water conditioners

[amypie]

I have really hard water so get limescale on everything, but the worst effect is on the Electric Shower. I'm constantly descaling the head & have already had to replace the whole thing once (less than 18months ago) due to heating element damage, but now its getting really bad again.

Have been advised to get a water conditioner, but have no idea what's the best type.
Magnetic, Electric,salt filter?
On the mains inlet or just on the shower inlet?
Anything else I should think about??

All advise appreciated!

I'm not expecting miracles, just don't want to keep buying new showers & getting plumbers round if there's a better solution.

One final thing, I live in a flat and all the pipes are very enclosed & hard to get to. I've never even found the stopcock, if there even is an individual one in the flat. I guess this would effect using a mains inlet water conditioner? Any tips on how/where to install one if I go for that?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Kes]

My opinion is

Magnetic water conditioners have little or no effect.

Electronic water conditioners (from my own experience) reduce limescale deposits in pipework and fittings, including shower heads, but you do get limescale deposits where the water lies, mainly on washbasins. They are easy to fit (no plumbing) and cheap to run. They fit on the cold feed pipe to the h/w system (depends on your setup). The water retains the minerals and you can drink it. They are scale reducers, not water softeners.

A salt softener produces lovely soft scale-free water. They are expensive, need to be filled with salt now and again, and are the most complex to install. They treat the whole house (on the mains) but you will need a separate untreated water tap for drinking.

Have you considered a polyphosphate filter? They go on the rising main, have a replaceable cartridge, are moderately easy for a plumber to fit, are reasonably priced (about £50 plus fitting), and you can drink the water. I have no experience of how effective they are. They too are scale reducers, not softeners.

 

[simond]

I agree with Kes.

The 'conditioners' just temporarily move limescale further down the line, where it sticks.

Hot water items like showers are much better at separating water and limescale. This is why your shower head gets scaled up.

The only sure fire way of removing the problem, and enjoying lovely soft water is by fitting an ion swapping water softener. We fit TapWorks units, but others are available.

I have one at home, and it has massively improved my wife's rough hands (they are all soft now), reduced my daughter's eczema and may have made a difference to my son's acne (although we stopped him drinking vast quantities of milk at roughly the same time so this may have been the catalyst).

I now have hands like a piano player, and yes, our shower heads are all beautifully clean. I realised it was the hard water when we went on holiday in France last year and noticed how much better our hands were on return.

A water softener will need tablet salt periodically loaded into it, a mains water connection, and a nearby drain. The electronically controlled ones (such as TapWorks) will also need a power point. So it can be a little involved to install, but in my view, well worth it.