Limescale - new question

[Oneeyedvic]

We live in a very hardwater area. We moved into the house just over 1 year ago. They ahd a water softner installed but there is no salt in it. I am (vaguely) aware of how they work, and it is currently bypassed as not being used.

Question is: I thought that when a softener was installed, a seperate 'drinking water' supply was connected as the softened water has a high salt content. This is really one of the biggest reasons that it is not currently used.

Also, does anyone have any experience of those electirc wire things that you put around your pipe that is meant to clear up limescale? Are they any good?

Cheers

[woofgang]

As I understand it,those electric things dont soften the water, they just stop the calcium particles sticking to pipes etc. the water will still feel hard and be scummy. The softened water has a higher sodium content, its not actually salty, but advice is that is should not be used for everday drinking, although the odd drop won't harm you, it definitely should not be given to babies or young children or frail adults.

Ours is installed after the feed to the kitchen sink, so we don't need another tap added although people do. I suspect that yours may be installed in the same way, hence no extra tap, its easy enough to trace the pipework and see.

I love love love our water softener, we live in Hampshire where the water is nearly as hard as London and its one of te best things we have ever done, visitors comment on how nice our water is to wash in.

[derekpara]

When my water softener was first fitted, in the 70s, it also treated the drinking water. After a few years I had the system altered so that drinking water was not passed through the softener. You can get it checked out by a good plumber or someone from the softener company.

[buildersmate]

Agree with both the above answers. I installed an electrical device for many years as a cheapo solution to hard water in Berkshire and it did just as Wolfgang says. I believe it stopped any significant furring of the pipes and cylinder but it doesn't softener the water.

Having just moved to a new house (in Berkshire) I have installed a water softener with fantastic results in terms of scum and scale reduction. Depending on the way the pipes run, it should be easy to run a bypass to the main cold water tap - which is what I did when I installed the thing myself.

[Oneeyedvic]

thanks all