water softeners
Most of the South East of England has hard water. Whilst perfect for drinking, if you have considered fitting a soft water system, read on.
Hard water is caused by extraction from chalk lined water aquifers causing higher levels of calcium and magnesium in the water.
Whilst fine to drink, hard water is responsible for scaling up heating elements, leaving crusty deposits on sanitaryware. It also blocks shower heads, leaves scummy deposits on shower screens and baths, and reduces the efficiency and capacity of your hot water cylinder.
Any direct fed heating appliance, for instance combination boilers, immersion heaters, instantaneous electric showers, will suffer degradation due to hard water, over time.
Soft water naturally occurs in some other parts of the British Isles, depending on the source.
Soft water feels more luxurious on the skin, and makes detergents and soaps go further. It does not contain limescale and therefore does not cause shower heads to block and leave scale deposits on taps etc.
Some benefits of soft water are proven and fully understood, such as the positive effect it has on bathroom cleaning, taps, kettles, and the luxurious feeling of the water in the shower, bath etc.
Other benefits are not proven but generally accepted. Dry skin conditions, cracked skin by exposure to washing up and cleaning can be significantly improved. Ezcema suffers have experienced significant improvements when switching to softened water supplies, as have those plagued by acne.
We recommend the TapWorks range of water softeners. They are calibrated at installation to your local level of water hardness, and use flow measurement to determine the ideal regeneration period based upon usage. This means the lowest wastage.
An electronic management system, called 'Genius' (rather immodestly), determines how often regeneration is required. The more water you use, the more frequent the regeneration is required.
TapWorks UK have recently been awarded Carbon Neutral company status.
 TapWorks AD11 water softener
TapWorks are the UK arm of EcoWater (USA), the world leading manufacturer of water softeners.
All Water Softeners do present a small flow and working pressure restriction to the water. This is not an issue with ordinary cistern (tank) fed water systems, but should be taken into consideration with unvented systems, heatstores and direct fed combination boilers.
High flow rate kits can be added to the units to minimise the effect. NB: If you have an HWCH accumulator fed water system, the water softener will not present a flow or pressure reduction.
There aren't really any disadvantages with soft water, but there are some simple guidelines you should follow;
- The internal kitchen cold sink tap should not be softened as it will taste slightly salty, and concerted use for cooking and drinking will raise your salt intake.
- Some water softener advocates argue that there is more salt in a slice of bread than 2 litres of softened water but medical scientists advise that salt consumption is reduced wherever possible. So your cold water tap should be straight from the mains. And you should lay off those salty potato crisps.
- Similarly, plants don't like salty water, so your outside taps should come off the mains before the water softener.
- Some water softener installers cut a few corners in their plumbing, so that your central heating system is filled with softened water. Boilers with aluminium heat exchangers (such as modern high efficiency units from Worcester Bosch, Buderus and others) expressly stipulate that softened water should not be used because it will cause deterioration. Mild steel radiators will rust more readily if there is a salt content in the water.
We are often asked this question.
A water conditioner is typically sold as a scale or limescale reducer. They are intended to work by temporarily altering the physical characteristics of the limescale molecules. If the limescale can be made less 'sticky' it will tend to pass through combi boilers, shower heads etc without leaving a deposit.
Most water conditioners use either a fixed magnet or an electromagnet around the pipe. A few use a radio signal. It is now generally accepted that some do have a beneficial effect but they are not making the water softer; they are just enabling limescale to pass through your plumbing system with less negative effects. The scale is still there.
Some of the electric conditioners have a captivating set of LEDs flashing in sequence on the front. These might be for a sound technical reason, or they could be put there to dupe homeowners. I leave you to draw your own conclusions.
A water softener is, in contrast, actually removing the hardness of the water. That is why it has to periodically flush deposits down the drain. A water conditioner has no deposits because it hasn't removed anything.
We often see advertising pictures of pipes cut in half and most of the waterway is blocked. Scale is the culprit, apparently.
This is often true for cold and hot water distribution pipes, particularly hot ones.
But your central heating system water is virtually never changed. Therefore the amount of limescale in the water when the radiators are filled is of insignificant quantity. There is no way a significantly deleterious quantity of limescale could build up in your central heating system, unless you had fresh water permanently passing through it (and if you did, it would rust to pieces long before limescale became an issue).
Scale is a problem with heating elements immersed in water which is regularly being changed, direct fed electrically heated hot water cylinders for example.
For this reason Water Softeners are often fitted in restaurants, laundries etc where the high water heating usage would quickly result in limescale based deterioration.
We can make a no obligation site visit, and advise you on your particular application. We can measure the hardness of your water and recommend the most suitable product taking into consideration your water use, and the type of existing hot water system you have.
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