Water softener systems

Naw, your first instincts are right. It?s bollocks. ;-)

Tim

Have you considered moving to Manchester...

Are systems easier to come by in Manchester?

Hehe!

those magnetic things are a scam. That leaves phosphate dosing and ion exchange. IE requires regular salt tablets. P requires a very occasional replacement cartridge. Drinking water taps (ie kitchen cold) should not be softened.

NT

Most will be a bit less frequent than that ;-)

I use a phosphate dosing system. Its effective at stopping scale deposing on heating surfaces (i.e. in heat exchangers etc), but will not stop it depositing on evaporation - so you will still get hard water marks on shower screens etc. However its cheep to run and just needs topping up with phosphate balls every year or so.

Other than that you have a variety of ion exchange systems of various levels of sophistication. Those will properly soften the water, but do consume salt to recharge their ion exchange matrix.

The remaining electrical and magnetic systems you can probably file in the snake oil category.

Interesting, I didn't know about using phosphate dosing to to prevent scaling. I have worked on large phosphate dosing systems (for United Utilities) and the reason for those was to prevent soft water absorbing lead.

SteveW

Yes.

Salt based ion exchange softeners work

Nothing else does.

And that is bollocks too.

I know its regulastions, but the amount of sodium in softened water is about the same as a packet of crisps for every 1000 litres.

I can remember getting a lot of interference at a house. it was traced to a so called water softener in a cupboard around a pipe. This seemed to consist of some kind of electro magnet around a pipe fed from a naff circuit plugged into the mains. Needless to say it did nothing but cause the limescale to bunch together near the device, probably eventually building up inside it and bunging up the system. There was still lime scale on all the taps, though not as much according to the home owner. Its not really a softener, its just a half baked idea that seldom works in real situations. Brian

I personally feel that companies like Thames and others who supply water should be doing the removal. Surely the lime scale is damaging appliances and pipes and for all we know causing kidney stones. It never used to be like this. I seem to remember in London it started to worsen when they put in that huge concrete ring main around London. Could it perhaps be a break down of the cement that is getting into the water? Brian

You say that, but surely where water is soft already nobody has the choice. I don't think there should be any problem with softened water, but I guess if things were not kept working correctly one could end up with something not very good for you. I covered the magnetic idea earlier, They cause clumping together of lime scale, and it is still in the system, somewhere, probably clogging up the pipes!

Brian

Yes, most houses, including mine, around here have some lead piping and from what I've heard from tests, there is very little lead in the water at all, probably since its been here all that time its coated in some lime scale anyway! Brian

While hard water, which is what we have (not from Thames), does create problems for the householder. I suspect that domestic supply is only a tiny bit of the use of water. You don't need softened water, for instance, to put out a fire. Centralise softening would put up costs enormously.

I grew up in Edinburgh, lead pipes and soft water.

IIRC the useful mineral content is also reduced, which is not a positive for health.

NT

they do work in real situations, and are cheap to make, hence their promotion. But they do not work in domestic installs, hence their complete valuelessness. To be effective - IIRC - the water needs to recirculate through the magnetic field endlessly.

NT

it repairs pipes.

there is no oxalate in tap water afaik. The minerals present are essential nutrients.

Ground sourced water has been hard for millions of years.

no.

wrong as usual

there is, albeit minor. feel free to read up on it.

true

they don't. Do you ever read up on anything?

Right conclusion, wrong reason. Increased calcium intake might contribute to kidney stones in a susceptible person, but the amount of calcium in hard water is a minuscule part of the normal dietary intake.