Water Softeners
A water softener operates by capturing hardness salts from your mains water onto a special resin, after a quantity of water has been treated (depending on how hard your water is and how much resin the softener contains) it will automatically rinse or "regenerate" itself with a solution of salty water (brine). This removes all the hardness salts which have been absorbed from the hard water. The softener then rinses all the salt from the resin before returning to service. This process is totally automatic but the specific way in which the softener regenerates has a large bearing on the amount of salt and water the softener uses, and hence the running costs.
While most water softeners are intrinsically simple and reliable devices requiring little maintenance other than filling periodically with salt they do benefit from being correctly installed and commissioned to ensure optimum efficiency and a long life.
We have often been called out to water softeners that have been installed for upwards of 10 years, and which have never been set up correctly since installation. This can cost hundreds of pounds in wasted salt and rinse water that could have easily been avoided, and in some cases the softeners themselves have never produced any soft water due to poor commissioning!
As all water softeners have a finite amount of hardness they can remove, it is clear to see that in a very hard water area a specific softener would need to regenerate more often than if it were installed in a "less hard" area. As such it is vitally important that when a water softener is installed it is set up to the local water hardness. This is carried out by our installation engineers using specialised test equipment, when your softener is installed.
At Total Soft Water we recommend all of our softeners are "commissioned" by one of our qualified Technicians this is usually carried out free of charge, so you can purchase a unit from us for DIY or own plumber installation knowing that you will have a softener, which has been professionally set up for your own water hardness and will therefore operate in the most cost effective manner.
The only softener that does not need programming or setting up is one that is likely to cost its owner a significant amount in terms of salt and water usage. Beware of softeners that make claims like "simple operation, no programming required" as these are likely to be cheaper, timer controlled models that regenerate every night leading to inefficient (and therefore more costly) operation.
