Household Water Softener

CatmanV2

Member
Messages
48,539
Folks I recall in all the discussions about 0ppm for washing cars, someone said they had knowledge of household kits?

We're in the process of looking at new kitchens and this seems like a sensible idea.

Thoughts?

Cheers

C
 

2b1ask1

Special case
Messages
20,220
Only makes any sense to put one on the hot water for the house Chris, as you add cold through a mixer in the shower and obviously in a bath you mix s bit of cold in you have the benefit without spoiling or tainting you cold drinking water.
 

CatmanV2

Member
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48,539
I thought the point was to stop your kettle and pans from scaling up? Am I missing something? I was intending to drink it!

C
 

doodlebug

Member
Messages
913
I don't think softened water is good to drink. They usually use salt for the ion exchange process, and the sodium is not good for blood pressure. We use a softener at ours and it is in the cold feed from the water meter. We have a separate feed specifically for hard water for drinking. The softened water is used for everything else, such as the washing machine, dishwasher, showers and baths and central heating etc.

I live in a very hard water area and the softener works really well. The showers, toilets, baths and appliances are all limescale free now. We use a filter for the kettle but it still scales up but it's better than no filter.
 

TimR

Member
Messages
2,654
I don't think softened water is good to drink. They usually use salt for the ion exchange process, and the sodium is not good for blood pressure. We use a softener at ours and it is in the cold feed from the water meter. We have a separate feed specifically for hard water for drinking. The softened water is used for everything else, such as the washing machine, dishwasher, showers and baths and central heating etc.

I live in a very hard water area and the softener works really well. The showers, toilets, baths and appliances are all limescale free now. We use a filter for the kettle but it still scales up but it's better than no filter.
This...
Go with a softener that recycles/ purges using soft water too, as this extends life span significantly. Really happyI bought into one.
 

montravia

Member
Messages
1,617
Our's treats all supply hot and cold save for the kitchen cold which is used for drinking. The external hose point out front is purposely softened for car washing.
 

CatmanV2

Member
Messages
48,539
I don't think softened water is good to drink. They usually use salt for the ion exchange process, and the sodium is not good for blood pressure. We use a softener at ours and it is in the cold feed from the water meter. We have a separate feed specifically for hard water for drinking. The softened water is used for everything else, such as the washing machine, dishwasher, showers and baths and central heating etc.

I live in a very hard water area and the softener works really well. The showers, toilets, baths and appliances are all limescale free now. We use a filter for the kettle but it still scales up but it's better than no filter.
This...
Go with a softener that recycles/ purges using soft water too, as this extends life span significantly. Really happyI bought into one.
Our's treats all supply hot and cold save for the kitchen cold which is used for drinking. The external hose point out front is purposely softened for car washing.

Right, I think I'm confusing my softners and my filters. Might get both....

Cheers

C
 

lifes2short

Member
Messages
5,821
as already mentioned by others, if fitting a water softener then just make sure your kitchen tap is off the mains supply for drinking water, kettles etc and if you have any aluminium radiators on your ch system then also ensure your boiler filling loop is off the mains, softened water will not be kind to alluminium
 

TimR

Member
Messages
2,654
I believe the fitters are required to install a minimum of 1 cold supply straight from the mains, in the kitchen. Not sure they have to do it elsewhere, so it helps to understand how your house is plumbed in..
I have soft water run through my filter and a dedicated drinking faucet from the filter, upon my instructions... Its not like they cant- but they are supposed to leave one supply straight mains only..
 

CatmanV2

Member
Messages
48,539
as already mentioned by others, if fitting a water softener then just make sure your kitchen tap is off the mains supply for drinking water, kettles etc and if you have any aluminium radiators on your ch system then also ensure your boiler filling loop is off the mains, softened water will not be kind to alluminium

Ta

C
 

MarkMas

Chief pedant
Messages
8,795
Our's treats all supply hot and cold save for the kitchen cold which is used for drinking.

The external hose point out front is purposely softened for car washing.
We have hot & cold softened, plus an extra unsoftened but filtered kitchen tap for drinking. Took me 5 years to persuade MrsMarkMas not to run the filtered drinking water through a filter jug as well!

You need to pay attention to water pressures, as very high pressure can burst the filters (happened twice to us)

Worth also having an external tap that is not softened, for watering the garden (saves softener chemicals and reduces salt for the plants).
 

hunta

Member
Messages
405
We have a Harveys (block salt) softener for all but the kitchen tap and one external tap - as mentioned elsewhere, humans and plants don't like sodium in their water. Everything else, including a second external tap at the side of the house (for car cleaning purposes) is soft.

I thought our builders were mad when they did it, but now it's in I get it.
 

jluis

Member
Messages
1,703
Regarding the salt usage, the salt is only used to wash the resin that captures the calcium in the water and that is only done during the recycling where the water supply will bypass the softener, therefore it’s safe to drink.

Don’t know about the aluminum but I don’t see how removing calcium will make water aggressive on aluminum.

They are relatively common here and they are connected to the mains to provide soft water for drinking, washing and showers
 

doodlebug

Member
Messages
913
Regarding the salt usage, the salt is only used to wash the resin that captures the calcium in the water and that is only done during the recycling where the water supply will bypass the softener, therefore it’s safe to drink.

Don’t know about the aluminum but I don’t see how removing calcium will make water aggressive on aluminum.

They are relatively common here and they are connected to the mains to provide soft water for drinking, washing and showers
I thought there was always a little bit of residual salt in the softened water.

In our system, the incoming hard water supply is passed over some porous balls which absorb the calcium in the water. Once the balls are saturated with calcium, the water supply is back-flushed over the salt and into the chamber with the porous balls. The salt reacts with the calcium to form a soluble solution which gets flushed down the drain and the balls are ready to do their job once more. Due to the nature of the system, there is always some residual salt in the chamber which goes into the softened water supply.

The problem with salt in the water supply is it can exacerbate high blood pressure and can cause corrosion in aluminium, neither of which is desirable.
 

DrNic

Junior Member
Messages
117
Isn't there some confusion going on here between softened and filtered water? The OP spoke of 0ppm. That relates to the particulate content of the water not the hardness (which is measured in degrees hardness using Clark's scale in the uk).
It is not just calcium that generates the water marks on your paintwork.
I use an inline filter (a similar resin technology granted) by Pure Final Rinse. This has an inbuilt purity measure - as soon as this goes above about 45ppm then water marks become evident.

Regarding whole house water softeners - I've had these in the last 2 houses (current one included) and could not live without them now.
There are no health concern over drinking softened water at all. UNLESS you have been told to be on a strict NO SALT diet. This is pretty hard to do as virtually all supermarket prepared foods have added salt. You'd have to cooking your own dinners from scratch with no salt!

It usually comes down to a person's preference in the taste. My latest softener is far far better at rinsing the resin and I can hardly taste a difference (and I hate salt and can taste it a mile off!)
Of course YMMV

Nic
 

CatmanV2

Member
Messages
48,539
Thanks, Nic
My 0ppm was probably my bad. Ditto my thoughts of a softener
I meant a filter initially :)

C
 

rossyl

Member
Messages
3,312
Harvey's block salt softener, or similar are the best.

Get everything softened, but get a Tri-flo tap in your kitchen. Hot and Cold, softened plus a Cold Hard water supply.
(You can use a tap with a filter feed, and connect the Cold Hard to that)

As for radiator system, that's a red herring. You just bypass the softener, for the purpose of filling up the radiator circuit.

We went for a reconditioned Harvey's, fully fitted for a great price by a good bloke. PM me if you want details.