Ideal boiler... or water softener: is it worth the loss??

[Blackspaven]

Waiting for a few quotes to come in for my new boiler, one of which is an Ideal. However, they appear to be the only company who insist that you are not allowed to use a water softener to let ANY soft water go round ANY part of their boilers otherwise you invalidate the warranty (unless it's off their tiny, weeny approved list), despite they have a stainless steel plate exchanger like everyone else on the hot water side and no-one else seems to have an issue with it.

So if the price is good, do I forfeit having softened water around the rest of my house and leave a moderately pricey softener sitting there, useless or do I immediately sack off the Ideal? (with the plumbing, I don't fancy the extra expense and hassle of having ANOTHER pipe run just for the boiler's hot water supply!). Just seems bloody stupid!

Thoughts?

 

[Frelon]

Have a word with Harvey water softeners. They seem to offer a guarantee that their softener will not cause any problems with boiler manufacturers who live in the dark age [emoji108] I am not associated with Harvey's, I have a Kinetico. Would not be without a softener.

 

[Blackspaven]

Unfortunately, it's a huge extra cost that's just not worth it. Rather just buy a different make, just think it's daft to design a boiler as such.

 

[Frelon]

Ideal seem to have covered their backsides in all cases.

First they acknowledge that in hard water areas, treatment to prevent lime scale may be necessary - however the use of artificially softened water is NOT permitted.

Then they say that their guarantee does not apply: d. To de-scaling or other work required as a result of hard water scale deposits or from damage caused by aggressive water.

Go figure!!