I need a very small water softener to produce a few litres of soft water a
day - for a humidifier. I can only find large appliances to soften an entire
house's supply. Any suggestions?



--
Murphy's ultimate law is that if something that could go wrong doesn't, it
turns out that it would have been better if it had gone wrong.

"GB" wrote in message
...
I need a very small water softener to produce a few litres of soft water a
day - for a humidifier. I can only find large appliances to soften an
entire house's supply. Any suggestions?



Would it be sufficient to just boil the water first ?

Tim W

In article ,
says...
I need a very small water softener to produce a few litres of soft water a
day - for a humidifier. I can only find large appliances to soften an entire
house's supply. Any suggestions?


A small fridge with the door left open. That will dehumidify the room
nicely - and you can then humidify it again....

Ah.

--
Skipweasel - never knowingly understood.

Tim W wrote:
"GB" wrote in message
...
I need a very small water softener to produce a few litres of soft
water a day - for a humidifier. I can only find large appliances to
soften an entire house's supply. Any suggestions?



Would it be sufficient to just boil the water first ?

Maybe. How long would you need to keep it boiling for to precipitate out all
the limescale?

"GB" wrote in message
...
Tim W wrote:
"GB" wrote in message
...
I need a very small water softener to produce a few litres of soft
water a day - for a humidifier. I can only find large appliances to
soften an entire house's supply. Any suggestions?



Would it be sufficient to just boil the water first ?

Maybe. How long would you need to keep it boiling for to precipitate out
all the limescale?

I don't know.

On Thu, 17 Mar 2011 11:19:00 -0000, "GB"
wrote:
I need a very small water softener to produce a few litres of soft water a
day

Would one of those Brita water filtering jugs work? They may soften
the water as well as filtering it, because they claim to "reduce
limescale".

Caecilius wrote:
On Thu, 17 Mar 2011 11:19:00 -0000, "GB"
wrote:
I need a very small water softener to produce a few litres of soft water
a day

Would one of those Brita water filtering jugs work? They may soften the
water as well as filtering it, because they claim to "reduce limescale".

We use one with our kettle for exactly this reason: we have very hard
water and the kettle scales up quickly if we don't filter the water first.

On 17/03/2011 11:19, GB wrote:
I need a very small water softener to produce a few litres of soft water a
day - for a humidifier. I can only find large appliances to soften an entire
house's supply. Any suggestions?




Don't know how much you use? but you can buy 25 Litres of deionised
water for £20 on ebay. and smaller quantities pro rata.
The problem is the weight for carriage. Might be worth doing a search
for De-ionised or De-mineralised water. Google?
Don

GB wrote:
I need a very small water softener to produce a few litres of soft water a
day - for a humidifier. I can only find large appliances to soften an entire
house's supply. Any suggestions?



We collect the water from our self defrost fridge - this provides 2-3
time what we need for the steam iron.

Bob

On 17/03/2011 12:16, Tim W wrote:
wrote in message
...
Tim W wrote:
wrote in message
...
I need a very small water softener to produce a few litres of soft
water a day - for a humidifier. I can only find large appliances to
soften an entire house's supply. Any suggestions?



Would it be sufficient to just boil the water first ?

Maybe. How long would you need to keep it boiling for to precipitate out
all the limescale?

I don't know.


You would need to re-condense the steam coming off it. Boiling would
concentrate it.

I would suggest you get a water softener for the whole house. The
savings in cleaning time and products are amazing.

On 17/03/2011 12:59, Donwill wrote:
On 17/03/2011 11:19, GB wrote:
I need a very small water softener to produce a few litres of soft
water a
day - for a humidifier. I can only find large appliances to soften an
entire
house's supply. Any suggestions?



Don't know how much you use? but you can buy 25 Litres of deionised
water for £20 on ebay. and smaller quantities pro rata.
The problem is the weight for carriage. Might be worth doing a search
for De-ionised or De-mineralised water. Google?
Don

You can get 25L of reverse osmosis water from Maidenhead Aquatics (and
probably any other large aquarist) for £2 or so. You have to collect it
yourself of course.

--
Reentrant

"Invisible Man" wrote in message
...
On 17/03/2011 12:16, Tim W wrote:
wrote in message
...
Tim W wrote:
wrote in message
...
I need a very small water softener to produce a few litres of soft
water a day - for a humidifier. I can only find large appliances to
soften an entire house's supply. Any suggestions?



Would it be sufficient to just boil the water first ?

Maybe. How long would you need to keep it boiling for to precipitate out
all the limescale?

I don't know.


You would need to re-condense the steam coming off it. Boiling would
concentrate it.


No. Some minerals are precipitated out by heating to form scale in the
kettle.

Tim W

"Bob Minchin" wrote in message
...
GB wrote:
I need a very small water softener to produce a few litres of soft water
a
day - for a humidifier. I can only find large appliances to soften an
entire
house's supply. Any suggestions?



We collect the water from our self defrost fridge - this provides 2-3 time
what we need for the steam iron.

Or could you collect some rain water?

Tim W

Jim wrote:
Caecilius wrote:
On Thu, 17 Mar 2011 11:19:00 -0000, "GB"
wrote:
I need a very small water softener to produce a few litres of soft
water a day

Would one of those Brita water filtering jugs work? They may soften
the water as well as filtering it, because they claim to "reduce
limescale".

We use one with our kettle for exactly this reason: we have very hard
water and the kettle scales up quickly if we don't filter the water
first.

I spoke to Brita. They reckon when the filter is new it will take out 75% of
limescale, and repeating the process takes out 75% of what's left. That
should do me. They don't recommend doing that if you plan to drink the water
though.

--
Murphy's ultimate law is that if something that could go wrong doesn't,
it turns out that it would have been better if it had gone wrong.

On Thu, 17 Mar 2011 11:19:00 -0000, "GB"
wrote:

I need a very small water softener to produce a few litres of soft water a
day - for a humidifier. I can only find large appliances to soften an entire
house's supply. Any suggestions?

Brita water filter or an Elga deioniser
www.shop.elgaprocesswater.co.uk

In article ,
"GB" writes:
Jim wrote:
Caecilius wrote:
On Thu, 17 Mar 2011 11:19:00 -0000, "GB"
wrote:
I need a very small water softener to produce a few litres of soft
water a day

Would one of those Brita water filtering jugs work? They may soften
the water as well as filtering it, because they claim to "reduce
limescale".

We use one with our kettle for exactly this reason: we have very hard
water and the kettle scales up quickly if we don't filter the water
first.

I spoke to Brita. They reckon when the filter is new it will take out 75% of
limescale, and repeating the process takes out 75% of what's left. That
should do me. They don't recommend doing that if you plan to drink the water
though.

Well, I use a Brita filter jug with the kettle in a very hard water
area, and never get any scale in the kettle at all (just checked and
it's bright and shiney inside, and about 10 years old).

I also use the filter much longer (6 months) than you are supposed to
(1 month), but all the water gets boiled afterwards. (It wouldn't be
safe to do this if you use the jug water directlys.)

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]

On Mar 17, 11:19*am, "GB" wrote:
I need a very small water softener to produce a few litres of soft water a
day - for a humidifier.

Get a commercial water filter housing and a water softener filter
cartridge. You could probably regenerate the cartridge by running
brine through it and then flushing with clean water.

http://www.fileder.co.uk/brochure/58.htm

Softening doesn't remove the dissolved solids, it makes them much
more soluble. The humidifier should be blown-down or rinsed out
intermittently to reduce the TDS.