UKC

Hey everyone,

Thought I'd ask the font of all knowledge.

Does anyone have any experience or knowledge of hard water filter/softener system for a whole house?

What kind of difference has it made? What's the maintenance like for it?

Thanks in advance 

Game changer. Wouldn't be without one. Saying that, our water hardness is off the scale (pun intended). 

Maintenance: Tip a bag of salt (£17) into it about every 10 months. 

I have one installed by the previous owner. It works - no need for regular maintenance as far as I know. I put a kilo or two of salt pebbles in it every month. There's a slow buildup of a brownish residue in the kettle, which I remove with household descaler every month or so, and usually descale the coffee machine at the same time, out of paranoia. I've nothing to compare it with, however the water pressure is plenty adequate, but not high.

We've got one, very hard water gets transformed into very soft water, uses a bag of salt (£17) every 6-8 weeks. 

If I could travel back in time I would definitely still buy the water softener, but wouldn't bother connecting the toilets to the softened supply. Our kitchen tap also runs unsoftened water on the advice of our plumber, he said lots of people don't be like the taste of softened water, this means the kettle does still scale up. 

The cheapest softeners regenerate based on a timer, more expensive ones measure how much water has flowed through them so only regenerate when needed.

Do you know what one you have?

Tapworks somethingorother. 

Just get one that's the right size for your household. And if you have a combi boiler you might need a more capable one than if it's refilling a tank at its leisure. Kitchen tap and outside tap are not softened. All this is googleable but I've long since deleted it from my consciousness. 

The biggest tell for us was when we moved in and didn't have one for a while, the glass shower door turned cloudy white over a couple of weeks. When we installed one (previous owners had one but had taken it, so it was just a case of buy and put in) the shower door cleaned itself over a couple of weeks. 

In my old house, which didn't have one, the loft tank had a 6 inch layer of rocks in the bottom. Wouldn't want to be a pipe in that house.

As per other comments, a water softener has become "essential" to us. We really missed it when the last one we had broke down (just over 20 years in service). In particular the showers and bathroom sinks accumulating limescale and no soap "lather".

We've recently replaced it with this one. https://www.twintec.com/our-products/twintec-s4/ 

Plumber recommended this one to us for flow volume, no electric connection required and simply loading with salt blocks (not bags of loose salt).

Some of our toilets, garden/garage and kitchen cold feeds are not softened. This seemed either unnecessary or not recommend for a number of reasons.

I think you are not supposed to drink softened water, which means your kettle will still scale up, but baths/showers are much better for soft water. We have very hard water but live with it...