On 11/03/2018 01:12, John Rumm wrote:
On 10/03/2018 22:08, Jon Parker wrote:

So. I'm fed up with scale everywhere. I'm thinking water softener.

I don't want to faff about filling it with salt every 5 minutes.

Most will be a bit less frequent than that ;-)

It's there an idiots guide somewhere which explains the different
systems?

This one for example seems to good to be true. Which probably means
it's total ********...

https://www.easyh2o.co.uk/product/4-...em-rrp-239-105


Can anyone with a system installed comment please?

I use a phosphate dosing system. Its effective at stopping scale
deposing on heating surfaces (i.e. in heat exchangers etc), but will not
stop it depositing on evaporation - so you will still get hard water
marks on shower screens etc. However its cheep to run and just needs
topping up with phosphate balls every year or so.

Other than that you have a variety of ion exchange systems of various
levels of sophistication. Those will properly soften the water, but do
consume salt to recharge their ion exchange matrix.

The remaining electrical and magnetic systems you can probably file in
the snake oil category.



My "balls" one lasts years between top-ups (but it only feeds the header
tank for the DHW). Non thermostat ceramic shower mixer valve has needed
no attention in 15 years.