Water Softeners

[HDPete]

Hi all,

Having just had my 2nd heat exchanger fitted in my combination boiler due to hard water, I think it's high time I invested in a water softener.

My appliances are both protected by inline manufacturer softeners (supposedly), so they should be fine and haven't shown any issues to date.

We live in a very hard water area (Bournemouth & West Hants) in a 3 bed house. 2 adults, 2 kids so a fair amount of water is consumed (or rather, wasted!).

I believe that there are unit that install under the sink to protect and soften the mains supply coming in.

• What is a reasonable budget to be looking at?
  Any recommendations for makes / models etc?
  Is there anyone on the forums that can supply and fit in the hants / dorset areas?

Cheers
Pete.

 

[spacethegas]

what model boiler is it ?

is it the same age as the heating system it is connected to ?

what were the symptoms leading up to necessitate changing the heat exchanger ?

i'm asking because it is far more common for a dhw h/e to fail due to the quality of water within your heating system than the water flowing through it to your hot tap.

 

[Deleted member 105431]

as above was it blocked (c/h side) or scaled up (dhw side)? Far more likely to block than scale up. You probably need a magnaclean!

 

[HDPete]

Well you wont be suprised to learn that it's a Halstead Finest Gold.

The rest of the heating system is the same age as the boiler (~5 years) with the exception of two small rooms which are still on older rads and pipework. These are only ~5m run from the boiler.

The symptoms of the the H/E was that the shower was running hot & cold and I could only get a full bath of hot water if I ran it very very slowly (which tool about 1/2 hour to fill).

When the H/E went last time, it was scaled up and an engineer cleaned it out with some acid, but I believe that this isn't legal anymore. Therefore, a new replacement unit was installed under my existing boiler care policy.

The heating system seems to have a slow leak, as the pressure drops to zero over a period of about 6 weeks. I keep topping it up from the fill tap under the boiler to ~1.3bar, so I think that the majority of the water in the system is clean mains water - because it's topped up so frequently.

 

[Deleted member 105431]

most good manufactures such as Vaillant offer a 5yr anti scale warranty as standard on heat exchangers. Halstead are a false economy. From what you said it's hard to diagnose if it was blocked or scaled as the symptoms are the same but I'd say blocked as plates shouldn't scale up in under 5yrs (and this is your 3rd). Fit a magnaclean would be my advice!

 

[spacethegas]

the fact that the water is 'topped up' so regularly is bad & will not result in a system full of 'clean mains water'.

it would be better to locate and rectify the reason why the pressure drops.
then chemically clean & flush the system. fit the magnaclean (as suggested) & add inhibitor.

it is a priority to carry out the above before even considering a softener.

 

[sm1thson]

the fact that the water is 'topped up' so regularly is bad & will not result in a system full of 'clean mains water'.

indeed, new water will corrode your system and cause sludge and blockages, inhibitor is added to the water to prevent this but if you have a leak and top it up you dilute this every time, putting fresh water in the system which will cause more and more corrosion.

 

[HDPete]

Great. Thanks all.

What's the best way of tracking down a small leak? It could be a loose under floor join or anything...

Do they do a 'Radweld' equivalent for heating systems to pump in to try and fix up the leak?

Any other simple tasks to track down leaks?