What Is The Best Kit To Test Soft Water?

[Bramleyboy]

We have very hard water and our old water softener did not work. We bought a new
Machine. When they tested our water they said the kit I was using was a total water hardness kit. This measures all salts. They produced a kit that measured soft water
and immediately it showed we had soft water whereas my old kit which measured Total Hardness still showed we had hard water. Sorry to waffle but does anyone know of a
Water softness kit? Many thanks, Bramley.

[woofgang]

But how does the water feel and does your kettle fur up? I know when something is wrong with my softener because the water stops feeling soft.

[gingejbee]

"this measures all salts"...if indeed it does measure "all salts", it is actually measuring TDS ie total dissolved solids, which has little bearing on water hardness/softness. (You can have a high TDS value, but have a soft water).

[maggiebee]

You should move to Scotland - our water is very soft up here - no palaver with Calgon, water softeners etc.

[gingejbee]

....should have said that there is no such thing as a "water softness" kit....anything you can buy will measure the amount of hardness minerals present from none (very soft water) right up to large amounts (very hard water).

[gingejbee]

yes, maggie....just one of the contributing factors to the high incidence of heart disease in Scotland. (Those areas of this country with naturally soft water also have higher rates of heart disease).

[Bramleyboy]

I come from Pembrokeshire and our water was so soft there we had to have a system installed to harden it a bit as the water would dissolve the impurities in the copper and then they’d leak. In Wiltshire the water is hard. We had an Ecowater softener which did not work so we have just bought a Kinetico which does work. gingejbee speaks my language! I just wanted a kit to check because I used to have one. Bramley.

[EDDIE51]

There are two types of water hardness .Permanent hardness (Calcium Hardness) and Temporary Hardness (Magnesium Hardness) .Only permanent hardness matters for water softening. You can get kits to test either or both. There are many test kits ranging in price from a few £ to £ hundreds
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=water+hardness+home+test+kit&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiF-bms5uTaAhXMBsAKHc-cCAgQ_AUICygC&;biw=1366&bih=637

[EDDIE51]

Something like this is going to be the easiest to use
https://www.simplexhealth.co.uk/simplexhealth-total-hardness-test-strips-50-strips-p-306.html

[Old_Geezer]

Had something similar come with the coffee maker. Told me what I thought was obvious anyway. Knob setting was to be turned to maximum hardness level :-)