2609 Water Softners

[QUOTE=Cassini]Has anyone got any experience of installation of water softners and their efficiency - Andy perhaps?

The system has to withstand the possibilities of high temperatures of water - perhaps 80ºC sitting in the heat exchanger for domestic hot water from time to time. It has been suggested we install a BWT electronic system (not magnetic) which could be pricey.[/QUOTE]

Not actually my field of expertise, but can find out. Just a bit confused why it needs to withstand 80 degrees? Surely you can put the water softner on the cold water side before it goes into the heat exchanger? I know our plumbers use various types from electronic, magnetic to the more traditional salt type.

If it's for a swimming pool, we've used a very advanced system previously where you have a bucket filled with salt, a big scoop and then used the scoop to lob the salt from the bucket and into the pool.

Bit mo0re information will help me find out what's best.

Andy

Thanks Andy.

A conventional small filter and probably phosphate additive cylinder have been installed on the cold water supply to protect the boiler (pellet) and heat exchanger for instantaneous hot water. However when in maintenance mode and not pumping because the house thermostat has turned off the pump, water in the boiler and immediate pipework can rise to high temperatures.

It may be that the hot water add on is fairly unsophisticated - the boiler itself has quite complex electronic controls. Interestingly Baxi pellet boilers don't permit instantaneous hot water.

Our idraulico considers the water softening fails at these temperatures and he has had to descale our small heat exchanger after fairly short usage. He now believes very few systems will protect to these temperatures. We are both fairly keen not to use high quantities of salt or other chemicals (septic tank, agricultural land etc). He doesn't think magnetic systems work reliably are often interfered with by other magnetic fields therefore it is either install a 200l tampon which means constantly heating large quantities of water or a bwt aqua iq on the incoming cold water to serve the whole house - price approximately the same in Italy.

As you can imagine we are trying to be ecological and not waste energy on heating large quantities of water - especially in summer when we would switch to an electric boiler (solar panels currently on hold). To be honest I think it is the first time he has installed such a model and he is rather surprised - we are the guinea pigs.

On the plus side our house is a cold one in winter and the pellet boiler performed magnificently in the recent siberian weather and snow in Liguria. Even in the very recent coldest weather of - degrees it warmed our poorly insulated north facing house on 2.5 bags a day. Amazingly when temperatures returned to more normal ones for Liguria about 1.5.

Very appreciative of your offer to give this some thought. Many thanks.

For Dave J

In Liguria it is common to see water pipes running above ground and under roads for long distances. Ours drops 1.5 kilometres from the contatori over a very circuitous country route. However we do run it into a 5000 l tank and then it comes insulated underground into the house.

On water purification it depends what kind you need. We have a spring water supply in England and run a uv purification system. As our supply is fairly pure we do not have a pre-filter but they are usually recommended. If you do buy such a system you need to check you have sufficient water pressure going through it. I would also recommend you buy one where the chamber where water is treated is made of stainless steel rather than plastic. You will find that water sitting in a plastic tube can develop a taint and it is always necessary to run off the first bit of water.

You might find the Culligan (Liff) website informative or this is an informative website [url]http://www.springhillwaterservices.co.uk/[/url].

DaveJ,
Don`t drink the water from your cisterna - God knows what`s in it!! Have you ever climbed in to see what it`s like in there? (Maybe yours is a nice shiny, new one?) Stick to the bottled stuff for drinking. We`ve got the aquaduct here which is great but we don`t drink that either (only in tea) - I just worry about the distance it`s had to travel and the state of the pipes over that long distance. They say it`s OK for drinking though - I`m just not convinced.
Hazel

[QUOTE=DaveJ][COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]Andy, I have seen in a well know [/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]UK[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana] brochure for tradesmen that you can get a 5 stage filter for £200 which should deal with almost every water borne nastiness. For fitting to a holiday home water supply would this be worth while? And how would you suggest that the water in the cisterno is kept safe? Or would you recommend just bottled water? Will aslo be looking at the cost of mains water which is at the end of the drive - 100m but not sure about that yet as the bed rock is only inches below the soil level[/FONT][/COLOR][/QUOTE]

I have absolutely no idea on this. Water filters/softners etc are not really my area.

From a personal uneducated point of view, I always find that when I travel away from the good clean chlorinated waters of London I end up getting a stomach upset. I believe this has absolutely nothing to do with the water itself, just that my body is used to a certain composition of mineral, bacteria and so on. Change this, it lets you know it doesn't like it. I would always drink bottled water on holiday to avoid this. If i'm there for an extended period, i would probably drink it from the tap and just get used to it.

As for not drinking it due to the state of the pipes, if you're anywhere near London, take a look down one of the many holes in the ground at some time. The old metal pipes still in use just look like a bar of rust and if you thought about it you probably wouldn't drink it. Simple fact is water quality coming out of your tap is the issue. Water quality is measurable by taking samples and sending it to a lab for testing.

Andy

[COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]Andy, I have seen in a well know [/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana]UK[/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=black][FONT=Verdana] brochure for tradesmen that you can get a 5 stage filter for £200 which should deal with almost every water borne nastiness. For fitting to a holiday home water supply would this be worth while? And how would you suggest that the water in the cisterno is kept safe? Or would you recommend just bottled water? Will aslo be looking at the cost of mains water which is at the end of the drive - 100m but not sure about that yet as the bed rock is only inches below the soil level[/FONT][/COLOR]