Replacement water softener or any alternative

[Bl888]

Hi All

I recently bypassed and removed my monarch water softener due to a fault releasing silicon like beads into my pipework.

Since removing I’ve noticed the water pressure in the whole house has increased drastically inc the mains tap.

I live in a hard water area so was wondering is there any alternatives to having a water softener or if I should/need one, do they all restrict pressure and any recommendations?

Many thanks in advance.

 

[flameport]

The alternative to having a water softener is limescale.

All of them restrict flow to a certain extent, although that would not usually be considered to be 'drastically'.

 

[muggles]

Sounds like a faulty softener, a fully working one wouldn't significantly impact flow rate. Culligan Harvey are an excellent brand well worth looking at

 

[helplessowner]

You may find the attached link with a video comparing flow rates between Harvey and Kinetico interesting.
(Our water softener is a different brand to either, still does not make a great difference to flow rate. But our standing water pressure is fairly low, anyway).
https://www.all-salts.co.uk/post/flow-rate-finesse

 

[drives]

Magnetic limescale remover? They definitely do work (we are in a very hard water area and are happy with ours).

 

[flameport]

Magnetic limescale remover?

Does nothing other than extract money from the gullible.

They definitely do work

They and other devices such as the coils-o-wire attached to a mystery box all work for those people who have spent money on them.
Just like people who spent £10k on a fancy mains lead for their audio gear are the only ones who can hear how much improvement it makes to the sound.

 

[drives]

Does nothing other than extract money from the gullible.


They and other devices such as the coils-o-wire attached to a mystery box all work for those people who have spent money on them.
Just like people who spent £10k on a fancy mains lead for their audio gear are the only ones who can hear how much improvement it makes to the sound.

Yeah I thought someone might pipe up and say that. All I can say is we had a water softener. Disconnected it for a time. Got limescale. Installed magnetic limescale remover. Limescale reduced.

 

[flameport]

You can say whatever you want.

Doesn't alter the fact that magnets do not remove limescale, or have any effect on water or the carbonates contained within it.

 

[helplessowner]

We too live in a very hard water area, but did ours the other way round.
Started off with a magnetic limescale remover - as far as we could tell, it simply shuffled the limescale along into our nice new boiler (I now know exactly what a kettling boiler sounds like..).
Removed and replaced with a block salt water softener.
If you DO go down the route of a magnetic remover, bear in mind that they rust through so will need replacing after about 8 years.

 

[drives]

My apologies- I have just checked and it is actually an electrolytic limescale reducer that we have installed.

I think I know what's still coming though

 

[Bl888]

We too live in a very hard water area, but did ours the other way round.
Started off with a magnetic limescale remover - as far as we could tell, it simply shuffled the limescale along into our nice new boiler (I now know exactly what a kettling boiler sounds like..).
Removed and replaced with a block salt water softener.
If you DO go down the route of a magnetic remover, bear in mind that they rust through so will need replacing after about 8 years.

what softener did you go for? I’m annoyed with my monarch that broke after 2 years. Also I can’t find the receipt to speak to the manufacturer

 

[Bl888]

You may find the attached link with a video comparing flow rates between Harvey and Kinetico interesting.
(Our water softener is a different brand to either, still does not make a great difference to flow rate. But our standing water pressure is fairly low, anyway).
https://www.all-salts.co.uk/post/flow-rate-finesse

Thanks for this video. Will have a look at the kinetico

 

[Bl888]

You can say whatever you want.

Doesn't alter the fact that magnets do not remove limescale, or have any effect on water or the carbonates contained within it.

Any recommendation on what to buy? I still have the old pipework in place on bypass so hopefully a simple replacement

 

[helplessowner]

what softener did you go for? I’m annoyed with my monarch that broke after 2 years. Also I can’t find the receipt to speak to the manufacturer

It is a "So Soft" by Crown - not sure if it is still made, though (installed March 2019).

 

[drives]

You can say whatever you want.

Doesn't alter the fact that magnets do not remove limescale, or have any effect on water or the carbonates contained within it.

On a serious note, can you categorically state that they don’t work with respect to inhibition of formation of limescale deposits? Magnets can alter chemical compositions and numerous studies support this. The fact that there may be limited or no independent studies specific to these devices sold by screwfix et al. I don’t find particularly undermining- it's probably because no one has taken the time or interest to do it independently. There has been research undertaken with respect to effect of magnetic fields on calcium carbonate.

Personally speaking, we found our water softener to be a bit of a pain. Space, maintenance, and we also had issues with flow rate and pipework noise in the end because of it, which prompted it's removal. They are also not cheap, and the cost of salt adds up as well. It does stand to reason that they will be more effective though and will actually remove it rather than just altering chemical composition, hence the boiler example cited above perhaps. Certainly in terms of build up at shower heads/taps/scale residue to shower door glass etc, ours has been pretty effective I would say.