electronic water softener

fiddeler

hi looking for info on electronic water softer - descaler do they work

My mother lives in a hard water area and the dishwasher is dead again, she was looking into different types of softeners and was looking for advice from people who have used the different systems.
Are they worth the expense, does the electric version use much power ect.

sanbrafyffe

http://www.softwater.ie/

a mate of mine has one,,had to do a small job on it oneday,,,as far as i can remember there is a time clock on them under the caseing(maybe not on all),,,he said you can definitely notice the difference with the water both drinking and washing your teeth,,,,,as for power usage on his one id imagine it wouldnt use that much as its on a timer,,,,,

basically your water is treated/filtered before it goes to your kitchen tap and tank

the only thing is that the company that will install it for you,will ring you up every 6 months(i think) and say your filters need to be changed(normally under your sink and i think he said to me its 200 euros everything they came out

im very surprised the lack of comments you got,considering the amount of plumbers on here

im not too sure if they are worth it,,,generally if you have lime in your area,,,id rather clean the filters in the shower,clean the head of the shower etc,,,rather than installing this device,,,

as for drinking water,,,,you can go into any plumbing store and get an undersink filter unit for your drinking tap but im not sure if this will help in your case,,,,,ask the plumbing advisor there at the counter,,,,if it did help its easy to install and if your washing machine is near you sink you can have its water filtered too before entering the machine so you would be getting the best of both worlds

im a pipefitter myself but took a keen interest to plumbing as i done it in fas,,,,since my comment,i bet my life the other comments will fly in(prob to correct me)

fiddeler

thanks for advice the system iam looking for advice on is an electronic one theres wires wraped around pipes were they come into house i would realy welcome any advice

freddyuk

Bit of confusion here. A water softener actually softens the water by changing the chemical structure via an Ion exchange unit. This is plumbed into the water supply line. They reduce the effects of hard water but require salt refills every so often.
An electronic de scaler is a device which clamps onto your supply pipe and changes the direction of the ions or some such nonsense using a magnetic field and have no effect whatsoever on softening your water. Unless anyone wants to prove that incorrect.
It is akin to devices which save you petrol by being clamped onto the fuel line.
A dishwasher tablet is made of salt which kind of gives you the clue that adding salt will soften the water and prevent limescale. Calling it Calcon or whatever disguises the fact it is salt. Maybe use 2 tablets instead of one would be a better option?

fiddeler

freddyuk wrote: »

Bit of confusion here. A water softener actually softens the water by changing the chemical structure via an Ion exchange unit. This is plumbed into the water supply line. They reduce the effects of hard water but require salt refills every so often.
An electronic de scaler is a device which clamps onto your supply pipe and changes the direction of the ions or some such nonsense using a magnetic field and have no effect whatsoever on softening your water. Unless anyone wants to prove that incorrect.
It is akin to devices which save you petrol by being clamped onto the fuel line.
A dishwasher tablet is made of salt which kind of gives you the clue that adding salt will soften the water and prevent limescale. Calling it Calcon or whatever disguises the fact it is salt. Maybe use 2 tablets instead of one would be a better option?

Thanks thats a great help you just saved me some money