ScaleGuard Q

Thanks Tony

It sort of worked you have to double click the h.

Looks like its gone up in price in the last hour. The scaleguard site says its £118. That said if it works i would be very interested....IF IT WORKS !!

Mista H

£96 special offer from Thames Water. Yes if it works but as only the manufacture and TW to endorse it so far the jury is still out. 

I bought this one from B&Q several years back. I believe it has reduced the amount of scale in our kettle but haven't really done a proper 'before and after' test.

http://www.diy.com/nav/fix/plu...271770?skuId=9281470

I looked around the internet at the time and there were a few to choose from. I think I chose this one based partly on price and partly on the proximity of the nearest B&Q store.

Kevin

If it works then why aren't they fitted at the pumping station?

So if it's stopping all this crap sticking to your kettles, where do you think it's ending up? 

I think I'd rather have it in my kettle than in my body. 

Dunno if this is relevant or not.

http://www.chem1.com/CQ/aquacrack.html

http://www.chem1.com/CQ/magscams.html

http://www.chem1.com/CQ/catscams.html

I fitted one many years ago & after a number of months was not convinced that it worked that well. The chalk in the kettle still built up but maybe it appeared to be less. The devise stopped working after about 5 years & I removed it, the kettle chalk does not appear to be any worse.  

My question is why do Thames Water & Brit Gas et al offer proper filters to install on water & heating systems if this gadget works.  I suspect its a bit of a marketing gimmick (for want of a better word) to make a few bob.    

Have to say these posts have got me thinking !! One thing we do use in our kitchen that DOES make for better tasting water is a Brita filter jug,which SHMBO changes the filter 1st day of every month.

Mista h

Good points guys, I'm sure I can find some thing else to spend a ton on, a "new" not,  LZ album maybe? 

I was going to say we will continue with the Brita jugs for now. mista h just reminded me.

Banana man has a good point.

Mista h

Brita filter jugs will work on your drinking water but obviously won't affect the deposits in your boiler, shower, washing machine etc. So if you live in a hard water area you would need some other solution to deal with those. The systems that involve passing the mains water through some sort of salt solution work, but involve a lot more expense and installation.

Kevin

Thames tap water has been shown to be better than most 'spring water' in taste tests. Hard water generally tastes better than soft, presumably due to the minerals. The only way to stop furring with limescale in hard water areas is to fit a water softener, but have a direct mains feed to the kitchen for drinking water.

We used one for several years. The scale on the tiles in the shower all came off, but black deposits built up under the rim of the loo. As soon as we turned it off, the reverse happened.

Anyway Howard, if you want it, you can have it. It still works as it always did.

Limescale is only a bit of lime.

Drinking water has contained lime since the year dot.

Not a problem worth spending money on solving, IMHO.

ATB from George

I have very hard water here and used to piddle about (not literally!) filtering it with a Brita thingy. Now I simply descale the kettle with a sachet of 'Oust' about once a month. I'm not convinced about the complete efficacy of those devices you're asking about Howard.

And as George has intimated, 'hard' water has alleged benefits for consumption. 

"Drinking hard water can reduce your risk of osteoporosis because of the calcium carbonate in the water. For this to be true, however, a good supply of vitamin D is necessary in the diet since it helps your body absorb calcium. A 2004 Finnish study suggests the minerals in hard water can help prevent heart disease, as well."

John.

Because of the hard water in East Anglia I decided to have a proper water softener fitted in my brand new house which works with block salt. It feeds the whole house supply to taps and the central heating system. Although you can drink the water from it, for health reasons I have a dedicated filtered water drinking tap on the kitchen sink as well as the softened water hot and cold taps. Also the exterior garden tap by-passes the softener as the hard water is better for the plants.

After four and a half years, not a hint of lime scale anywhere, reduced levels of detergents, no need to put salt in the dishwasher and  gleaming sinks and taps and shower screens... well worth the money in a new build.

Michael,

I'm having a new kitchen put in very soon, and a water softener is high on the list of new improvements.

The water around here is so hard it can put a nasty taste in tea or coffee within 3 days from the kettle furring up, and after 3 weeks the kettle is totally clogged.

I've never known an area so bad as this, the Brita filter jug is a must around here.

Can you recommend a make or type of softener that works really well please?

Thanks

Debs

Dear Debs,

Permutit, now a Seimens subsidiary company, make the best. 

ATB from George

George,

are they the people who produced the heavy water at, Vemork  

Debs

Dear Debs,

The plant was owned by the Norsk Hydro, but no doubt that Seimens provided much of the high-tech equipment.

Seimens provided the torpedoes that Norway used in April 1940 to sink the Blucher [loss of 900 Gestapo and others] on its way past the Oskarfort, opposite Droback in the Oslofjord, in the Nazi invasion of Norway This sinking was only ten Km from where my late grandparents lived.

Seimens also made the original electric stage lighting in the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, fitted before WWI.

They seems to have been and still are a very technically advanced company really!

ATB from George

Whatever make of water softener you choose, ensure that you will have easy access to the device to replenish the salt be it blocks or nuts. Some makes display the device as being suitable to be placed in a cupboard with out considering the difficulty of tipping a sack of salt into the device.

If you can arrange to have an un-softened supply for drinking you might find the taste more pleasant.

Lots of disagreement as to whether softened water is harmful, or tastes. YMMV

In my experience the issue of how it tastes is not hard vs soft. Our water is exceptionally soft. It comes from a spring supply. It does not taste of chlorine or like it has already been swallowed and peed out 57 times. My parents in Essex have hard water. It is utterly foul for the opposite reasons. Tea made with it is undrinkable.

Bruce

Water softeners are commonly installed under the kitchen sink which is usually where the water supply enters the home [and the stop cock].

It’s also common practice to exclude the cold tap on the kitchen sink so drinking water is excluded from the softener so i know my Brita water filter jug will remain in use.

Shame it has to cost so much though, it looks like around £600 to fit a softener, and up to £100 a year to spend on the rock salt.

Should get a discount on the water rates for that : (

Debs

I think it is difficult to generalise where the water softener is located - I have seen them in the adjacent garage, in the downstairs WC, in a cupboard in the utility room.

As long as the location is frost free and accessible from the top and close to the house water inlet then that is all.