Advice on water softeners please

[ozankoys]

We have never had a water softener but now feel we should invest in one. Could any members point us in the right direction with any supplier recommendations & what we should expect to pay. Thanks.

[dani]

Hi, we recently had a water softener fitted and are really pleased with the service and after-sales service we received. The shop is located just before you get to The Wild Duck (Lapta), in a small row of shops and if coming fromGirne, is on the opposite side of the road. The proprietor's name is Necati Akkus and his phone number is 0533 8503424.
Difficult to advise you on price as we already had one of the components. Much les than we anticipated though and the results are well worth it IMHO.

[ozankoys]

Thanks for the reply what type of softener did you have & how do you maintain it i.e. Cartridges/salt we really do not know anything about them.

[dani]

It is a 2 part system as we use water straight from our well. The water goes into something with a changeable filter which takes out the impurities, then into a softener. This has a salt reservouir which we top up when needed. I think it would be worth asking Necati to come and have a look to advise you. His English is quite good.

[Keithcaley]

Be aware that you should avoid consuming large quantities of 'softened' water, due to the increased sodium content - this applies whether you are boiling the water for making beverages, or for cooking.

Hard water is apparently better for your heart - I'm not sure about kidney stones though!

Softened water is definitely kinder to washing machines, and plumbing in general.

[Becker]

U.K. Practice is to have drinking taps off of mains water & not through softeners. As mentioned not good for you to drink softened water.

[erol]

When I ran a cafe in London (many moons ago) we had two different 'softening' systems. One was a salt based system that was used for things like the dishwasher and general water use that was not consumed directly by customers and the objective of it was to extend the lifespan of things like the dishwasher through decreased lime scale build up. We also had a different 'softening' system that fed the coffee machine and other drinks machines, that was non salt 'cartridge based', that was also supposed to extend the lifespan of the coffee and other drinks machines but without adding any salt to the water. The cost of replacing these cartridges on this second system was considerably higher than the salt for the first system. From memory (and it was a long time ago) it was some kind of legal requirement to not use the salt softened water for human consumption as it could be harmful for people with certain conditions which were aggravated by salt intake.

[ozankoys]

Thanks everyone for taking the time & trouble to reply I knew you should not drink the softened water so we will use bottled water for that as well as cooking. Any other supplier recommendations we are a long way (in Cyprus terms) from Lepta.

[Turkishcypriot]

Hi there, We have a water softener from Kinetico they are considered one of the best in the world. It does not use electric and works off water pressure. It only uses 17 litres of water to regenerate most of the other ones use about 50 litres at a time to regenerate. Also the other electric water softeners need to be set to regenerate on a certain time like very three days etc, this is according to your usage but the problem is we dont always use the same amount of water all the time so a lot of the time it regenerates for no reason. My water softener works on the amount of water I have used so if I have not used a lot of water it wont regenerate this makes a difference if you go away as well.

Please do your research on water softeners and drinking softened water. Water softeners do not soften water with salt but by remove the limescale on mineral beads in the tank unit of the softener. Salt is used to wash this away this limescale and any sodium in the water itself is very minute. We drink our water all the time and have no problems, we had tests done on the tap water we drink and EVSU by a lab in town and they told us that both were drinkable but we did not tell them that one was tap water as they are very biased here.

If you need any more info on the softener please email me on tony@thepiedpiper.uk.com

[billywiz]

look at dial- a- rod247.com. they have a new system imported from the uk. an excellent proven system.or call them on 0533 8291515

[Keithcaley]

....Water softeners do not soften water with salt ...

There may indeed be some water softeners which do as you say, however...

Culligan's website states: "Softening water involves a process called "ion exchange" to remove dissolved minerals - like iron, magnesium, calcium and manganese - that can't be trapped in a filter bed. Water softeners have resin beads with sodium attached to the resin. As water enters the tank, dissolved magnesium and calcium ions are attracted to the resin. The minerals attach to the resin, pulling them from the water and releasing sodium into the water."

So you will see that the water is actually 'softened' by replacing the 'hard' magnesium, calcium & manganese ions with 'soft' Sodium ions which does actually increase the amount of sodium in the water in direct proportion to the amount of 'hardness' that is removed.

When all the sodium ions have been used up, and the resin balls are completely covered in 'hard' ions, the system needs to be 'regenerated' by re-coating the resin balls with sodium ions (found in salt) so that the sodium can be released into the next lot of hard water that needs softening...

[jofra]

It's clear now that water is harmful, treated, "softened" or whatever.....
The solution? Simple; stick to Efes or Raki....!

[ozankoys]

OMG the replies have been very informative really too much for an Essex blonde whose only interest was where to shop & how much money to take!
I will from now on be bathing in asses' milk & washing my clothes in Evian water!

[guru]

We have a 'Twintec S2' which is very similar to TC's 'Kinetico', uses no electric etc. Another thing worth mentioning is when fitting a water softener in the TRNC you should also fit a sediment filter to your mains water inlet pipe before it connects to the softener. The reason being that the amount of sediment in TRNC water could contaminate the resin tanks of a water softener if it isn't filtered out beforehand.

[daneliaukw]

I am using Aquasana EQ-1000-AST and I am very satisfied with this whole house water softener. I no longer see limescale build-up around the sink or bathroom walls. Water tastes good from every faucet in the house.

[aripointer]

Agree with Turkishcypriot we have a Kinetico here in the UK. It has been installed for over 16 years and has been serviced only once in all that time. If you buy new you get a large selection of spares in the box. The USP is it runs without electrics, timers etc so very cost-effective.