Water softener recommendations

[bishboshbash]

Hi

I would like recommendations for a whole house water softener.

The water is v. hard here, apparently the 2nd hardest place in the country, so I am looking at using a whole house softener feeding the cold and hot (via boiler - the boiler is ok with softened water I have checked).

I have a couple of questions I hope you all can help me with:
1) Do softeners affect the pressure/flow rate of the water?
2) What happens when the softened water runs out, does it just produce unsoftened water until the night time cycle?
3) Any recommendations/experience? I have seen the twin tank models which look intriguing.
4) Any recommendation for an accompanying filter for drinking water?

Thank you in advance

 

[FussyLady]

1) yes, but it does vary from softener to softener. A lot of softeners have 15mm pipes so this is bound to restrict flow. Make sure you get one with a large bore and flow rate if you want to run high volume showers etc.

2. yes, if you have the type that is regenerated on a timer at night.

3. We installed a Homewater 500 from www.fountainsofteners.co.uk last summer. It can cope with pressure 1-8 bar and has a flow of 80l/min with 1" connectors. We are running this in conjunction with a megaflow and the pressure is great everywhere even on long pipe runs. It is a twin tank model, so there is no electrical connection required it just regenerates when it needs to. Only down side is the space it takes up in our loft as each tank has to sit in an bigger tank just in case of leaks etc.

4. We have franke triflow taps in the kitchen and utility room with unsoften water going to the filtered tap and softened water to the other tap. Our outside tap is also taken from the mains pre-softening.