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Plumbing Appliances Building a Home

Water softener- Harvey or Kinetico

3 years ago

Please share your personal experience and preferences! Need to make a decision between the 2 in the next 2 weeks. Thanks

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Water Softner advice please!
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Comments (9)
I installed our water softener. You must have an unsoftened tap in the main sink. ( its better to drink anyway and higher salts in softened water could be bad for some diets ) I plumbed the main tap and a britta filtered one to provide cooking/drinking water. I used one of the large cylinder style units that have a separate salt tank. Plumbing is fairly simple but you need to arrange drains etc. I installed a bypass setup with an H set of pipes and stopcocks so that I can bypass, remove or replace the unit without any hassles. Salt is ordered in bulk ( 250 kg of sacks at a time ) and stored in a garage. Buy a unit that measures consumption and regenerates the internal gel on quantity used rather than a simple timed flush, you save on salt. Ours appears to flush about once every 3 weeks. Sinks, and shower screens far easier to keep clean, toilets have no crud in them. Our hot water system is slowly gaining capacity as the softer water flushes out the old deposits too. Be prepared for a fun time when your first shower appears to go on forever as your usual soap amount dgoes a looooong way!:)
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Tadelakt in bathroom
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Comments (13)
I live in a really hard water area and we have our Waterside water softener in the kitchen, so it doesn’t need to go near the shower. We order big bags of salt tablets from a local supplier who delivers free. We probably need to refill every couple of weeks. In terms of pipework for the shower, speaking as a complete layperson, there is no single answer. The type of shower you can have is determined by your water system, ie whether you have a water tank in the loft or a megaflow type. If you’re not going to have an electric shower (Triton/Mira type) then you are likely to need a pumped shower. The pump has to go somewhere. In our old ensuite luckily the shower backed on to the airing cupboard so it could go in there. Also, the actual water pipes to the shower head can be buried or exposed, and that depends on the look you want and also whether you have room to bury the pipes. I would suggest you look at Aqualisa’s website or get one of their brochures. They’re a leading shower brand and they have some good explanations to point you in the right direction when asking your plumber / installer what is possible.
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4 in 1 Hot Water Taps with Water Softener
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Comments (42)
Hi Aideen, I went for a Franke 4-1 tap last March, and this March had a Kinetico water softener put in, had the softened water line attached to the ‘normal’ hot and cold and kept original hard water for the filtered cold/boiling side of the tap. All good. With the water softener you can literally feel the difference immediately, at first when washing my hands I almost felt like I had to keep rinsing as it felt so creamy! Huge difference to the limescale, the shower head which usually would get clogged up is completely clear, no more pinging off the limescale from the rubber bits!! Definitely makes a difference to cleaning the bath, sink etc, very glad we had it done. Shampoo lathers up without using much, and skin feels softer. Was £1600, so it’s not cheap but I don’t regret it one bit.
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Does anyone have a water softener in their house?
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Comments (0)
We are refurbishing and I am definitely attracted by the alleged benefits of a water softener. If you have it, are you happy with it? Anything to keep in mind? Also which brand are you using? My builders are recommending Kinetico but the reviews online are quite mixed... Thank you!
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