DIY water softener vs professional job

[The Natural Philosopher]

Ok so a very expensive softener.

Labour is OK. But I bet they make 30% on the kit

[Huge]

[24 lines snipped]

Jhesus.

£484.24. I expect cheaper ones are available, but we had a Monarch for a few years (that I fitted myself) and it seemed OK.

Fit it yourself. It's a pain, but not difficult.

[dennis]

Funny, dishwashers usually have built in softeners so don't need soft water. Up to a hardness of about 21 degrees you can use "salt action" tablets and not use the softener at all.

[dennis]

Fit a GAC filter for ~£20 and the chlorine goes away.

[polygonum]

And how much per year for replacement filters?

[Andrew Gabriel]

I've only ever lived in hard water areas.

I use a jug water softener for making tea (and because there's enough chlorine to make the cold water smell like a swimming pool). Nothing else matters with hard water - used to descale the show heads, but got ones which don't block with scale (Mira Everclear).

[dennis]

About £20.

There are cheaper place to buy.

[dennis]

This one does 20,000 litres for

[tabbypurr]

are factory set to suit the hardness of the water in your home.

ie will work anywhere

ts are dependent upon the complexity or otherwise of the position of incomi ng mains water to the house, but generally the installation is around ? ?180 to £200.

steep!

in the house the cost of salt would be around £60 to £70 per yea r with no other running costs.

with hard water far outweigh the initial investment and you can expect the equipment to have paid for itself after about 2.5 years with on going cost savings in the normal consumables such as washing powder, dishwasher table ts, soap, shampoo and descalers.

you'd have to be lunatics to be spending £750+ a year on shampoo, wash ing powder etc MORE than you would afterwards. Ie if it halved use you'd ha ve to be spending £1500 now for what he says to be true. £30 ever y week.

, your boiler, hot water tank and kitchen appliances such as washing machin e and dishwasher the lives of which will be greatly extended.

but you will suffer corrosion. And lime will no longer plug the pinhole lea ks that develop in water heating kit. And the sodium ions in the water will kill plants if used on them.

NT

[tabbypurr]

Put it in a jug in the fridge, the chlorine is soon evaporated off.

NT

[Simon Mason]

osts are dependent upon the complexity or otherwise of the position of inco ming mains water to the house, but generally the installation is around ? ?180 to £200.

Too late - he's coming around tomorrow morning.

[Tim Lamb]

In message , Simon Mason writes

Hmm.. generally you need additional plumbing. IANAP:-)

You don't want softened water feeding the toilets because the insoluble sodium carbonate can crystallise out on the toilet bowl surface leaving grey streaks. A chemist may care to correct me:-)

If the kitchen tap (drinking) is left on hard water, you may choose to run the washing m/c / dishwasher on soft.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Yes you do, because sodium carbonate is soluble. That's is the whole point of softeners. TO replace calcium carbonate, of limited solubility, with sodium carbonate, of vastly improved solubility, and to NOT replace sodium stearate (soap) with calcium stearate (soap scum).

Softened water bogs don't scale up or deposit, essentially. Hard water fed ones do., I have chipped blocks 3" deep of combined shit and scale off a toilet that used to block, when I was a poor man...

Frankly water full of sodium carbonate is more pleasant that water full of calcium.

The law prefers you to have the drinking tap un-softened. IMO and IME all the rest of the plumbing should be softened.

Even if its to ensure the pipework doesn't scale

[Simon Mason]

I AM a chemist and Sodium Carbonate is also called "washing soda" for a rea son.

[Simon Mason]

As we only drink carbonated bottled water, we are getting the whole supply done.

[charles]

don't you drink tea? or coffee?

[Simon Mason]

Coffee is from a bean to cup machine, but my beer will have to be treated thus.

[charles]

[Snip]

but also needs water -

[Fredxxx]

I take it you don't drink tea or coffee, or anything else that might initially come from your kitchen cold tap?

[Simon Mason]

Only coffee, but the machine has a descaling programme which should need less scheduled maintenance.