Water softeners

[judyvin]

I am contemplating having a water softener installed but want to hear from anyone else who has one and what difference it has made and cost etc. Any advice welcomed.

[judyvin]

62 people have looked at this but does anyone have one?

[guru]

Judy,

A proper water softener uses what's called 'ion exchange' to soften the water. They run using salt. You do see other systems that claim to soften water by using magnets or electric cable wrapped around a water pipe... they don't work!!! Ion exchange is the ONLY thing that will truly soften water. The water in TRNC is extremely hard. In our area of the UK we have what's classed as hard water, and when measured it's around 230 parts per million hardness. When I measured our water in TRNC it was 430 PPM, so extremely hard.

I have a softener set up in TRNC but haven't put it on line yet as I want to clean my water tank out properly first and also fit a sediment filter before I commission it. I haven't got around to that yet as we just have a holiday home at the moment and don't live in TRNC.

As far as I know you can buy proper softeners in TRNC but I brought mine out from the UK. Some softeners use pellet salt and some use block salt, block salt is easier and more convenient to handle but not sure if that is available in TRNC yet.

There are two types of softener, metered and timed. Metered is best because it only regenerates when necessary whereas a timed unit regenerates every day whether it needs regenerating or not and as such, can waste water and salt unnecessarily. Also, a metered unit does not usually use electricity but a timed unit generally does. You can fit a softener inside or even outside in Cyprus as you don't get frosts there

You also get single and twin tank models. A single tank machine when regenerating cannot supply water to the house while its regenerating. These tend to be timed units and are timed to regenerate during the early hours of the morning when no-one is using water. A twin tank unit can regenerate at any time because when one tank is regenerating the other can still supply water.

You do need a minimum amount of water pressure to operate a softener. If you have good pressure from the mains to your underground tank you can install the softener between your main supply and the tank so that your tank, pump, and household all receives softened water. If your mains supply is very low pressure you might need to fit it after your tank from your pump to the house. Some machines operate from pressure as little as 0.8 BAR, so quite low.

Have to post rest in a new reply as too many words.

[guru]

Cont'd

You would probably also need to fit a sediment filter before the softener because sediment can contaminate the resin beads inside the softener tanks. You can get sediment filters in TRNC quite cheap but obviously it would need to be plumbed in.

You cannot drink softened water but we don't drink the water there anyway as we have a bottled water cooler so no issue there.

When installing a softener into your plumbing you should also build in a bypass system with shut off valves so that should you ever have a problem with the softener you can switch it off yet still have an unsoftened water supply. Also not recommended for watering plants, so if you build in a bypass after the mains but before the tank you can install an outside tap at the same time so that when watering plants you can bypass the softened water completely

There's lots of info available on the web if you Google water softeners. A good new twin tank model can be bought in the UK for around £700-800 and secondhand reconditioned ones come up on ebay quite often for around half that. Single tank models cheaper still.

Here's a couple of links to start you off ...

http://www.twintec.com/

New one on ebay; http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Crown-Twin-Ta ... 2ed24f89e2

Hope this helps

[Col]

Good reply guru.

If in the uk they say you can drink it if not a baby or old. What is normal is to have the cold tap not connected but as you say not an issue in trnc.

[thornaby]

My incoming water pipe has a permanent magnet around it.
The claims of the manufactures generally claim to treat the water rather then soften it
As you correctly say a water softener would be needed to do that.
I personally think that these do work.
I have noticed positive results.
There is a mountain of information on Google about these magnets.
I never believed in water divining till I tried it!

[judyvin]

Guru, Thank you very much for such an informative and helpful reply. I will now need to mull it all over and decide the next step. Judy

[TRNCVaughan]

Do you want a water softener or a scale inhibitor?
A water softener inhibits scale, but a scale inhibitor does not soften the water.

[guru]

Guru, Thank you very much for such an informative and helpful reply. I will now need to mull it all over and decide the next step. Judy

No problem Judy glad to be of help.

[guru]

Good reply guru.

If in the uk they say you can drink it if not a baby or old. What is normal is to have the cold tap not connected but as you say not an issue in trnc.

Yes you are right Col although they advise against drinking softened water for most people it causes no actual harm and as you say, in the UK normally the cold water to the kitchen sink is bypassed to receive unsoftened water,

[Deniz1]

Ocean in Catalkoy next door to Pitstop have many different solutions to water problems.

[bear]

Guru's reply is very informative and I hope I can add a little knowledge. Having brought over a large Water Softener with a brine tank suitable for block salt, I could not find anywhere that could supply block salt. So I took the brine tank (50cm x 50cm x 20cm) back to the UK to exchange for one that held pellets, to be told by the manufacturer that I could have put pellets in the block salt brine tank!!! If you fit a proper water softener, I suggest you remove the filters at the end of your taps as the soft water will clean your house pipes of the lime scale that has built up. The only other thing I would say is that instead of having difficulty getting soap to lather, I now have difficulty in removing it!

[guru]

Guru's reply is very informative and I hope I can add a little knowledge. Having brought over a large Water Softener with a brine tank suitable for block salt, I could not find anywhere that could supply block salt. So I took the brine tank (50cm x 50cm x 20cm) back to the UK to exchange for one that held pellets, to be told by the manufacturer that I could have put pellets in the block salt brine tank!!! If you fit a proper water softener, I suggest you remove the filters at the end of your taps as the soft water will clean your house pipes of the lime scale that has built up. The only other thing I would say is that instead of having difficulty getting soap to lather, I now have difficulty in removing it!

I've brought a few blocks over with me on the last few trips from the UK and should be able to keep bringing the odd one over to keep us topped up as we don't live here. Luckily a pack is bang on the 8KG hand luggage limit for Pegasus

[Col]

To get any benefit from the magnetic type inhibitors they must be positioned directly onto the feed pipe and not going into storage. Any change on the water is at its best as it leaves the device and decreases rapidly over a few hours. The jury is out on just how effective they are but certainly water softeners are in a different league.

[ruggy]

If anyone reading this has a Combimate water softener I've got a refill of Combiphos tablets including "O" ring , I think there about £35 here , will take £25 0533 8777003