Water Softener Installation near you

This is the step most householders have never heard of. Regulation 5 of the Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999 requires anyone proposing to install a water fitting in connection with any of the operations listed in its Table to give notice to the water undertaker before beginning work, not to begin without the undertaker's consent, which must not be unreasonably withheld, and to comply with any conditions attached to that consent.

Item 4(f) of that Table is the one that catches softeners: the installation of a water treatment unit which produces a waste water discharge or which requires the use of water for regeneration or cleaning. An ion exchange softener regenerates with brine and sends the rinse to waste, so it sits squarely inside that description. Item 4(e), a unit which incorporates reverse osmosis, is listed separately, and the DWI states directly that by law consumers must give notice to their water company of their intention to install a reverse osmosis system.

The process is not onerous. The notice must include the name and address of the person giving it, a description of the proposed work, particulars of the premises and their use, and normally a plan of the relevant parts of the premises and a diagram of the pipework and fitting to be installed, plus the contractor's name where an approved contractor is doing the work. The undertaker may withhold consent or impose conditions by notice given within ten working days, and if it says nothing in that period consent is deemed to have been granted unconditionally.

The single most important installation decision is which outlets receive softened water. The DWI's advice is unambiguous: where water is softened by base exchange it is important to provide an unsoftened outlet for drinking purposes, and if you install a softener you should make sure it is correctly installed and that you do not soften the water to the kitchen tap used for drinking and cooking.

The water fittings rules point the same way. Schedule 2 to the Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999 requires all premises supplied with water for domestic purposes to have at least one tap conveniently situated for drawing drinking water, and requires that drinking water tap to be supplied from a supply pipe, a pump delivery pipe drawing from a supply pipe, or a distributing pipe drawing water exclusively from a storage cistern supplying wholesome water. In a normal house that is the kitchen tap, and a softener plumbed across the rising main without a hard branch to it has removed the very thing the Schedule requires.

There is also a cheaper option than softening everything. The DWI notes that installing a softener just before the hot water tank or boiler is a more economical method of preventing limescale precipitation than softening the whole supply, since scale forms where water is heated. LokalMatch is where you get that priced: describe the property, how hard your water is and what you want softened, add your postcode, and water treatment specialists covering your area get in touch, having paid for the request. LokalMatch installs nothing, sets no prices and does not vet, rank or recommend anyone who replies, so ask each of them where the drinking tap will be fed from and who is notifying your water company.

Ion exchange does not remove hardness so much as trade it. Calcium and magnesium in the water are replaced by sodium, and the DWI warns that some softeners can add significantly to the sodium content of drinking water, that the drinking water regulations include a standard for sodium, and that using a softener may risk breaching that standard. It adds that a softener may alter the taste and smell of the water, making it less pleasant to drink.

Two groups need particular care. Too much sodium can be a problem for premature babies, whose kidneys are not good at filtering it out of the blood, and for people on a low sodium diet. The DWI states plainly that artificially softened water should not be used to make up baby feeds, which is another reason the unsoftened kitchen tap is not optional in a household with an infant.

There is a plumbing consequence as well. Water with a hardness value of 100 mg/l of calcium carbonate or less is more corrosive to pipework, which can lead to the dissolution of plumbing metals such as lead, copper, brass and nickel, and the DWI notes that artificially softened water may be aggressive to plumbing and cause leaching of copper and lead. In an older property with lead pipework still in place, that is a reason to think carefully about softening the whole supply rather than just the hot side.

Only one of these actually softens water across the house. An ion exchange softener does, by base exchange. Lime-soda softening, where lime and sodium carbonate cause the hardness compounds to precipitate, is the other genuine softening method but is a treatment works process rather than a domestic one.

Magnetic and electronic scale devices are a different proposition. The DWI's position is that these devices do not soften the water; they are sold on the basis of producing a magnetic field that reduces scaling by altering the shape of the crystals so they adhere less to heating elements. The science behind them is based on continuous water flow and they were designed originally for large industrial systems, not for a household where the water may not flow for up to eight hours in twenty-four. If you are considering one, the DWI recommends buying only on a sale or return basis and requesting data on performance in the home setting.

Jug filters containing ion exchange resin alter only the temporary hardness of water, which is the hardness due to calcium and magnesium carbonates and bicarbonates that boiling removes as scale; they do not alter permanent hardness. Reverse osmosis removes most dissolved solids and does soften, but at a cost: it produces a waste stream equivalent to 20 to 30 per cent of the incoming flow, causes a substantial reduction in pressure, and changes the natural properties of tap water, so the DWI says RO water is not generally considered suitable for drinking and cooking unless minerals are added back, and warns that installing RO on a metered supply will increase water bills by up to one third because of the waste stream.