Inline scale inhibitor for domestic cold water supply, which

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Bounce ..... anymore suggestions?

I've been trying this over the last year... supposed to change it every few months about £12. I tested the bath water on the stove and still no scale.

It only treats water that goes through the main water tank i.e. bathwater and heating. It will not prevent scale in the kitchen as this comes in straight from the mains. But it should keep the scale down in the water cylinder.

http://www.fernox.com/products/wate...remedies/superconcentrate+limescale+preventer

anyone else tried it?
 
that's a phosphate dosing bag, I think. Do the mineral balls dissolve over time? You can get a canister version to plumb into the incoming supply, but I don't think you ought to drink it.
 
that's a phosphate dosing bag, I think. Do the mineral balls dissolve over time? You can get a canister version to plumb into the incoming supply, but I don't think you ought to drink it.

Yes the balls seem to dissolve over time. As for drinking (you raise a good point)... one uses the water in the kitchen straight from the mains so i'd say ok. Fernox are a pretty good ethical company i think.
 
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Frankly I secretly lower it a little each week until the missus complains. :evil:

That just reduces the amount of water that the softener can handle before it starts passing hard water. The hardness of the water from the softener is pretty much 0 ppm until the resin is exhausted. Some appliances work better with about 40 ppm, which you can only get with a blending valve downstream of the softener. It is also much less corrosive. A blending valve would probably be a better way to conserve salt, tweak the blending valve up until SWMBO complains.

I learned a lot about softeners from a 'problem' (i.e. never worked) softener; I traced the pipes and found a blending valve that had been installed in prehistoric times and forgotten. The softener inlet was 350 ppm, the outlet was 0 ppm, so the softener was working when the water treatment technicians tried to fix it. The remote blending valve mixed the soft water with the mains to 325 ppm. :LOL:

A lot of salt had gone down the drains for no benefit; it was connected to the surface water drains as well. :oops:
 
onetap, are you under the mistaken impression that softened water contains salt?
 
onetap, are you under the mistaken impression that softened water contains salt?

No, I'm not.
It contains sodium salts, carbonates and bicarbonates, so similar to drinking water with washing soda in it, I believe. I prefer to avoid drinking bath water.
 
similar to drinking water with an almost imperceptible amount of sodium bicarbonate in it, in fact, the indigestion remedy also used in baking, not washing soda.

It contains substantially less sodium than milk does.
 
When I set my softener closer to what those stupid tablets and charts suggest it is like washing in vegetable oil.

When I set it lower the water is fine to wash in, scale doesn't from on the taps and shower we get through less salt and it is fine to drink.

Go figure :?:
 
When I set my softener closer to what those stupid tablets and charts suggest it is like washing in vegetable oil.
you're using too much soap, or, your skin is already clogged with soap scum from elsewhere that is dissolving.

You need hardly any soap with softened water.
 
similar to drinking water with an almost imperceptible amount of sodium bicarbonate in it, in fact, the indigestion remedy also used in baking, not washing soda.

You may be right, but it makes no difference to my point. If I wanted to ingest baking soda or washing soda with my drinking water, I'd have little bowls of it so you could add it to your taste, as you do with sugar in tea or coffee. I prefer my drinking water without any sort of sodium salts, so no thanks.

I believe that the dissolved salts are usually calcium carbonate from chalk or limestone bedrock and these are changed by a water softener into sodium carbonate; the actual chemistry makes little difference for my applications.

In my experience, the most vocal advocates of the 'softened water is OK' theory are installers who want to avoid the extra plumbing required by an unsoftened kitchen tap. The only time I've come across a softener installed without an unsoftened kitchen tap, the householder WAS on a prescribed low sodium diet. The Wikipedia article on water softening states that the amount of sodium that can be ingested in water is "significant".

"For people on a low-sodium diet, the increase in sodium levels (for systems releasing sodium) in the water can be significant, especially when treating very hard water. For example:

A person who drinks two litres (2L) of softened, extremely hard water (assume 30 gpg) will consume about 480 mg more sodium (2L x 30 gpg x 8 mg/L/gpg = 480 mg), than if unsoftened water is consumed.

This amount is significant, The American Heart Association (AHA) suggests that the 3 percent of the population who must follow a severe, salt-restricted diet should not consume more than 400 mg of sodium a day. AHA suggests that no more than 10 percent of this sodium intake should come from water. The EPA’s draft guideline of 20 mg/L for water protects people who are most susceptible.[4] Most people who are concerned with the added sodium in the water generally have one tap in the house that bypasses the softener, or have a reverse osmosis unit installed for the drinking water and cooking water, which was designed for desalinisation of sea water. Potassium chloride can also be used instead of sodium chloride, which would have the added benefit of helping to lower blood pressure, although costly. However, elevated potassium levels are dangerous for people with impaired kidney function: it can lead to complications such as cardiac arrhythmia."
 
yes, and their "bread" page says "Sodium 681 mg (45%) in 100g of bread"

and "A can of Coke (12 fl ounces/355 ml) has ...50 mg of sodium"
(so two litres, about 280mg)

and Heinz Ketchup 1110 mg per 100g

What you want to drink is up to you, obviously, but the "sodium content of softened water" is a bit of a red herring as most of the sodium you consume will be in (or on) your other food and drink.
 

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