. Tastes fine.

Less limescale is great. My kettle, boiler, washing machine, dishwasher, showers, taps all look as new as the day I got them. No water spots etc... on my shower either.

I have the Minimax M2 and it's great. Cost me £1400 with a ton of salt if I remember rightly.

Andy