home water filtration systems
Discussion
Hi All,
This has been on my mind for a few years now and I would like to get something in place in the house.
Little confused about the options available and also if I should initially just focus on drinking water or just have something fitted to the water supply of the house.
Any advice would be helpful. I have seen a range of systems from 200-900 pounds and I am not sure where to start or what not to even bother with.
This has been on my mind for a few years now and I would like to get something in place in the house.
Little confused about the options available and also if I should initially just focus on drinking water or just have something fitted to the water supply of the house.
Any advice would be helpful. I have seen a range of systems from 200-900 pounds and I am not sure where to start or what not to even bother with.
What are you aiming for?
If you dislike the taste of the towns water, and a table top filtration jug fixes this, then an under the counter inline filter to a 'drinking water' tap in the kitchen makes sense to me and I have used one a few times. However beyond that I struggle to understand the benefit of filtering/treating mains water, including the addition of water softeners and the cost and issues that come with them.
If you dislike the taste of the towns water, and a table top filtration jug fixes this, then an under the counter inline filter to a 'drinking water' tap in the kitchen makes sense to me and I have used one a few times. However beyond that I struggle to understand the benefit of filtering/treating mains water, including the addition of water softeners and the cost and issues that come with them.
I have a Hague maximiser water softener unit for the home, which covers the limescale issue. It works well and is cheap to run, i buy the salt from Costco.
For filtered drinking water, I have a commercial grade Brita Purity C Finest filter attached to a second tap (filter is located under the sink). That gives me about 2 years of filtered drinking water. It comes off the water mains before the softener.
For filtered drinking water, I have a commercial grade Brita Purity C Finest filter attached to a second tap (filter is located under the sink). That gives me about 2 years of filtered drinking water. It comes off the water mains before the softener.
dhutch said:
What are you aiming for?
If you dislike the taste of the towns water, and a table top filtration jug fixes this, then an under the counter inline filter to a 'drinking water' tap in the kitchen makes sense to me and I have used one a few times. However beyond that I struggle to understand the benefit of filtering/treating mains water, including the addition of water softeners and the cost and issues that come with them.
If you don't see the point in water softeners then you clearly haven't sampled Thames Water. Hard as nails and tastes like it was pumped out of the river straight into the tap.If you dislike the taste of the towns water, and a table top filtration jug fixes this, then an under the counter inline filter to a 'drinking water' tap in the kitchen makes sense to me and I have used one a few times. However beyond that I struggle to understand the benefit of filtering/treating mains water, including the addition of water softeners and the cost and issues that come with them.
We have a full Kinetico system with water softener and filter to separate kitchen tap. One of the best home investments I've made (and we were able to port it from old house to new with just some additional plumbing, saving a decent chunk). Probably well above the budget mentioned though.
If it's just for drinking water and you're not worried about softening in general, a decent Brita or similar would probably do the job and I survived with one for several years before the upgrade. Could you get a fridge with plumbed in water and filter built in?
JagYouAre said:
If you don't see the point in water softeners then you clearly haven't sampled Thames Water.
This is broadly true, although I have done a handful of nights in the area over my years I have never lived down south.But surely the issue is mainly the taste as you say, at which point that is not what a water softener does.
dhutch said:
his is broadly true, although I have done a handful of nights in the area over my years I have never lived down south.
But surely the issue is mainly the taste as you say, at which point that is not what a water softener does.
I'd say the issues are both taste and hardness. The main catalyst for getting the softener for us was our son, who as a baby/toddler had pretty bad eczema, which would flare up when he'd had a bath etc. Water softener made it probably 90% better overnight. Add in the additional bonus of less money spent on anti limescale products, shampoo, repair/replacement of water based appliances and the whole system is well on the way to paying for itself. But surely the issue is mainly the taste as you say, at which point that is not what a water softener does.
For reference OP we had the filter fitted at the same time just because it made sense to do it all at once, as I said the Brita filter we had did a decent enough job. Probably costs about £70/80 in filters annually, plus the salt of which we use about £6-8 worth of block salt per month, depending on the prevailing price. Initial fitting cost from memory just over £2k for softener, filter, plumbing etc. This was about 6 years ago and we've never had an issue with it, touch wood.
JagYouAre said:
The main catalyst for getting the softener for us was our son, who as a baby/toddler had pretty bad eczema, which would flare up when he'd had a bath etc. Water softener made it probably 90% better overnight.
Fair enough. I didn't know hard water effected eczema, but I can completely see that would swing it! And limescale is annoying,JagYouAre said:
I'd say the issues are both taste and hardness. The main catalyst for getting the softener for us was our son, who as a baby/toddler had pretty bad eczema, which would flare up when he'd had a bath etc. Water softener made it probably 90% better overnight. Add in the additional bonus of less money spent on anti limescale products, shampoo, repair/replacement of water based appliances and the whole system is well on the way to paying for itself.
Just be mindful that water softener can increase the sodium in the drinking water used for formula fed babies.We've had both a softener, and had an inline filtration system (for the non-softened tap) - the latter which we've removed. We live in a very hard water area, rubbish for hot drinks and dreadful on taps and shower fittings.
Firstly, the softener has been brilliant. We installed along with full renovation of bathrooms, kitchen, utility etc. Since installing there is no limescale on anything, we use significantly less shower gels, soaps, shampoos etc, and and the soft water leaves your skin feeling much nicer. Bonus is easy cleaning bathrooms, no need for limescale removal, everything looks pretty much as new many years after installation.
However there are sharks everywhere selling softeners, you really only need a decent single tank one with capacity for your household that re-generates every few nights; but you'll need a larger high pressure rated one if you have an unvented/pressurised system. These use standard salt tablets, rather than expensive shaped blocks. We buy 25kg bags in bulk.
When you install a softener, you should always have a non-softened drinking water tap at your main sink, often people install a secondary drinking tap. We just don't soften the main cold in the kitchen tap, as didn't want an ugly 4th tap (because we already had a tri-flow for hot, cold and filtered).
For filtered, we installed an in-line BT-1 "System 40" filter system when we re-fitted our kitchen, which we coupled with a tri-flow tap. We used it for about 6 months, the main issue being in the summer months, obviously the water isn't that cold. So we ended up ignoring it, and gravitating back to a simple Brita jug always stored in the fridge, which we've used ever since. I’ve since removed the in-line one when we replaced the tri-flow tap that failed, and wouldn't bother with one again, esepcially as the large replacement filter cyclinders are around £200.
Firstly, the softener has been brilliant. We installed along with full renovation of bathrooms, kitchen, utility etc. Since installing there is no limescale on anything, we use significantly less shower gels, soaps, shampoos etc, and and the soft water leaves your skin feeling much nicer. Bonus is easy cleaning bathrooms, no need for limescale removal, everything looks pretty much as new many years after installation.
However there are sharks everywhere selling softeners, you really only need a decent single tank one with capacity for your household that re-generates every few nights; but you'll need a larger high pressure rated one if you have an unvented/pressurised system. These use standard salt tablets, rather than expensive shaped blocks. We buy 25kg bags in bulk.
When you install a softener, you should always have a non-softened drinking water tap at your main sink, often people install a secondary drinking tap. We just don't soften the main cold in the kitchen tap, as didn't want an ugly 4th tap (because we already had a tri-flow for hot, cold and filtered).
For filtered, we installed an in-line BT-1 "System 40" filter system when we re-fitted our kitchen, which we coupled with a tri-flow tap. We used it for about 6 months, the main issue being in the summer months, obviously the water isn't that cold. So we ended up ignoring it, and gravitating back to a simple Brita jug always stored in the fridge, which we've used ever since. I’ve since removed the in-line one when we replaced the tri-flow tap that failed, and wouldn't bother with one again, esepcially as the large replacement filter cyclinders are around £200.
dhutch said:
Fair enough. I didn't know hard water effected eczema, but I can completely see that would swing it! And limescale is annoying,
I believe the benefits for excema sufferers come from the fact that you can use a lot less soap, shower gel, shampoo etc. In my experience you only need about a quarter of what you would use with hard water.Morning all,
I was wondering if anyone has an update on their systems or found one since this post that is worth considering?
OP if you’re around I’m interested to know what you ended up with too. I’m in the hunt for a system for our new renovation we’re doing next year that can be installed where the mains comes into the house.
I was wondering if anyone has an update on their systems or found one since this post that is worth considering?
OP if you’re around I’m interested to know what you ended up with too. I’m in the hunt for a system for our new renovation we’re doing next year that can be installed where the mains comes into the house.
Evening all wondered if anyone has tried the Water2 system that Bear Grills is pushing on the social media channels?
£100 for the kit which includes the first filter (£99 replacement after a year).
I’m tempted but was thinking about the need to get a few filters in case they stop trading in a year or two?
£100 for the kit which includes the first filter (£99 replacement after a year).
I’m tempted but was thinking about the need to get a few filters in case they stop trading in a year or two?
Evening all wondered if anyone has tried the Water2 system that Bear Grills is pushing on the social media channels?
£100 for the kit which includes the first filter (£99 replacement after a year).
I’m tempted but was thinking about the need to get a few filters in case they stop trading in a year or two?
£100 for the kit which includes the first filter (£99 replacement after a year).
I’m tempted but was thinking about the need to get a few filters in case they stop trading in a year or two?
toastybase said:
Evening all wondered if anyone has tried the Water2 system that Bear Grills is pushing on the social media channels?
£100 for the kit which includes the first filter (£99 replacement after a year).
I’m tempted but was thinking about the need to get a few filters in case they stop trading in a year or two?
My partner was persuaded by the numerous ads on social media and a box arrived with the bits for me to fit, was a bit of a faff to install and as far as I could tell made no difference to the taste of the water - and the flow was seriously reduced.£100 for the kit which includes the first filter (£99 replacement after a year).
I’m tempted but was thinking about the need to get a few filters in case they stop trading in a year or two?
After a month the flow dropped to a trickle as the filter had become blocked, without the filter there is no flow but fortunately a spare (£99) filter had also been purchased; one month later the flow rate started to drop again.
I thought that the issue must be related to the filter being on the general cold water tap in the kitchen and thought a dedicated 'drinking water' tap would be the way to go and bought one online - when it arrived it was not a good match for the existing tap so I called the supplier to see if I could do an exchange.
The guy I spoke to was incredibly helpful and asked why I felt a filter was needed - he explained that the Water2 filter has a 0.5 micron filter which was, in his opinion, entirely overkill and indeed inappropriate in a hardwater area - and this was why it kept getting blocked.
I was recommended a two stage system with one filter for hard water and the other for taste - I was assured the filters should last about a year and replacement for both is £60. the blurb from the website says the following;
'A high performance anti-scale drinking water filter system that prevents scale by transforming dissolved hardness minerals into harmless, inactive microscopic crystal particles. These particles make their way through plumbing systems without latching onto pipes, fixtures, valves or heating elements.
This water filter cartridge set also removes chlorine and chemicals; improving the overall taste and smell of your water.
If your water is harder than 25 grains (427 ppm CaCO3) then OneFlow may not be suitable for you. Check with your local water supplier who will be able to tell you what the hardness measurement is'
The company was Fountain Filters and if you are thinking of installing a filter they are worth talking to as they have lots of options - I have no connection other than being a satisfied customer.
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