Drinking water and water softener

Joined
7 Apr 2005
Messages
265
Reaction score
11
Country
United Kingdom
I know this has been debated a few times.

Im running a hot and cold water feed to my new kitchen. Softener will be in other room. Which at the moment when installed will be softening all feeds (apart from external to garden hose).


Do i or should i run a 3rd pipe untreated to my new kitchen?
Can you fit some sort of filter to filter out any raised sodium content?

I drink a good 2litres of water a day from the tap i dont want to be raising my sodium intake. Or is that about one slice of breads worth of sodium?

TIA
 
Sponsored Links
"Let’s compare the sodium content of a glass of typical London water that has been softened with that of other foods & drinks in our diet:

1 glass of water 25mg of sodium
1 glass of bottled mineral water 116mg of sodium
1 glass of skimmed milk 10mg of sodium
1 glass of whole milk 98mg of sodium
1 slice of white bread 350mg of sodium
1 tablespoon of tomato sauce 300mg of sodium
1 serving of cheddar cheese 820mg of sodium
1 serving of strawberry yoghurt 215mg of sodium
1 slice of apple pie 406mg of sodium
1 pork sausage 210mg of sodium
1 serving of tomato soup 667mg of sodium"
 
And...
Each soluble Panadol contains 427 mg sodium.

But you are welcome to have a hard-water tap in your kitchen for drinking and cooking if you wish.

"Brita" water filter jugs take out the calcium without using sodium, and give a nice clear water.
 
Why do you want to soften your water, do you live in a hard water area?
 
Sponsored Links
Each soluble Panadol contains 427 mg sodium

One brand of Panandol 500gm lists sodium compounds

• Sodium ethyl hydroxybenzoate
• Sodium methyl hydroxybenzoate
• Sodium propyl hydroxybenzoate

and probably little if any of that sodium is available to be absorbed into the body in the same way that sodium chloride ( table salt ) is absorbed
 
1. The water softener only uses salt (or rather brine) when it recycles, to clear the built up calcium compounds from the zeolites in the softener. After washing the zeolites with brine, they are washed again with fresh water. Both the brine rinse and the fresh water rinse water goes to drain. As a result, only traces of salt pass through to the softened water.
2. It is generally reckoned better not to drink softened water because of the slightly raised sodium levels. This applies particularly to the very young and anyone with a heart condition. SHouldn't happen any more, but I would add that softened water should never be allowed to flow through lead pipes.
3. So if you want to do it really well:
3a. Run an unsoftened feed to your kitchen cold drinking water (and kettle filling) tap.
3b. Run a softened feed to the kitchen for appliances like dishwashers and washing machines.
 
I would (and do have) one unsoftened feed to one 'untreated' tap in the kitchen because
my softened water does not taste as nice as the straight from the mains (hard) water.

Outside tap is only other unsoftened tap in house.
 
Last edited:
in the same way that sodium chloride

softened water does not contain sodium chloride



(and Panadol is a brand name, owned by GSK)

I would (and do have) a unsoftened feed to one 'untreated' tap in the kitchen because
my softened water does not taste as nice as the straight from the mains (hard) water.
Each to his own

I find it makes better tea and coffee than hard water.
 
Why do you want to soften your water, do you live in a hard water area?
Two fold.

We have a thermal store and very hard water. Ive just had to descale the DHWC as it was so scaled up hot water was almost at a dribble. (i believe its a combination of our tank sitting at +85c and hard water)
And limescale in toilet bowls shower screens etc, really annoying.
 
The harder the water, the higher the concentration of sodium ions are added to replace the hardness ions.
 
The harder the water, the quicker the volcanic rocks get loaded with calcium compounds.
And hence the more often the softener has to flush the calcium compounds off the volcanic rocks using a strong Salt solution (saline).
This saline wash is then flushed away with a long purge of clean water into drain.

The harder the water the more frequent the saline and fresh water flushes (costing you more).

All automatic on mine (flush sequence uses quite a lot of clean water).

Some very small amounts and deposits of salt does stay on the rocks, and so pass into the drinking water, so I feel best not to drink this water (I also feel it does not taste as good).

Sfk
 
Last edited:

DIYnot Local

Staff member

If you need to find a tradesperson to get your job done, please try our local search below, or if you are doing it yourself you can find suppliers local to you.

Select the supplier or trade you require, enter your location to begin your search.


Are you a trade or supplier? You can create your listing free at DIYnot Local

 
Sponsored Links
Back
Top