Water Softener

JuniorB

Looking for a Water Softener system. Have our own well. Will be running one feed of 'unsoftened' water to main kitchen tap.

What are the options?
What's the average price?
Where can these be sourced?

Any advice or help greatly appreciated.

ninjaBob

We got our water pump & treatment system from <snip> Pumps

Pump & Booster Tank : 2300
Treatment System : 2100

Great Service and very prompt with installation.

bdoo

Hi,

Just happens I was on the phone to a plumber there who priced our house we're finally building, talking of water softeners he reckons that you should get your water tested to determine the level of hardness and size the softener to suit.

He maintains that people often fit softeners which are too small and dont work or too big and waste money!

Makes sense I suppose...now, to get him to drop his price a bit..

JuniorB

Cheers lads. Makes sense to get the water tested alright. Any idea where to get this done?

Thanks again.

aah yes

Get the water tested by an INAB registered Lab or HSE lab and ask for Check Monitoring test of around ten parameters (50 euros) on mains water schemes, or Audit Monitoring test for (100 euros) on private wells. See firms below for other water testing advice - they may test hardness for you for free ...

As for water softener sizing, it is always, always better to go for the larger systems for longer life and lower water use because of better capacity and less frequent wash intervals, these sort of systems range from 500 to 800 euros and are state of the art, top end metered systems. Small fee for install / long warranty may be applied by expert firms. (Good advice, do not use the average plumber to install a water softener, or you will end up with badly calibrated, low efficiency system, [cost the earth over the years] and no - "really on the ball" back up service and warranty).

Sure some plumbers are good, and some may cater in the line of water treatment, but 9/10 are bad when it comes to dedicated water treatment, so best stay well clear.



Quote from recent thread about Kildare water hardness ...

"If the hardness of the water exceeds 200 ppm total hardness (limescale) then domestic water softeners would be advisable.

In most of the Galway County water schemes the total hardness is around 400 ppm and it shows fairly quickly.

Water softeners have really come down in price however, equipment quality such as in Clack metered systems are now at an exceptionally good level and a number of WQA.org (Water Quality Association) member firms are offering very good service and prices.

Top end Clack water softeners now sell from 350 euros, have a 30 to 40 year life, they need servicing only every 15 to 20 years, and run on as low as 20 euros per year for salt in Kildare or around 3 bags per year for metered systems if sold and calibrated by good WQA member firms.

Sigma Force

Can't remember how much ours was but it was definetly below 2K.
<snip> methinks.
ninjabob that seems very expensive unless it was a larger system.

It's a salt system which works well.
With the big freeze over winter though we should of turned it off, the whole system froze but it would of wether we had a softner or not but because we had the filter on and hand't buried the pipes properly (our fault just a job we had left on the long finger) it was damaged in the freeze.

If using the salt it's not recommended for people with kidney problems or for the filtered water to be used in babies bottles.

It made a huge difference to our water, buying the bags of salt is a bit of a pain though but we got a load of bags free when the system was installed.
We were doing building at the time so had the electrician install an outdoor socket.

We also built a wee little house for it just to keep the outdoor socket extra dry and the system dry. Easy to do though just a little wooden house for it, if you pop a bit of insulation into it as well that will help over the winter.

aah yes

1k would buy an extremely well specified system nowadays, up to a tall metered US made 10x54" water softener for any size house.

If the installer company had recommended a makeshift loose clad wooden enclosure with a bit of insulation stuffed in for good measure, this sounds really bad.

The job of siting a water softener should be a bit more professional than that. Either a purpose made injection moulded enclosure, fully sealed designed to do the job, accessible with padlockable doors or put the system in a garage etc.

If they recommended Axal Pro salt in the orange bag, then they would be doing their job right. <snip> and this salt is sold in many hardware and farm stores around Ireland. Broxo salt, (white bag, blue writing) still to this date, over the last five years I have known has blocked up and caked up in far too many salt bins, not to a really major degree, but just enough hassle not to risk using it.



The term Salt System is a bit misleading, because there is no salt in softened water.

A water softener just uses salt to wash out or regenerate the system every week or so, - so all chlorides (100% removed) from the sodium chloride salt are washed out, along with 99% of the sodium removed.

This leaves a trace level of sodium in the softened water usually at a level found in Tesco still bottled water 90 mg/L and San Pellegrino bottled water 130 mg/L.

Tap water has EU and HSE limits of 200 mg/L set as a strict limit for sodium in water and 250 mg/L for chloride, although these can be in any level in beverages and food sold in shops from 1000 mg/L to 10,000 mg/L, and many foods do have these levels for sodium and chlorides, such as tinned soups from 1000 mg/L sodium up to condiments like mayonnaise, mustard, soya sauce, etc from 3,000 mg/L to 9,000 mg/L sodium and higher for chloride - the salty tasting constituent.

Milk has three to five times the level of sodium than softened water and 100's to 1000's of times the level of chloride, as do many bottled fizzy drinks, although most fizzy drinks are equal in their sodium levels to softened water, but most fizzy drinks usually have hundreds of times the level of chloride.

Chloride is what gives the salty taste in sodium chloride salt. Sodium has absolutely no salt taste.

MidlandsM

My system cost €800 installed and that was in the boom. It's in 2 years now and never needs attention, works perfect all the time.
Just pop a bag of salt into her every 6 or 7 weeks.
It not a small under sink yoke either, its a proper sized system out in the utility.
I used <snip>.
No affiliation, just a happy customer here.

aah yes

Now, that sound like the right and proper sort of water softener company, (if it is metered, and either Clack, Fleck or a good US make, with 10 or 20 years parts and labour warranty)

If it costs between 600 and 1,000 fitted, does not use big amounts of salt to wash out, and the company are easy to contact and local, then you should be on to a winner.