Salt block water Softeners, worth it or waste of money?

[DaMekon]

Recently started looking at these as Im sick of all my appliances, sinks, baths, toilets, kettles, irons being covered in limescale.. it just ruins everything!

Id initially found nes that worked using magnetism/electromagnetic and a wire wrapped around the pipe, but couldnt find any evidence of the claims, and, they claimed to work at a molecular level!.. hmmm...

Anyway, then started looking into the salt block ones, and can understand how these work, but wondered just how effective they actually are... and if anyone who had one rated them, or regretted them?

Cheers

 

[slup]

They are 100% effective. I've had one for twelve years and have never cleaned a shower head or descaled an appliance in all that time! The shower door looks like it did the day I fitted it.

The one I have is a water powered dual cylinder unit - which is great as the supply of softened water is uninterrupted. One cylinder regenerates whilst the other is in use. No electricity required either...

 

[DaMekon]

Thanks.. I was looking at one of the twin tank water powered salt block units... As an owner, would you mind ansering the following?

Do you have to have a seperate drinking tap thats not softened or is it ok to drink? Some people I have spoken to say yes, others no..

Do you have it on your mains in, so it does all your household water, other than drinking (if necessary).

Prob a good idea to have a tap that supplies hardened water, so you can connect hose pipes etc to, so you arent wasting softened water for external use etc...

Cheers

 

[slup]

Do you have to have a seperate drinking tap thats not softened or is it ok to drink? Some people I have spoken to say yes, others no..

We do, yes. The water dispenser in the fridge is fed with unsoftened water via a cartridge filter. All other water is softened (including what we put in the kettle / coffee machine).

Prob a good idea to have a tap that supplies hardened water, so you can connect hose pipes etc to, so you arent wasting softened water for external use etc...

If it was practical, I would have done this, but my garden is the opposite side of the house to the incoming water main.

What I've done instead is fit a lever operated bypass valve on the water softener which I operate if I'm going to use loads of outside water.

 

[DaMekon]

Thanks...

Unfortuantley, our mains in is behind the downstairs loo, which is across the hallway from the kitchen... however, the feed in has a T joint, one to the basin in the loo, the other goes off to feed the rest of the house.. so we could have a hardwater outlet.

 

[gavinda]

Check the servicing requirement for the softeners. I had a customer who went for a year with no/poor hot water because she had such poor water flow throug her combi that it wouldn't fire. We only found her blocked and overflowing softener because an engineer was being nosy whilst on the phone to the water board for the umpteenth time.

 

[oldbuffer]

I'd second all that slup says, having had one for nearly 30 years. No lime scale anywhere and I live in London. However, points to watch out for:

a. The main tap for drinking water (normally kitchen) should be un-softened,
b. Some boiler manufacturers don't like softened water being used in their systems.
c. You need to watch the pressure drop across the softener, to make sure you still have sufficient pressure for boiler / appliances etc. Not likely to be a problem but worth checking. You also need to check the flow rate for similar reasons.
d. I'm told that water for watering plants should be un-softened. Mine isn't - but I'm a hopeless gardener anyway.
e. The salt comes in 10KG and 25Kg bags (and probably other forms / sizes by now). The 25Kg are cheaper, but seem to be getting heavier as the years go by. Finding somewhere to store the salt may be an issue.

If you can fit one in you won't regret it.

 

[DaMekon]

Thanks for all the input!!

As menitoned, I wont be able to isolate the kitchen tap, as the main supply comes in the downstairs loo, so the only unsoftened water willbe in the wash basin in this room.

Ive been looking at the twin tank salt block units, Ive seen several rebadged Harveys systems, one for £750 which seems to be the cheapest by far... From what research Ive done, they seem to be leaders in this industry, and well established.

Ill just check with the plumber who installed our new combi a couple of years back to make sure it would be a problem...

We have really good water pressure in the house, so hopefully the small drop shouldnt have much impact...

Cheers all!

 

[oldbuffer]

Ion exchange water softeners work by passing the incoming water from the mains through a bed of Zeolites. These absorb the hardening agents (Calcium / Magnesium compounds). After a time, the Zeolites cannot absorb any more. Then:

a. The flow of water to the system / tanks either ceases or is diverted past the softener.
b. The Zeolites are washed with a solution of brine which goes to drain. This washing removes the hardening agents from the Zeolites.
c. The Zeolites are then rinsed with clean water, which also goes to drain.
d. The incoming water is re-directed through the cleaned Zeolites to start softening again. This water can pick up any remaining traces of brine.

The regeneration process can be automatic by volume of water passed or by time, and there is usually a manual regeneration option.

As I understand it, the reason for having an un-softened drinking water tap is because the softened water may contain minute traces of salt, which is frowned upon, particularly for those with / susceptible to, heart conditions. I haven't found it to be sufficient to give the water a salty taste.

 

[Agile]

Its good for you to drink water with calcium salts in it for bone and teeth development.

I am not sure the residual salt is very important if the softener is properly used/adjusted.

London is not very hard. Here we have no softener and no significant scale problem.

Tony