Water softner

[malc]

Hello,any one got any experience with water softners ?
Are they a good idea ?
Can they cause problems to appliances such as boilers ?
I live in an area with hard water myself and was thinking of fitting one,then thought about all my thousands of neighbours !

 

[steadyon]

I've had (the same) one for 20+ years. Good points are complete absence of limescale on baths / showers etc. and economy of soap / detergent. Bad points are space required for the softener (mine's an old Permutit), the need to store 250Kg (could be less) of salt, to pay for same salt and to refill softener once a moth. My system is an old Potterton boiler (Kingfisher, CI heat exchanger) with vented system. Boiler feed and DHW is softened.
Not sure if it would be worthwhile with a more modern boiler: Some boiler manufacturers apparently don't like softened water, as there may be tiny traces of salt. For a combi, you'd need to check that that the pressure and flow after the water softener were sufficient for the boiler to provide acceptable DHW flow.

Must be one tap (usually kitchen sink) on unsoftened water.