Water softeners: the three key facts you need to know:
1. A water softener will save you time and make your life easier.
Almost everybody who installs a water softener looks back and thinks they should have installed one years ago.
Switching to soft water instantly makes a bath or shower feel like a luxurious experience. The water will feel silkier on your your skin and your hair will feel softer.
But it gets better – you won’t even need to clean the bath or shower when you’ve finished! You’ll be surprised at how much time you have on your hands because your sinks, draining board, bath, shower guard and other bathroom surfaces suddenly require little-to-no effort to keep squeaky clean and free of chalky residues.
Furthermore, a water softener will protect your heating system and appliances, and should extend their lifetimes. The picture on the right shows how the heat exchanger on a modern combination boiler can scale up in a hard water household – this reduces its efficiency and ultimately damages the boiler.
2. Not all water softeners are the same.
Broadly, there are two types of softeners: single-cylinder (sometimes called electric machines) and twin-cylinder (sometimes described as non-electric).
Only a twin-cylinder softener can efficiently provide a continuous supply of soft water to your home. This is because a softener has two jobs to do:
– collect (remove) calcium and magnesium from your water;
– wash itself out periodically so that it can continue to remove further calcium and magnesium;
A twin cylinder softener has two vessels (cylinders) to remove calcium and magnesium. However, when it needs to (based on volume, which the softener meters) it washes each out cylinder independently of the other. Hence even when one cylinder is washing itself out the other cylinder will carry on softener your water in real time.
When a single-cylinder softener is washing itself out it cannot softener your water at the same time, so your home gets served hard water.
So I’m better off with a twin-cylinder machine than a single-cylinder machine? Yes, it’s that simple.
3. Most homes can have a water softener.
Quality modern softeners are compact and efficient. They can usually be installed discreetly in a small cupboard, although the best location may depend on your existing plumbing. For more information just click here.
