Installing a water softener

johnny.bill

Hi all,

I noticed I live in an area with very hard water, so I was thinking about installing a water softener.

Do you have any experience with these? Any brand / company you could recommend?

Also, I'm pretty good at DIY and simple jobs (I usually learn on the fly, just finished to install a reverse osmosis under the sink with no plumbing experience), but I was wondering if I need a professional for this. What do you guys think? Is it a job that requires lots of expertise on the matter? It should be installed next to the water tanks.

Thanks for any feedback

Pump101

Hi Bill where abouts are you living , i might be able to point you in the right direction? Im in the water treatment business. A word of warning there are allot of cheap rubbish softeners out there at the moment. PM me if you want any advice.

youtheman

In theory its a simple job, just tee into the cold water supply, install some isolation valves, and use the orignal route as a bypass with a normally closed valve. But some things to consider when installing it:

1. you will need a drain, similar to a bath/sink, and this might not be available in the preferred location.
2. you are advised to have 'unsoftened' water to at least one tap, normally in the kitchedn sink. In theory a reverse osmisos unit will remove salt so you could argue that you don't need it.
3. If anyone in the family suffers from high blood pressure then you need to ensure you are not ingesting large amounts of softened water (contains salt).
4. the unit can come with a 'timed' or 'metered' control system (for the back wash). The former is simpler and cheaper, and the latter is more efficient as you are not using salt if the house is unoccupied.

I fitted one to the folks house. The way the house was plumbed meant that we could only install it on the feed to the header tank in the attic, so we have softened hot water and unsoftened cold water. I got a hardness test kit (some 'litmus type papers') from the internet and I was delighted to confirm that the hot water is indeed way softer than the cold water (so the bloody thing works).

pissed

No plumber myself but managed to install one a few years back. I cut the bottom out of the kitchen press under the sink and have the unit sitting on the floor (was a bit too tight for comfort sitting in the press) tapped into the return so my drinking water is not softened but have that going through a seperate filter. Drilled a hole out through the wall for the overflow and for when it goes through its cycle and have that going into the shore where the sink waste is.

As stated above put in some isolation valves in case the unit has to come out for whatever reason. I go through a bag of salt approximately every 3 - 4 weeks. There are settings within the menu for when you are setting them up.

I purchased mine in the Meath area not too sure where you are located but I can pass on the guys details if you are interested.

aah yes

check out ...

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=68792475

Fussyguy

New to this forum, but looking for some advice for getting a water softener system in the Meath area. Water is incredibly hard and need a good system. Please if anyone has any experience of a system and could recommend it, I would very much appreciate it.