What is Hard Water

How does water become Hard?

Naturally soft rainwater absorbs calcium and magnesium minerals whilst flowing through the ground, these minerals that cause the water to turn hard. When heated, these minerals react and cause limescale in your home.  

Hard rocks, such as Granite are so hard that water cannot permeate through, so rainwater will simply run-off the surface and absorb fewer minerals along the way, known as surface water. Areas with hard rock formation such as Cornwall, Wales or Scotland will naturally have softer water.   

Inversely, soft rocks, such as Limestone are highly permeable and the water passes through, known as ground water. As the water passes through it absorbs minerals, such as calcium and magnesium. The more contact with soft rock formations the harder the water becomes.   

So, slightly confusingly, softer rock means harder water.

How hard is my water?

Water hardness is typically measured in parts per million (ppm) and is categorised according to this scale:

We are lucky to live in a beautiful area of the country, however due to the high levels of limestone and chalk, we have very hard water.

What are the impacts of hard water?

High levels of calcium results in a build-up of limescale. Hard water and limescale have several impacts:

Replacing and repairing household appliances
Cleaning scale from kitchens and bathrooms
Dry hair and skin, this can exacerbate conditions such as eczema and psoriasis
Scale build up in pipes, increasing energy bills
Spending more money on soaps, detergents and cleaning products
All of these impacts could be costing you £100's of pounds per year

Speak to our friendly team

Call: 01202 828 241

What is the difference between a water softener and a water filter?

Water softeners and water filters both improve water quality but through different methods and predominantly with different outcomes. Establishing what you are trying to eliminate or improve will help you decide whether you need a water softener, a water filter or both.

Water Softener:

Stop having to regularly replace appliances ie kettles, showers
Remove limescale from bathrooms and kitchens, reducing time spent cleaning & keeping them looking like new
Improve dry skin and hair, especially sufferers of skin conditions such as ezcema and scoriosis
Reverses limescale build up in pipes which can impact heating efficiency
Reduces costly maintenance and repair work

Water Filter:

Speak to our friendly team

Call: 01202 828 241

How Water Softener Work?

Ion Exchange Process

All water softeners will have cylinder(s) containing resin, this resin is charged with sodium ions.
As hard water flows through the cylinder, the calcium and magnesium ions are attracted to the resin.
In exchange, sodium ions are released into the water, replacing the calcium and magnesium ions, leaving you with softened water.

Regeneration

Over time, the resin becomes saturated with calcium and magnesium ions and there is no available surface area to continue softening water.
The water softener enters a regeneration cycle, where a brine solution is flushed through the resin.
The waste, including the displaced calcium and magnesium, is flushed out of the system, and the resin beads are recharged with sodium ions, ready to soften more water.

Rinse and Repeat

This is the basic concept of how water softeners work. Different types of water softeners will perform the regeneration process in a different way. We explain more on the page “Types of Water Softener”

Types of Water Softener

There are two main characteristics that distinguish types of water softener:

Single cylinder vs. twin cylinder

Electric vs. non-electric

Twin cylinder, non-electric water softeners

Non-electric water softeners have two cylinders (at least, the good ones do). This means that when one cylinder needs to regenerate, the other cylinder can still soften water. Therefore, regeneration can happen at any time of the day and therefore only occurs when you have used exactly the right amount of water. They are completely efficient to water usage.
Without the need for any programming, they are very easy to use. Typically, a machine is loaded with two, easy-to-handle salt blocks and for a two person household, this should last around one month. That is the only operating instruction. These machines are typically backed up by a 10-year parts warranty, with no need for annual servicing.
Beyond the 10-year warranty, the machines are usuaully still servicable for many years, making them a great long term investment for your home.
The two leading manufacturers of this type of water softener are Kinetico and Harvey. We work with both manufacturers to offer you the best option for your home.

Single cylinder, electric water softeners

Electric water softeners tend to have one cylinder. This means that during regeneration, the machine cannot also produce soft water. Therefore, regeneration tends to be set at 02:00 AM, when water is not being used.
The cheapest water softeners available will regenerate daily, regardless of how much water has been used. In order to ensure the machine does not run out of capacity, these are often oversized for a property (so that it doesn't provide hard water towards the end of the day). Therefore the most basic machines will be very inefficient in terms of water and salt usage, and typically do not offer substantial warranties.
There are much more efficient electric, single cylinder machines available. These will still need to regenerate at 02:00, but using a flow meter and a programmable printed circuit board, the machine can be controlled to be more efficient. In our experience, the more sophisticated (and expensive) the programming, unfortunately there is more to go wrong.

How much does a water softener cost?

As with everything, there are less expensive and there are more expensive options. We don’t recommend the cheapest as they don’t tend to last as long and are very inefficient and expensive to run. We also don’t recommend the most expensive machines, due to higher maintenance requirements and shorter warranties. The machines that we recommend typically cost around £2000 installed, for a machine with a 10-year warranty. We do offer some options at around £1400-1500 which we can discuss during a survey.

Typical Annual Saving of £250 p/a

Water Softener Salt

Salt is an essential element for a water softener to maintain its efficiency.

A water softener works through a process called ion exchange. Resin inside the water softener attracts minerals from the hard water. Over time the resin beads become saturated with hard water minerals and need to be ‘flushed out’ which is a process called regeneration.

All you need to do to keep this process running smoothly is refill your softener with salt when it falls below the indicated line on your softener.

The machines that we recommend typically take block salt, but we also supply other forms of water softener salt.

We sell four types of salt:

Block Salt

Typically used in non-electric, twin cylinder water softeners such as TwinTec or Kinetico water softeners

Tablet Salt

Typically used in electric water softeners

Mini Curve Salt

For use in the latest generation of Harvey water softeners, the TwinTec S5 or Cobalt, Harvey Arc and MiniMax Innova

Small format block salt

This can be used in block salt machines. These can be a good option for people who cannot handle the 4kg block salt.

Salt That We Supply

Should you wish to order some salt you can do so via our website.

You can place a ‘click and collect’ order through our website and collect from our unit in Three Legged Cross at your convience. Our opening times are 9-12am and 1-4pm Monday – Friday and we are also open on a Saturday 9am – 1pm.

For your convenience we also offer a salt delivery service. You can place a ‘delivery’ order through our website and we will deliver to you typically within two weeks. Should you have a more urgent need or have put the last blocks in two weeks ago and forgot please just gives us a call in the office and we will see what we can do.

Drinking Water Problems

Water is vital for our health, and we all drink more if know our water tastes great and is safe to drink.

Drinking water in the UK is carefully treated and monitored to ensure it is safe to drink. However, the quality can vary from household to household and personal tastes can differ. This is proven with the increased use of jug filters and high sales of bottled water, satisfactory but ultimately costly alternatives (with increased plastic usage).

There have been notable news stories and discussions in recent years. We cannot opine on the presence of the contaminants discussed, but if there is something that concerns you then we will be able to supply a suitable filter or system to eliminate the risk of your family drinking that contaminant in your drinking water. You should be able to access a water quality report from your local water company and see for yourself the results of most recent testing. Recent discussions include:

16,000 households in Devon told to boil water before drinking, after an outbreak of parasite Cryptosporidium, which can cause vomiting and diarrhoea.
Residents in Surrey issued "do not drink" notice due to detoriation of drinking water quality, following historical fuel leak from a petrol station.
The presence of lead in drinking water where properties still have old lead pipework.
Potentially toxic "Forever Chemicals" (PFAS) being found in 17 out of 18 English water company samples. These chemicals are synthesised for industrial production and can lead to a number of diseases and developmental problems if consumed.
Synthetic hormones and other endocrine disruptors entering our water supply through urination.

What drinking water filter do I need?

The first question we ask when someone asks us about drinking water filters is “what do you want to remove from your drinking water?” or “is there anything in particular you are concerned about?”.

The reason we ask these questions is because there are many types of drinking water filters, and they can all do different jobs. Some customers are guided by budget, or simply great-tasting water. Others are concerned about microplastics, pharmaceuticals and are looking for comprehensive filtration.

Basic filter - similar to filters used in jug filters, but installed onto a drinking water tap.
Advanced filters - used to remove specfic contaminants as well as improving taste and smell. Note from the table below, these can often remove a particular type of contaminant (but not all at once).
Reverse Osmosis - comprehensive drinking water filtration.