Water softeners

The plumber suggests that one should not drink water from an installed water softener, but that a direct-from-the-mains tap must be installed to suit the water by-laws.

What's the danger here, when tap water from a soft water area is so much more potable?

Also, can softened water be used on the garden and to fill the fish pond?

Reply to
gareth
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Softened water is for the benefit of you HW system, sinks, taps etc. it's not designed for your health. Although trying to pin the cause of heart disease on any one cause is unrealistic, heart disease levels are higher in soft water areas.

Tim

Reply to
Tim+

There is more sodium in the water, too much sodium is bad for you.

Yes, but it costs more.

Too much sodium is bad for fish, but it would take a lot of evaporation and refilling to build up to dangerous levels.

Reply to
dennis

To the best of my knowledge, in a domestic installation, there is only a suggestion to have a directly fed kitchen tap, not a requirement. I know people with softeners installed who drink softened water only. They don't seem to have died yet! I drink it for 4 months a year without problems, even in tea. Yes, I believe that fish don't like softened water and it seems to be a waste of money to use it for garden or outside cleaning purposes

Reply to
Capitol

Assuming it's a chemical water softener. (The only ones that work BTW) The calcium (good for you) is replaced with sodium (bad for you).

Reply to
harryagain

My water softener, installed three years ago, feeds the kitchen taps (cold direct, hot via the combi boiler) and I've noticed no ill-effects. On the contrary: the horrible scum that used to float on top of my tea is now a thing of the past.

Reply to
Bert Coules

Not quite. There is a statutory requirement if you start off with really, really hard water.

Schedule 1 of the Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations 2000 limits sodium at a drinking water tap to 200mg/l. So if you have really hard water the treated water (increased due to the softening process) exceeds the permitted level. Fitting a separate drinking water tap gets you back on-side.

But as others have said, it's advisable for less hard water too.

Reply to
Robin

Well the last time I tried some in a house it had a slight taste of soap to me. I thought it was just some kind of chemical reaction with a form of salt. Incidentally, many people have used the so called electrostatic things tat claim to soften water. I got the distinct feeling from talking to people is that all they do is tend to clump limescale in the water together and it ten coats the pipes faster and that is bout it, its not actually changing the water. Brian

Reply to
Brian-Gaff

Reply to
Capitol

Replacing calcium ions with sodium raises the sodium level in the water, however the raised amount of sodium (usually less than 50 mg of sodium in a litre of softened water) is considerably less than that you will get from the salt in one slice of bread (about 1g of salt per

100g of bread).
Reply to
Peter Parry

But its *another* 50mg unless you are substituting drinking water for eating.

Reply to
dennis

Of course, but the recommended limit for salt for someone not on a Sodium restricted regime, is 6g. If they drink 2l of softened water that will be one 60th of their daily allowance. Less than one small crisp and hardly significant.

Reply to
Peter Parry

First, there are many people in hard water areas. Eg here the water has around 300 mgCa/l. So softened water would have nearly 150 mgNa/l. 2l of that would give 300 mgNa.

Second, I think you may have mixed salt and sodium. The NHS guideline for adults is no more 6g of salt or 2.4g of sodium per day. So in a hard water area the additional sodium in 2l is 1/8th. (And if we had a softener I'd rather take that Na on my chips than in the water!)

Reply to
Robin

Soft water is NOT the same as softened water.

Soft water contains little/no dissolved hardness salts. The hardness salts are usually calcium bicarbonate and carbonates which are dissolved chalk or limestone from wells.

Softened water is treated hard water; the calcium carbonate & bicarbonate is changed into sodium carbonate (washing soda) and bicarbonate (baking soda), which are much more soluble.

There are those who say it's safe to drink softened water but they're usually installers who want to dodge the grief of amending the pipes to the kitchen tap.

How much washing soda would you be happy to ingest?

not

Reply to
amcmaho

Thanks to all that have replied, especially the heads-up on the conversion from calcium salts to sodium salts, where I had previously thought that the calcium was trapped in the resin, and that the brine was only used to back-flush the resin but not actually arriving in the softened water, pretty much as does the dishwasher.

Reply to
gareth

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