Water softeners - talk to me
Discussion
Yazar said:
rich83 said:
Would it be a bad ideal to install one yourself? Doesnt look that hard.
Not a bad idea at all. As long as you are confident and do some reading up on what to do, such as leaving outdoor tap and kitchen tap unfiltered etc Will be installing mine myself when I get it.rich83 said:
Yazar said:
rich83 said:
Would it be a bad ideal to install one yourself? Doesnt look that hard.
Not a bad idea at all. As long as you are confident and do some reading up on what to do, such as leaving outdoor tap and kitchen tap unfiltered etc Will be installing mine myself when I get it.The water at chez Troubleatmill is as hard as it comes.
A bag ( they are sold in bags - containing 2 blocks ) - lasts about 4 weeks.
There are only 2 of us - however Mrs Troubleatmill likes a bath every night to go with the morning shower.
If I buy 10 bags - it costs me £4.50 a bag ( Source: http://www.justsalt.co.uk/prices.html )
So £45 gets me 10 months worth of soft water.
Now - I could buy 20 bags and the price goes down to £4.20 a bag. But for the hassle of storing in a cool dry place for a year - it isn't worth it.
As mentioned above - I would recommend having both soft and hard water going to your outside tap. Wash car with soft water - no more water spots!! - Joy!!! - water the garden with hard water.
Look at my photo above. You can see how it works by opening and closing the appropriate valves.
Edit:
Soaking in a bath of soft water is just heaven.
Other advantages
1/ No more calgon in the washing machine
2/ You need a lot less washing powder in washing machine. ( Half it )
3/ No more limescale cleaning products needed.
4/ You need less soap/shampoo in the shower
Over 10 months the £45 you spend on block salt - you save by not buying/ using as much cleaning product.
A bag ( they are sold in bags - containing 2 blocks ) - lasts about 4 weeks.
There are only 2 of us - however Mrs Troubleatmill likes a bath every night to go with the morning shower.
If I buy 10 bags - it costs me £4.50 a bag ( Source: http://www.justsalt.co.uk/prices.html )
So £45 gets me 10 months worth of soft water.
Now - I could buy 20 bags and the price goes down to £4.20 a bag. But for the hassle of storing in a cool dry place for a year - it isn't worth it.
As mentioned above - I would recommend having both soft and hard water going to your outside tap. Wash car with soft water - no more water spots!! - Joy!!! - water the garden with hard water.
Look at my photo above. You can see how it works by opening and closing the appropriate valves.
Edit:
Soaking in a bath of soft water is just heaven.
Other advantages
1/ No more calgon in the washing machine
2/ You need a lot less washing powder in washing machine. ( Half it )
3/ No more limescale cleaning products needed.
4/ You need less soap/shampoo in the shower
Over 10 months the £45 you spend on block salt - you save by not buying/ using as much cleaning product.
Edited by Troubleatmill on Saturday 31st January 14:56
Thanks for the info. And the picture - I was under the impression that they were a lot bigger. This makes getting one installed more doable for me.
I don't mind the hard water as such - I just want to be freed from the nightmare of trying to dry a car before all the droplets evaporate.
I don't mind the hard water as such - I just want to be freed from the nightmare of trying to dry a car before all the droplets evaporate.
I went with a Monarch midi - following a previous thread on here a while ago. Managed to get a two year old one of ebay for £150 - well happy.
edited to add; Im running and unvented system. I put the large 22mm high flow hoses and theres been no notable pressure/flow loss.
edited to add; Im running and unvented system. I put the large 22mm high flow hoses and theres been no notable pressure/flow loss.
Edited by eliot on Saturday 31st January 19:21
Twintec, Harvey and Kinetico offer 24/7 continuous soft water ( they have 2 chambers as opposed to one) - no extra tank needed.
Other softeners (that are not twin chamber) cannot do 24/7
Have a read...
http://www.twintec.com/water_softener/why_twin_tan...
https://www.harveywatersofteners.co.uk/how-a-water...
The brands above use a mechanical mechanism ( like a posh mechanical wristwatch) to monitor the water flow.
Cheaper softeners use an electric unit to monitor the water.
There are a lot of youtube vids for Harvey that explain how it works.
Type this into youtube "harvey water softener" and spend a few minutes learning how it works.
Other softeners (that are not twin chamber) cannot do 24/7
Have a read...
http://www.twintec.com/water_softener/why_twin_tan...
https://www.harveywatersofteners.co.uk/how-a-water...
The brands above use a mechanical mechanism ( like a posh mechanical wristwatch) to monitor the water flow.
Cheaper softeners use an electric unit to monitor the water.
There are a lot of youtube vids for Harvey that explain how it works.
Type this into youtube "harvey water softener" and spend a few minutes learning how it works.
Edited by Troubleatmill on Saturday 31st January 19:34
Edited by Troubleatmill on Saturday 31st January 19:41
Stig said:
In my expeirence Harveys Dualflo is the best there is.
Chap who makes it started Kinetico and Permutit.
Do some google research and you'll see why.
Dualflo is a rebranded version of the Harvey equivalent I think. Harvey make them for a number of companies, all look the same eternally with a different badging but dunno if all specs are same.Chap who makes it started Kinetico and Permutit.
Do some google research and you'll see why.
Edited by Yazar on Sunday 1st February 09:12
Mattt said:
To add some balance, I have an electric Monarch system and find it fine - it regenerates at night, when I don't tend to use so much water anyway...
Indeed - can't see what the fuss is about having a twin system in a domestic house. I measure everything in my house and I know that we only use about 5-10 litres overnight and probably even less between for the hour when its actually in bypass mode as opposed to waiting for the brine to 'brew' and its not everynight either.Based on my water hardness and usage (350L a day) Monarch told me to expect a regen every 6 days or so - I've had it a week so far and its not regen'd yet (I've setup a new automation counter to measure flow between 2am and 4am so I can keep track of regens and disable automated water leakage alerts)
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