Key Post: Water - treatment systems

Re: Electronic Water Softners

As far as I am aware (and I did some research into this) you are at no risk of consuming salt by consuming softened water. The salt is used to regenerate the softener when the resin gets caked with lime, but the salt water (brine) solution never enters your drinking supply anyway. The manufacturers recommend that the main source of drinking water is left un softened as the softened water is not as palatable to drink as a lot of the natural minerals are removed, some of which are good for you. I have a conventional water softener and I don't know if the electronic system is effective- they are certainly not as popular as the salt models.
 
Re: Electronic Water Softners

Ask for independant ( ! ) test results , for example from consumer organisations .
 
Re: Electronic Water Softners

What ever you do never drink artifically softened water.

Without gething too technical Water softening removes naturally accuring Hardness salts which cause scale and replace them with Sodium salts.

Water high in sodium is linked to heart problems /high blood pressure which is why people with these problems are advised to cut down on table salt.

You can use a softener to supply softened water to the hot water taps/washing machines. Always supply all drinking water taps with naturally unsoftened water.

Be careful if someone offers you a magic gadget that will soften water without using salt, they only work in very limited circumstances and are basically only an electric magnet!!

Rgds

Fatrichdude- the man who knows!!!
 
Re: Electronic Water Softners

Whilst I agree with your comments regarding electronic softeners being little more than an "electric magnet" I would have to disagree with your comments concerning the consumption of softened water. The reaction which takes place is a chemical ion exchange which occurs in the "resin" body of the softener. As water passes through the resin cartridge limescale is removed and deposited on the resin. Once the resin starts to clog up with lime and loses efficiency the softener takes a strong brine solution and pumps this through the resin to replenish the resin. The lime is then discharged to the drain and the softener is now ready for normal operation. At no time does brine enter the plumbing system. It is advised that the main tap be reserved for drinking water (as already posted by me) as this water is more platable and better for you because of the natural mineral content. Can anyone else lend support to my claims??
 
Re: Electronic Water Softners

I can - but only as a non user of a water softeners. The brine should not be drunken, but who guarantees that ? Most home systems are operated manually and have no sensors to tell the operator when the point is reached i.e. it is safe to drink.
A second point is bacterial pollution : The plastic/resin surfaces are rough, at least after a while when the salt had been washed out partially . Bacterias will settle there . And with Irish water beeing "well manured " -Ireland has the worsed tap water quality in the EU with 30% of our population having no acess to clean nitrogen/phosphate - free tap water THIS is a problem .
The larger the surface of these plastic bodys the better/economical they work releasing salt .But the larger the surface the more bacterial growth there is . And putting them inside the home (preventing frost demage ) and excluded from sunlight - any third world water engeneer would say NO.
In my opinion hard water does not make life shorter. Nor less enjoyable.
And going for the clothes/shower heads etc. : rainwater comes for free.Collected in a barrel for 50.- and pumped with a pump for 200.- it will last for ever . But it is not drinkable without treatment . So an extra pipe for a tenner would have to be installed as well.
That is very little money compared to the salt treatment system. And it is used world wide.The WHO recommends UV light treatment of the rainwater to kill off bacterias when intended for food preparing.This could be used on salt treatment plants as well.Check http://www.wedeco-katadyn.de/produkte/aquada.html#protect
 
Re: Electronic Water Softners

What you say about the brine being flushed to drain is partially correct but Softeners work by a principle called base exchange(they are often called base exchange softeners) The resin when fresh is coated with Sodium and Chloride atoms which come fron Brine (Table salt is made from Sodium and Chloride ions).

Hardness (Lime) is made up of Calcium and Magnesium Salts.

The way the softener works is it exchanges the calcium and Magnesium naturally present in Hard water for Sodium which is attached to the Resin.

The Softened water leaving the unit has low levels of Calcium and Magnesium but high levels of Sodium which is what is associated with heart disease.

The softened water will not taste 'salty' so you are right that brine never enters the water, but it should never be used for drinking purposes

Bye the way I sell softeners for a living so I know what I am talking about

Rgds

Fat Rich Bloke- The man who knows
 
Re: Electronic Water Softners

Hi Fat Rich Bloke
I'll bow to your superior knowledge in this area so!

Rgds
Carpenter
 
Re: Electronic Water Softners

Hi ,
am living in a hard water area having moved from soft water area and it is affecting the whole family with dry itchy skin, apart from all the other associated hassles of hard water.

Had someone in yesterday to test the water (no need to test it as I already know it is extremely hard water) and quote us on supplying a Reverse Osmosis electronic system which is attached outside under the kitchen window (salt needs to be added) and a seperate under sink drinking water system.

We were quoted 3,000 for the small system and 4,000 for the medium system and were advised to get the medium one (2 ads, 2 chd).

Having read this site and others it seems extremely expsensive even if the do fit it and guarantee it for 15 yrs? Has the price jumped on these systems due to SSIA fruition time or is this just a better system/company. Anybody used them/this system.

This quote was from the water treatment centre based in west meath, by the way.
 
Re: Electronic water softeners

We also had them in. They're way overpriced for what they're offering. He was also going for the hard seel and trying to convince us to get the water prifier in the basin as well as the water softener. I'm still hunting around, and have had quotes around the €800 mark for the softener unit and installation. The unit may not be as fancy, but there's no need to spend over €2000 for just the water softener.
 
Re: Electronic water softeners

I need to get a water softner because of lhard water / limescale problems. Do I take it that I shouldn't get it plumbed in to the cold water drinking tap? I use a water filter the whole time but it doesn't solve the limescale problems in the kettle. My parents have their water softner plumbed in everywhere and I love the taste of their water but my priority is just to get rid of all my hard water problems with heating, showers etc.
 
Re: Electronic water softeners


See previous post by fatrichdude regarding drinking water, in short your main drinking water supply must be unsoftened.
 
Re: Electronic water softeners

I recently got a water treatment system installed.

I have a well and the water test indicated that it had bacteria and very high hardness.

The system installed were:

- firstly steralised the well and pump.
- installed a Kinetico filtered water softener (uses salt) in the garage with pump
- installed a UV lamp to kill bacteria (in the garage)
- installed a Kinetico water purification system to give pure drinking water at the kitchen sink.


I used a company called Hy-Tek which I can recommend.
Total bill was approx e3800

Once all this was done and settled for a few weeks, I retested the water and got a A+ for bacteria, salt, magnesium. These is also a massive improvement in the dry skin type issues

My understanding of the salt content issue is that only a very small amount is transferred to the softened water (but its hard to check). However, long term intake of salt in bad and to be on the safe side we put the water purifier in.

(I could never find an expert who could tell me how many mg of salt per litre is actually in the water so I could judge how much salt I am really getting......Fatrichdude any ideas ?)

All systems must be well maintained

Filters are expensive (50-80euro for the 5 and 1 micron fitlers I have) and need to be replaced approx once a year.
 
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