The plumber suggests that one should not drink water from an
installed water softener, but that a direct-from-the-mains tap must
be installed to suit the water by-laws.

What's the danger here, when tap water from a soft water area
is so much more potable?

Also, can softened water be used on the garden and to fill the fish pond?

"gareth" wrote:
The plumber suggests that one should not drink water from an
installed water softener, but that a direct-from-the-mains tap must
be installed to suit the water by-laws.

What's the danger here, when tap water from a soft water area
is so much more potable?

Also, can softened water be used on the garden and to fill the fish pond?

Softened water is for the benefit of you HW system, sinks, taps etc. it's
not designed for your health. Although trying to pin the cause of heart
disease on any one cause is unrealistic, heart disease levels are higher in
soft water areas.

Tim

On 08/05/2015 20:00, gareth wrote:
The plumber suggests that one should not drink water from an
installed water softener, but that a direct-from-the-mains tap must
be installed to suit the water by-laws.

What's the danger here, when tap water from a soft water area
is so much more potable?



There is more sodium in the water, too much sodium is bad for you.


Also, can softened water be used on the garden and

Yes, but it costs more.

to fill the fish pond?

Too much sodium is bad for fish, but it would take a lot of evaporation
and refilling to build up to dangerous levels.

gareth wrote:
The plumber suggests that one should not drink water from an
installed water softener, but that a direct-from-the-mains tap must
be installed to suit the water by-laws.

What's the danger here, when tap water from a soft water area
is so much more potable?

Also, can softened water be used on the garden and to fill the fish pond?




To the best of my knowledge, in a domestic installation, there is only
a suggestion to have a directly fed kitchen tap, not a requirement. I
know people with softeners installed who drink softened water only. They
don't seem to have died yet! I drink it for 4 months a year without
problems, even in tea. Yes, I believe that fish don't like softened
water and it seems to be a waste of money to use it for garden or
outside cleaning purposes

"gareth" wrote in message
...
The plumber suggests that one should not drink water from an
installed water softener, but that a direct-from-the-mains tap must
be installed to suit the water by-laws.

What's the danger here, when tap water from a soft water area
is so much more potable?

Also, can softened water be used on the garden and to fill the fish pond?


Assuming it's a chemical water softener. (The only ones that work BTW)
The calcium (good for you) is replaced with sodium (bad for you).

My water softener, installed three years ago, feeds the kitchen taps (cold
direct, hot via the combi boiler) and I've noticed no ill-effects. On the
contrary: the horrible scum that used to float on top of my tea is now a
thing of the past.

Capitol wrote:
To the best of my knowledge, in a domestic installation, there is only
a suggestion to have a directly fed kitchen tap, not a requirement.

Not quite. There is a statutory requirement if you start off with
really, really hard water.

Schedule 1 of the Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations 2000 limits
sodium at a drinking water tap to 200mg/l. So if you have really hard
water the treated water (increased due to the softening process) exceeds
the permitted level. Fitting a separate drinking water tap gets you back
on-side.

But as others have said, it's advisable for less hard water too.
--
Robin
reply to address is (meant to be) valid

Well the last time I tried some in a house it had a slight taste of soap to
me. I thought it was just some kind of chemical reaction with a form of
salt.
Incidentally, many people have used the so called electrostatic things tat
claim to soften water. I got the distinct feeling from talking to people is
that all they do is tend to clump limescale in the water together and it ten
coats the pipes faster and that is bout it, its not actually changing the
water.
Brian

--
From the Sofa of Brian Gaff Reply address is active
"Tim+" wrote in message
...
"gareth" wrote:
The plumber suggests that one should not drink water from an
installed water softener, but that a direct-from-the-mains tap must
be installed to suit the water by-laws.

What's the danger here, when tap water from a soft water area
is so much more potable?

Also, can softened water be used on the garden and to fill the fish pond?

Softened water is for the benefit of you HW system, sinks, taps etc. it's
not designed for your health. Although trying to pin the cause of heart
disease on any one cause is unrealistic, heart disease levels are higher
in
soft water areas.

Tim

Robin wrote:
Capitol wrote:
To the best of my knowledge, in a domestic installation, there is only
a suggestion to have a directly fed kitchen tap, not a requirement.

Not quite. There is a statutory requirement if you start off with
really, really hard water.

Schedule 1 of the Water Supply (Water Quality) Regulations 2000 limits
sodium at a drinking water tap to 200mg/l. So if you have really hard
water the treated water (increased due to the softening process) exceeds
the permitted level. Fitting a separate drinking water tap gets you back
on-side.

But as others have said, it's advisable for less hard water too.

OK.

On Fri, 8 May 2015 20:00:30 +0100, "gareth"
wrote:


What's the danger here, when tap water from a soft water area
is so much more potable?

Replacing calcium ions with sodium raises the sodium level in the
water, however the raised amount of sodium (usually less than 50 mg of
sodium in a litre of softened water) is considerably less than that
you will get from the salt in one slice of bread (about 1g of salt per
100g of bread).

On 09/05/2015 11:41, Peter Parry wrote:
On Fri, 8 May 2015 20:00:30 +0100, "gareth"
wrote:


What's the danger here, when tap water from a soft water area
is so much more potable?

Replacing calcium ions with sodium raises the sodium level in the
water, however the raised amount of sodium (usually less than 50 mg of
sodium in a litre of softened water) is considerably less than that
you will get from the salt in one slice of bread (about 1g of salt per
100g of bread).



But its *another* 50mg unless you are substituting drinking water for
eating.

On Sat, 09 May 2015 13:17:45 +0100, "Dennis@home"
wrote:

On 09/05/2015 11:41, Peter Parry wrote:

Replacing calcium ions with sodium raises the sodium level in the
water, however the raised amount of sodium (usually less than 50 mg of
sodium in a litre of softened water) is considerably less than that
you will get from the salt in one slice of bread (about 1g of salt per
100g of bread).

But its *another* 50mg unless you are substituting drinking water for
eating.

Of course, but the recommended limit for salt for someone not on a
Sodium restricted regime, is 6g. If they drink 2l of softened water
that will be one 60th of their daily allowance. Less than one small
crisp and hardly significant.

Peter Parry wrote:
On Sat, 09 May 2015 13:17:45 +0100, "Dennis@home"
wrote:

On 09/05/2015 11:41, Peter Parry wrote:

Replacing calcium ions with sodium raises the sodium level in the
water, however the raised amount of sodium (usually less than 50 mg
of sodium in a litre of softened water) is considerably less than
that you will get from the salt in one slice of bread (about 1g of
salt per 100g of bread).

But its *another* 50mg unless you are substituting drinking water for
eating.

Of course, but the recommended limit for salt for someone not on a
Sodium restricted regime, is 6g. If they drink 2l of softened water
that will be one 60th of their daily allowance. Less than one small
crisp and hardly significant.

First, there are many people in hard water areas. Eg here the water has
around 300 mgCa/l. So softened water would have nearly 150 mgNa/l. 2l
of that would give 300 mgNa.

Second, I think you may have mixed salt and sodium. The NHS guideline
for adults is no more 6g of salt or 2.4g of sodium per day. So in a hard
water area the additional sodium in 2l is 1/8th. (And if we had a
softener I'd rather take that Na on my chips than in the water!)


--

Robin
reply to address is (meant to be) valid

On Friday, May 8, 2015 at 8:00:34 PM UTC+1, gareth wrote:

What's the danger here, when tap water from a soft water area
is so much more potable?

Soft water is NOT the same as softened water.

Soft water contains little/no dissolved hardness salts. The hardness salts are usually calcium bicarbonate and carbonates which are dissolved chalk or limestone from wells.

Softened water is treated hard water; the calcium carbonate & bicarbonate is changed into sodium carbonate (washing soda) and bicarbonate (baking soda), which are much more soluble.

There are those who say it's safe to drink softened water but they're usually installers who want to dodge the grief of amending the pipes to the kitchen tap.

How much washing soda would you be happy to ingest?

not

Also, can softened water be used on the garden and to fill the fish pond?

"gareth" wrote in message
...
The plumber suggests that one should not drink water from an
installed water softener, but that a direct-from-the-mains tap must
be installed to suit the water by-laws.
What's the danger here, when tap water from a soft water area
is so much more potable?
Also, can softened water be used on the garden and to fill the fish pond?

Thanks to all that have replied, especially the heads-up on the conversion
from calcium salts to sodium salts, where I had previously thought that the
calcium was trapped in the resin, and that the brine was only used to
back-flush the resin but not actually arriving in the softened water, pretty
much as does the dishwasher.