Water softener advice

[dba7108]

I've got a bwt softener. It needs a fair bit of salt every month. Is there any viable alternative that doesn't use salt. Excluding the snake oil things I see on eBay.

[ThingsBehindTheSun]

We have a Harvey TwinTec and get through Two 4KG blocks of salt a month in a house with two people. I buy them on eBay for £24 for 3 packs delivered so it works out about £8 a month.

I can't see how any of the filter ones you see advertised can actually work.

Edited by ThingsBehindTheSun on Thursday 19th September 13:30

[PeterTTT]

Whats a fair bit of salt ?
Lots of the newer models only use what is actually needed
I have 2 softeners .. one in an annexe that hardly uses any as we rarely use water over there.
The one in the house uses much more but I would say we use less than 10kg salt per month despite using quite a lot of water (washing for family of 4, showers baths etc)

If your salt use is much more it might be worth getting it serviced

[MXRod]

dba7108 said:

I've got a bwt softener. It needs a fair bit of salt every month. Is there any viable alternative that doesn't use salt. Excluding the snake oil things I see on eBay.

There are one or two things you could check , Is it automatic regen ie meters the throughput and cycles when needed or is it on a time clock and regens regularly needed or not .
Auto regen , perhaps reset the quantity to allow more water throughput before regen , ours for instance treats 2200lt per cycle ,we use around 120/150 lt per day and 25kg of salt lasts well over a month
Time clock regen , get some test strips , and check softness on regen days , to see if you could extent the time between regens .
Is the brine tank filling to the overflow could be overfilling and sending brine down the drain , should be a simple adjustment to cut the brine refill back.

[MattyD803]

Can't help with the question as I don't understand the chemistry enough to know whether any other softener solution is actually viable, but in case it helps with context/comparison....we live in a pretty hard water area and between 4 of us (2 adults, 2 kids) and plenty of car washing, we go through 4 x 4kg blocks per month, costing roughly £15. This is via a Harveys HV3 softener, set up for a hard water area. Of all the day to day expenses in running a house, £15 a month for soft water seems like excellent value....

How much are you using?

Edited by MattyD803 on Thursday 19th September 16:38

[CorradoTDI]

For reference we use half a kilo a day for a 4 person house (2 Adults / 2 Kids) using tablets.

(So that's 15kg a month and just under 7 x 25kg bags a year)

[eliot]

I average 400L of water a day, using a monarch midi, regens every 1500L, 25Kilo of salt is about £11 from costco and lasts well over a month, maybe even two months i think.

[johnoz]

dba7108 said:

I've got a bwt softener. It needs a fair bit of salt every month. Is there any viable alternative that doesn't use salt. Excluding the snake oil things I see on eBay.

As others have said how much are you using?

Whats your water hardness where you live?

Do you have the right settings set up on the machine?

Do you have a water meter, you may have a leak?

All these things effect usage, and the BWT is not the best machine for economy.

We sell softeners, link in profile.

[Simpo Two]

dba7108 said:

Is there any viable alternative that doesn't use salt. Excluding the snake oil things I see on eBay.

I believe salt (or a salt, it's not always NaCl) is the thing that makes the process work - ion exchange. Anything else I would regard as snake oil.

[Cheib]

johnoz said:

dba7108 said:

I've got a bwt softener. It needs a fair bit of salt every month. Is there any viable alternative that doesn't use salt. Excluding the snake oil things I see on eBay.

As others have said how much are you using?

Whats your water hardness where you live?

Do you have the right settings set up on the machine?

Do you have a water meter, you may have a leak?

All these things effect usage, and the BWT is not the best machine for economy.

We sell softeners, link in profile.

What would you recommend. Large house with probably water usage at the higher end of the scale ? Within reason we don’t have space restriction.

[OldSkoolRS]

I installed a Tapworks softener in 2010 when we replaced our kitchen. We'd had quotes for the total job and each place quoted the same model, so I figured that was a good bet. It takes the tablets, plus it measures water flow, so it only regenerates when it needs to. Sometimes it doesn't do it for a number of days, or if we have visitors and/or extra washing, then it will kick in maybe every other day, or even daily for very high use.

I don't know how many bags we buy a year, but I'd be surprised if it's more than about 6.

Well worth it as we're in Thames water area and it's particularly hard water here. Due to the way I piped it up, there is only one drinking water/filtered tap in the house that isn't softened and one of the outside taps is direct from the supply for gardening/topping up our fish pond. The other outside tap is softened, so I use that to wash the car with. Even the toilets are flushed with softened water.

I think ours is a TD14 or similar, but not sure if it's still available 14 years later.

[johnoz]

Cheib said:

What would you recommend. Large house with probably water usage at the higher end of the scale ? Within reason we don’t have space restriction.

Hauge 7180, and if ya house is very large with many people a 7380 will do the trick. you can see them on the website.

[Vizsla]

We live in a very hard water area (East Anglia) and have a Clarity system using very convenient Harvey 'Mini Curve' salt blocks. 30sec job to refilll.

2 people, fairly typical usage, I've monitored the salt usage accurately for a couple of years and it uses 100kg/yr at a cost of £90, ie 25p/day.

I think that represents good value as there's no more descaling kettles, shower heads, taps etc and the cost of Viakal, descaler, softener tabs or liquid for the washing machine, salt for the dishwasher, Britax jug cartridges etc probably used to cost the best part of £90/yr, no-brainer really.

Edited by Vizsla on Saturday 21st September 14:45

[Cheib]

johnoz said:

Cheib said:

What would you recommend. Large house with probably water usage at the higher end of the scale ? Within reason we don’t have space restriction.

Hauge 7180, and if ya house is very large with many people a 7380 will do the trick. you can see them on the website.

Thank you I will take a look.

[Puzzles]

We have a monarch softener and a 25kg bag lasts 6 months which costs £20. Two adults.

[dave123456]

I’ve a monarch in one house and one of these:

https://www.aquabion-uk.com/

In the other. Both seem to be similar in performance.

[Cheib]

dave123456 said:

I’ve a monarch in one house and one of these:

https://www.aquabion-uk.com/

In the other. Both seem to be similar in performance.

Interesting. How much ? What size are they and what’s the maintenance ?

[dave123456]

Cheib said:

dave123456 said:

I’ve a monarch in one house and one of these:

https://www.aquabion-uk.com/

In the other. Both seem to be similar in performance.

Interesting. How much ? What size are they and what’s the maintenance ?

£500 + vat fitted. They come in 15 or 22mm and are probably 150mm long and say 40mm thick.

No maintenance as far as I know. Lifespan 7 years.

Biggest difference is where the dog slobbers her water bowl over the kitchen floor, used to dry a white scaley mess now it doesn’t.

The trouble with salt is the bags are huge if you buy efficiently and remembering to refill the tank is a pain.

[johnoz]

dave123456 said:

Cheib said:

dave123456 said:

I’ve a monarch in one house and one of these:

https://www.aquabion-uk.com/

In the other. Both seem to be similar in performance.

Interesting. How much ? What size are they and what’s the maintenance ?

£500 + vat fitted. They come in 15 or 22mm and are probably 150mm long and say 40mm thick.

No maintenance as far as I know. Lifespan 7 years.

Biggest difference is where the dog slobbers her water bowl over the kitchen floor, used to dry a white scaley mess now it doesn’t.

The trouble with salt is the bags are huge if you buy efficiently and remembering to refill the tank is a pain.

Thing is these are two very different things.

A salt based softener removes all the calcium so no marks anywhere.

Aquabion uses zinc to neutralise the calcium, but it is still there, people tend to still see white deposits on glass and sinks.

We sell both, but personally prefer soft water.

[johnoz]

Puzzles said:

We have a monarch softener and a 25kg bag lasts 6 months which costs £20. Two adults.

Sounds like the settings are not correct, or you don't use that much water.