Inline water softener?

[TheBinarySheep]

We’ve been noticing a fair bit of limescale building up around the taps and other spots in the house. I grabbed some water test strips off Amazon and it looks like our water hardness is around 425 PPM - so pretty much in the “very hard” range.

Just wondering if anyone’s got any recommendations for an inline filter or softener that could be installed just after the stopcock under the kitchen sink? Ideally something a plumber could fit, but simple enough that I could swap it out myself when needed (I’m handy enough with basic plumbing stuff). Cheers!

[speedyman]

Just get a water softener, you won't regret it.

[LaserTam]

I'm thinking of installing the same, so watching.....

I have read that potentially one tap (kitchen cold tap perhaps) should remain from the direct mains feed. Interested in view on that.

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

LaserTam said:

I have read that potentially one tap (kitchen cold tap perhaps) should remain from the direct mains feed. Interested in view on that.

It is standard practice when installing a water softener to leave the kitchen cold tap unsoftened, and also any outside taps that you use for watering the garden.

The reason for leaving the kitchen cold tap unsoftened is that soft water tastes peculiar if you re used to drinking hard water. Also the softener works by replacing calcium and magnesium ions with sodium ions, so the soft water contains more sodium which theoretically is not ideal for health - although this is often overplayed because the sodium level is pretty low and not likely to cause problems for the vast majority of people. In our household we use softened water when making tea and coffee because the taste of the water matters less, it doesn t affect our health and it keeps the kettle and coffee machine clean.

Your dishwasher should run off a softened feed, in which case you don’t need to put salt in it and can configure it so that it doesn’t complain about the lack of salt.

Outside taps are usually unsoftened because most plants don t care about hard water so it s better to reduce the salt usage in the softener. For lime-hating plants you d still want to use rainwater if you can.

I have installed a second outside tap for soft water, which I use for washing the car.

Edited by Dr Mike Oxgreen on Saturday 19th July 10:26

[Brinyan]

An actual water softener is the solution to dealing with hard water. Considerably more expensive than an inline filter, but a totally different thing.
If you were to have a softener fitted, it’s advisable to maintain a hard water supply at the kitchen sink & for the garden tap.
So many filters available, some of which remove particles, odours etc, but they will not soften the water, or not effectively, as a water softener will.

[Actual]

We had a salt operating water softener installed recently.

According to Thames Water who supply our sweet beautiful water (I do like the taste) they measure water hardness by looking at the levels of calcium carbonate, commonly known as chalk, in the water on a scale of 0 to 400 parts per million (ppm). 0 ppm is the softest water, 400 ppm is the hardest water.

Thames water says that the level of calcium carbonate in our water zone is 291 ppm which is hard water.

I just tried the Water Hardness Kit which was provided and for the regular water it took 14 drops to change from red to blue which indicates a water hardness of 280ppm.

I tested the softened water with 5 drops and it was always blue.

We now have a 3 way tap in the utility so we can get unsoftened water and the fridge water dispenser is plumbed into the unsoftened water but we make tea and coffee using softened water.

We also have both hard and soft water garden taps and the garage has soft which were I get water for car washing.

From what I can determine it is safe to drink softened water but not recommended for babies and infants and so we ensured that we have got an unsoftened source.

One reason for getting a water softener was to improve a sensitive skin condition and as I am installing new bathrooms I wanted to reduce the limescale.

Edited by Actual on Saturday 19th July 10:34

[JoshSm]

Dr Mike Oxgreen said:

Your dishwasher should run off a softened feed, in which case you don t need to put salt in it and can configure it so that it doesn t complain about the lack of salt.

That's more of a 'could' than a 'should', running it off an external softener so you don't need to put salt into the internal one.

[Actual]

If you use salt in your dishwasher but use the high tech dishwasher tabs then you may not need to add salt.

The dishwasher tabs that we use include "Machine Clean and Limescale Protection" and state "your dishwasher should work effectively even if the rinse aid or salt warning light comes on. For extremely hard water above 26 deg e please use salt."

Google says...

To convert 26 degrees dH (German degrees of hardness) to ppm (parts per million), you multiply the dH value by 17.9. Therefore, 26 dH is equivalent to 465.4 ppm (26 * 17.9 = 465.4).

[M1AGM]

TheBinarySheep said:

We ve been noticing a fair bit of limescale building up around the taps and other spots in the house. I grabbed some water test strips off Amazon and it looks like our water hardness is around 425 PPM - so pretty much in the very hard range.

Just wondering if anyone s got any recommendations for an inline filter or softener that could be installed just after the stopcock under the kitchen sink? Ideally something a plumber could fit, but simple enough that I could swap it out myself when needed (I m handy enough with basic plumbing stuff). Cheers!

I looked at softeners where we are but ended up going with an inline limescale inhibitor which is fit and forget for a few years and much cheaper. Doesn't completely remove limescale buildup but makes it less of an issue and no water taste problems.

[johnoz]

Here to help if needed.

[TheBinarySheep]

M1AGM said:

I looked at softeners where we are but ended up going with an inline limescale inhibitor which is fit and forget for a few years and much cheaper. Doesn't completely remove limescale buildup but makes it less of an issue and no water taste problems.

I think this is what we had at our last house. Same area, but we never had the issues we have with limescale here. It was a filter installed just after the stop cock I believe.

If this sort of thing will help, I think I'd prefer this option as it takes up no extra space under the sink.

Edited by TheBinarySheep on Monday 21st July 09:26

[Notsofastfrank]

We have a Kinetico water filter, chosen after speaking to an installer who supplied pretty much all makes does not require electricity to operate). We live in a hard water area(335 ppm). We have to replace the salt blocks slightly more than once a month. They cost about £6 a time if you get a bulk delivery. Plus we have it serviced once every 5 years although they recommend annual servicing. Initial cost is quite high at about £1100 I think, but well worth it, we had a cheaper softener before which used a lot more salt and did not seem to be as effective. We drink from the softened supply via a Quooker fresh water filter/tap so no odd taste.
Taps, shower screens, bath hardly need cleaning and limescale is dramatically reduced. Have also noticed some psoriasis I had on my hands has disappeared. You notice the difference when we go away.