Water Softeners
Discussion
Not got one, but I live in an area of Hard water. East Anglia. People who live in hard water areas live longer than people who live in soft water areas. Drinking water that is.
Whit Soft water you need to use far less detergents/soaps for cleaning, which may help with skin disorders.
Life expectancy of appliances such as kettles, dishwashers & washing mashines are far longer with the use of soft water.
Softening household water supplies is not a decision to be made lightly. Factors to consider are family composition, stage in the family life cycle, lifestyle, health, maintenance of the equipment, and cost.
The obvious disadvantage to soft water is the level of sodium (salt) deposited in the water.
Potassium Chloride used in place of Sodium Chloride can reduce the levels of sodium in softened water. Anyone who has heart or circulatory problems, or on a low sodium diet should discuss the installation of a water softener with a physician.
There are 3 alternative methods are available to reduce sodium in softened water: reverse osmosis, distillation, and deionization. Discuss these alternatives with your plumbing contractor.
Researchers have found conflicting results relating the mineral content of water to the risk of cardiovascular disease. The risk appears lowest when the drinking water contains lots of minerals and highest when the water is soft. Consumers may want to consider installing a bypass to the kitchen water supply for cooking and drinking.
According to a report by the University of Kentucky, softened water also increases the potential for leaching heavy metal from pipes, solder, and plumbing fixtures. Increased levels of copper, lead, zinc, and cadmium are found in soft water, particularly when it stands overnight in the plumbing system. Heavy metal concentrations can exceed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) primary drinking water standards, particularly for water standing overnight in brass plumbing fixtures and fittings.
Be sure to ask your plumber any questions
Whit Soft water you need to use far less detergents/soaps for cleaning, which may help with skin disorders.
Life expectancy of appliances such as kettles, dishwashers & washing mashines are far longer with the use of soft water.
Softening household water supplies is not a decision to be made lightly. Factors to consider are family composition, stage in the family life cycle, lifestyle, health, maintenance of the equipment, and cost.
The obvious disadvantage to soft water is the level of sodium (salt) deposited in the water.
Potassium Chloride used in place of Sodium Chloride can reduce the levels of sodium in softened water. Anyone who has heart or circulatory problems, or on a low sodium diet should discuss the installation of a water softener with a physician.
There are 3 alternative methods are available to reduce sodium in softened water: reverse osmosis, distillation, and deionization. Discuss these alternatives with your plumbing contractor.
Researchers have found conflicting results relating the mineral content of water to the risk of cardiovascular disease. The risk appears lowest when the drinking water contains lots of minerals and highest when the water is soft. Consumers may want to consider installing a bypass to the kitchen water supply for cooking and drinking.
According to a report by the University of Kentucky, softened water also increases the potential for leaching heavy metal from pipes, solder, and plumbing fixtures. Increased levels of copper, lead, zinc, and cadmium are found in soft water, particularly when it stands overnight in the plumbing system. Heavy metal concentrations can exceed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) primary drinking water standards, particularly for water standing overnight in brass plumbing fixtures and fittings.
Be sure to ask your plumber any questions
Monkey Boy 1 said:Fair enough, but all are far more expensive and, in the case of RO, water wasteful!!! As posted elsewhere in this thread, if you use a hard water tap (to comply with the old BEWA code of practise) it's not an issue. As far as kettle elements go you are onto a loser unless using polyphospahte dosing, disposable filters loaded with ion exchange resin or one of the above methods.
There are 3 alternative methods are available to reduce sodium in softened water: reverse osmosis, distillation, and deionization. Discuss these alternatives with your plumbing contractor.
The effect of soft vs. hard water on the life of washing machines is greatly exaggerated. Don't believe the Calgon advert - you wouldn't believe any other advert, would you? Heating element failures are pretty far down the list of things that go wrong with washing machines and I don't think I've ever seen one that I could categorically state was caused by scale. It's usually a localised manufacturing defect that has taken a few years to show up - a thin spot in the resistance wire causing localised overheating, or an inhomogeneity in the composition of the metal cladding causing localised corrosion - or the insignificant amount of earth leakage which all clad elements have increasing over time until it gets to the point where it trips the breaker. The same things go wrong with electric cooker elements where there is no water involved at all.
In any case, with the hot fill working and the low temperature wash cycles that are widely used these days, the heating element is hardly ever used.
Sometimes the drain pump department gets clogged with detached scale, but again it's not a significant problem compared to how often it gets clogged with threads/fluff/pennies/buttons/paperclips. In any case, this is operator error in not cleaning the filter. Me: "You're supposed to take this out and clean it every so often". Washing machine owner: "Really? I never knew that was there."
Soft water is also a real pain for washing with. No matter how little soap you use it's a real arseache trying to get it off again. On holiday in soft water areas, I've had to drain the bath and run another one with clean water just to get the soap off.
If you are thinking that the amount of soap you're using is making the eczema worse, I'd hazard a guess that soft water is exactly what you don't want. With no alkaline earths around to precipitate it out there's a lot more "active" soap around when you're washing in soft water. See the previous paragraph...
Also, soft water makes crap tea.
I'd save my money if I were you.
In any case, with the hot fill working and the low temperature wash cycles that are widely used these days, the heating element is hardly ever used.
Sometimes the drain pump department gets clogged with detached scale, but again it's not a significant problem compared to how often it gets clogged with threads/fluff/pennies/buttons/paperclips. In any case, this is operator error in not cleaning the filter. Me: "You're supposed to take this out and clean it every so often". Washing machine owner: "Really? I never knew that was there."
Soft water is also a real pain for washing with. No matter how little soap you use it's a real arseache trying to get it off again. On holiday in soft water areas, I've had to drain the bath and run another one with clean water just to get the soap off.
If you are thinking that the amount of soap you're using is making the eczema worse, I'd hazard a guess that soft water is exactly what you don't want. With no alkaline earths around to precipitate it out there's a lot more "active" soap around when you're washing in soft water. See the previous paragraph...
Also, soft water makes crap tea.
I'd save my money if I were you.
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