Water softener installation

Hi

I'd like to install a water softener in our house because it's just too hard. We did our bathroomcompletely new a few months ago and it's a royal pain to keep it nice without cleaning constantly which we don't have time for.

Our mains comes out in the kitchen and it's a bit far from the kitchen sink. Can this still be easily installed? We plan to rebuild the whole kitchen next year so anything temporary is ok as well, doesn't need to be perfect.

Thanks

1. What type of water softener?
2. Assuming ion exchange type (using salt) then installation requires:
2a. At least one cold water outlet, usually the kitchen tap, must be un-softened water.
2b. Water to outside taps used for watering plants are best left using un-softened water.
2c. The softener will require a cold water inlet pipe, a softened water outlet pipe, a regeneration waste pipe and an overflow pipe.
2d. As part of the installation, the installer will use three valves to provide a bypass so that you can still have cold water everywhere even if the unit malfunctions.
2e. The regeneration waste pipe should go into the normal foul water waste inside the building. If run outside it will need very careful insulating.
2f. The overflow pipe, if it ever runs, will run off salt water, so best run into a drain but in a way that it can be seen running.
3. Don't forget to plan for storing salt granules / blocks.
4. The water softeners, when full, are heavy, so you need to plan carefully for siting.
5. The softener will need to be re-filled with salt periodically (every 3 to 6 weeks, depending on usage), so access is important.
6. When first installed, all the water in the existing cold and hot water tanks will need to be used up before softened water comes through. Not an issue with a combi, but see below.
7. Some combi makers will void any warranty if softened water is used in their boilers. Check with your potential softener supplier and get any "thats OK" in writing.

I know all the above sounds very negative, but the difference it makes to the amount of cleaning needed makes it all worthwhile.

Thanks! Well it's not just cleaning it's scale build up in the faucets and so on.. don't want this to ruin all the water fixtures, the new radiators etc.. I used to live in a hard water area before but this one seems much worse! My supplier characterizes it as 'very hard'

Currently we have a gravity fed system no combi. Will replace with combi or unvented cylinder at the same time we redo the kitchen.

Dedekind said:

faucets

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What country are you in?

JohnD said:

What country are you in?

Click to expand...

Sorry I mean taps
I was reading a few things online and the word stayed in my mind. Not being a native English speaker makes me more prone to mix up American/British terms

Re. post #3

1. Central heating runs off water which is constantly circulated in (more or less) closed loop. So the water in your radiators won't be a problem (unless you have a continuous leak) as it will / should have inhibitor in it to minimise the impact on radiators. In any case once the hardness has been deposited, it's out of the system and won't cause further issues.

2. If replacing with combi or unvented in the future, make sure the softener doesn't reduce the flow of water to much. You'd want it to pass and soften around 20 litres per minute to cater for both hot and cold supplies.