News

Can I use salt tablets instead of granules?

26 July 2012

We often get asked if customers are able to use salt tablets instead of granules in their water softeners. Undoubtedly tablets are more convenient than granules as, if you spill a handful, it’s much easier to clean up the tablets!
Almost all modern water softeners are able to take tablet salt (including those which traditionally use the larger salt blocks). Some old softeners specify “Use granular salt only” for no technical reason than that was probably what was available at the time. In fact some older softeners such as the Kinetico Compak, will probably work better now with tablets than granules.
Why? Well these softeners fill up to a certain level of water rather than an exact volume, and using tablet salt means that there is more space between the salt than with granules. This in turn means more water in the brine tank or cabinet and therefore slightly more salt used per regeneration. This will result in a possibly failing or reduced efficiency softener getting an extra “boost” helping maintain soft water for longer.
It’s also almost impossible to over fill a softener with salt tablets, whereas filling up with granules can often take up the space that the water should be using (resulting in an overflow), so in answer to the question “how much salt should I put in my water softener? the answer, with tablets, is simply, fill it up to within about 1” of the top!

Paul Riley

Coffee, cycling and a little bit of hardness!

25 June 2012

One of my passions in life is cycling and I’m fortunate enough to have several customers who have been involved with the sport at a high level, including the man who probably single handedly changed performance cycling in Britain forever, paving the way for our un-rivalled Olympic and Road success.
As such I was overjoyed to hear from one of these customers who has recently opened a “cyclist oriented” coffee bar in Redbourn, Herts. I was invited over for a visit and a free cup and was impressed both with the surroundings and the coffee and we eventually started talking about water treatment for the very expensive coffee machine he had just bought.
“I guess I need some form of purification system” was his question, although surprisingly really good espresso actually benefits from a little bit of hardness left in the water. This helps to form a strong “crema” on the surface of the coffee, the trick being to leave enough hardness in the coffee for the crema but without too much that it begins to scale up a machine costing tens of thousnads of pounds!
This is in fact reasonably simple to achieve, and as usual we have details if you’d like them.
So here’s wishing “The Hub” in Redbourn every success with their coffee and their calcium!

Paul Riley

Don't you know there's a recession on?

16 May 2012

It’s difficult to avoid the headlines and general bad news around these days; big troubles in Greece, UK growth dropping or growing very slowly (depending on who you listen to) and Robert Peston on our TVs every 5 minutes!
So in the midst of all these headlines I was in two minds as to whether to write this blog or not, as in March, Total Soft Water achieved their best month of sales ever. Now we like to think we are good at what we do and judging by customer feedback everybody seems happy with our work, but I think the real point is that this demonstrates how important water softeners become in people’s domestic lives once they have lived with one. This coupled with the tendency for a large number of people to “improve rather than move”, investing significant amounts of money in new bathrooms, kitchens and extensions which can soon look tired and lacking the initial “wow” factor once the hard water has had a chance to do its work, have all had inadvertant beneifts for the water softener market and Total Soft Water in particular!
If you are planning a large home improvement project then don’t forget to include a water softener in your plans to keep your hard earned investment looking brand new for years to come.

Paul Riley

Refresh & Renew

28 March 2012

With spring just around the corner and many people are now considering home improvements rather than a costly move, there is no better time to think about protecting your lovely home and loved ones from the ravages of hard water and limescale.

As an additional incentive we at Total Soft Water will be participating in the national Kinetico ‘refresh & renew’ promotion. We haven’t forgotten those people with older water softeners either, if its time to spring clean your old water softener then we have some amazing deals on change out and upgrades or even servicing!

Please visit the Kinetico website at www.kinetico.co.uk to find out more.

As always please pass this e mail on to any of your family members or friends who might be interested and don’t forget if they purchase a water softener from us you will receive a £50.00 voucher as a “thank you” from us.

We are also actively supporting water aid and will donate £10.00 to them for every softener purchased until the end of April.

Waterside MC250/MC350 Servicing

4 February 2012

We get many calls from customers with Waterside (or Culligan) water softeners needing repair. Older Waterside MC250 systems (over 14 years old) were assembled using “industry standard” Fleck valves for which spare parts are widely available and we can usually help in this situation.
Unfortunately, with the more modern MC250 and MC350 with the digital control valve developed by Waterside themselves (to a budget), we are not able to help with these products. The systems tend to be problematic and experience shows that customers often have a series of problems due to poor reliability. Spare parts are also difficult to get hold of as Culligan tend to keep the spares for their own engineers to use, rather than selling them to independent experts such as us.
It is not uncommon for us to be told by customers that “we had a Waterside softener for 20 years with no problems but our new one has failed after 4 or 5 years!” We have little option in this situation than to either recomend a replacement unit or give the customer Culligan’s Service Department phone number!

Paul Riley

Prize Award

21 January 2012

Mr Baldwin of Wonersh receives his prize from Kevin Shrimpton, Director of Total Soft Water.
View image.

Paul Riley

Stylish new drinking water tap arrives

2 December 2011

We are pleased to announce the arrival of a fantastic new drinking water tap designed to match today’s modern Kitchen taps and a fantastic upgrade to your basic “black lever” tap so commonly seen.

Please see our Facebook page for full details; Facebook Page

Paul Riley

Do Washing Machines really live longer with Calgon?

18 November 2011

Which? has tested whether the Calgon jingle rings true….

Click here to see the results: View Report

Paul Riley

Free Bottle of Champagne if you book your Home Demo by Christmas!

17 November 2011

Total Soft Water loves Christmas (its the only time we get any holiday – The Staff) so we thought it would be great to kick start your festivities this year.

We will be giving a complimentary bottle of bubbly to those who book their home demonstration of the market leading Kinetico 2020C water softener before 25th December.

Call, email or click the “Arrange a Home Survey” button now (and we promise not to ask for a glass when we come round)!!

Paul Riley

Water Softeners increase home efficiency!!!

21 September 2011

Water softeners are widely used in the commercial sector to help increase the energy efficiency and longevity of hot water systems in commercial buildings, and the same substantial savings can be made in the home.
With fuel efficiency and carbon reduction at the top of the agenda, the installation of a water softener in your home will help reduce both your heating bills and your “carbon footprint”. In addition the use of softened water will reduce your domestic detergent consumption by upwards of 60%.
Softened water will gradually clean out a scaled up hot water cylinder and keep it clean in the future, thus reducing your domestic energy consumption. The analogy we make is that of trying to heat up a kettle on a gas hob with a ceramic tile between the kettle and the hob…..it will certainly take a lot longer and much more energy to boil your water with the tile in place (the scale acts in exactly the same way).
To see how much you could save, call one of our showrooms today for a free home demonstration, or simply click the SURVEY button on the page.

Paul Riley

Commercial Water Softeners with 30% salt savings

18 July 2011

Total Soft Water has just released a range of commercial and industrial water softener systems that can reduce your salt usage by 30%. This is achieved using a range of industry standard valves that we have reconfigured and re-programmed to help realise these savings.

Being based on industry standard components reliability and longevity is assured and based on extensive field testing the salt savings have been well proven.
If you run a commercial or industrial water softener then give Paul or Kevin a call (at any of our stores) to find out more about how we can help you significantly reduce your running costs.

Alternatively email paul@totalsoftwater.com

Paul Riley

Save Pounds on Heating Hot Water

13 June 2011

In May we installed a new water softener for a customer in Hitchin who had recently had a brand new hot water tank fitted to replace her old, scaled up one. She told us that it used to take around 2 hours to heat up enough water to fill her bath. She was informed by her plumber that this was likely to be due to the amount of scale build up in the tank.
Once the new tank was fitted (identical in design), the time to heat up her hot water dropped, to………..15 minutes!!!

In her own words this represents an 8 fold reduction in the amount of energy I need to heat my water. The reason she called us in to fit her water softener was so that she could protect her new tank from limescale, and herself from escalating heating bills!

Now, when you consider that fitting a water softener will gradually remove the build up of limescale in your hot water cylinder to a point where it becomes clean again, how much could you save in energy, just by fitting a water softener?

Paul Riley

My Water Filter doesn't stop the scale in my kettle!

29 March 2011

This is a comment we hear quite a lot from customers who have fridges with water filters or “triflow”/three way taps with a water filter. The filters generally supplied with these systems only remove the chlorine in the water and any sediment that may be present from the distribution pipework.
This will make the water taste better but they do nothing to remove the dissolved impurities such as hardness which then causes scale build up in your kettle.
The only filters which remove hardness are a Reverse Osmosis system or a dealkalising filter, such as a Kinetico 9000 which acts in the same way as a filter jug, although much more conveniently.
For more details contact Total Soft Water on info@totalsoftwater.com

Paul Riley

Reverse Osmosis Filters and Tea

26 March 2011

One of the biggest areas of difference that our customers comment on after installing a Reverse Osmosis drinking water system is the massive improvement in the flavour of something as simple as a cup of tea. An RO system will remove all of the dissolved impurities from yoru water, not only making your water taste significantly better, but also eliminating the contaminants that combine with the tannin in the tea causing a cloudy and “scummy” cuppa!
The video below shows you a demonstration of this effect and for a first hand demo, why not pop along to any one of our showrooms where you can taste and smell the tea first hand?
View video

Paul Riley

Will a water softener add salt to my water?

3 February 2011

This is a common misconception; a water softener basically changes the dissolved hardness or chalk in the water (aka Calcium Bicarbonate) to Sodium Bicarbonate (or Bicarbonate of Soda). As such the sodium level goes up slightly, rather than the overall salt content of the water.

To put this in context, the water certainly doesn’t taste salty and in most hard water areas a litre of soft water will contain less sodium than a slice of medium sliced white bread. Soft water in most areas will contain between 100 and 185mg of sodium per litre of water with sliced white bread having 200mg per slice!

Only in areas where the local hardness exceeds around 480mg/lt will the resultant sodium levels in the soft water be in excess of 200mg/lt. These levels wuld typically only be found in parts of Norfolk or Lincolnshire, although your local water softener company will be able to help advise on this and check your hardness level.

Any questions please feel free to email; paul@totalsoftwater.com

Paul Riley

Cold Weather Softener Problems

2 December 2010

During freezing weather such as we have at the moment it is not unusual for waste water drains to freeze up. If this drain has a water softener outlet running into it (or indeed if your water softener drain is actually frozen itself) then leaks from the drain or the water softener can occur.
With a frozen drain the water that is being flushed away from the softener is not able to escape so finds another way out; this is either back into the water softener cabinet or out via any weakness or joint in the drain line. This can result in leaks or overflowing water softeners.
As such it is best to ensure that all drain lines are clear and free from ice. Where possible prevent any standing water being in the drain by making sure the pipe runs downwards, or run the water softener drain inside if practical.

Paul Riley

Softened Water and Eczema

25 November 2010

This is a great You Tube video that shows how well softened water can help with the control and alleviation of the symptoms of eczema;

View video

Simply copy the link above and paste it into your Explorer addres sbar.

We carry out many hundreds of installations a year for customers suffering with the affects of dry skin. call us now for more information.

Filtered Water for Energy (Part 2)

18 November 2010

Just a quick, but interesting update on the coffee drinking situation! I’ve been without coffee for over a month now and quite a bit has changed in my life. I initially noticed that I was eating more but quickly realised that the caffeine had probably been suppressing my appetite. As such I’ve continued with drinking the 1.5 to 2 litres of water a day BUT am also eating much more now too and the net effect……a weight loss of around 1/2 stone in 4 weeks.

I do tend to exercise regularly (but not fastidously) 2 or 3 times a week, but this has been constant throughout my life so nothing’s changed here. Having been doing some reading around it does appear to be a well kept secret that drinking additional water does help increase energy levels but also aids in weight loss (one of the simplest explanations I found being that the volume of water in your stomach doesn’t leave as much room for food so you eat less). A study in the USA a few years ago showed that two thirds of Americans mistook thirst for hunger!

So the weight loss is either due to the extra water, or because I’m now having to avoid walking past Costas or Caffe Nero by crossing the road, and as a result I’m walking further!

Paul Riley

Soft Water & Eczema

22 October 2010

Paul, our engineer who covers the Surrey & Hampshire shops recently installed a Kinetico water softener into his apartment and was surprised to find it using 3 times the amount of salt that he had expected. This carried on for a couple of weeks until Paul went and had a look at the pipe work layout in the loft of the aprtment block. He found that the soft water was being fed to both his apartment and that of his neighbour and her two children.
Paul knocked on his neighbour’s door and told her that there was a bit of an issue with the plumbing layout, and explained that he’d have to make some changes to the pipework to divide the two apartments. It wasn’t until Paul explained that she had been having soft water in the flat for the last few weeks that she then told Paul that she had wondered why her children’s Eczema had completely cleared in the previous 3 weeks!
As a result she has offered to pay for all the salt to keep the softener going just to make sure the children’s Eczema didn’t return.
More proof if it was needed that softened water significantly helps alleviate the signs of Eczema.

Paul Riley

New Showroom in Winchester

16 October 2010

Total Soft Water’s new store in Winchester opens on Monday 25th October. Located in Stoney Lane, Weeke the store takes over from Kinetico’s own retail operation in Park Gate, Fareham, and will be serving the whole of South Hampshire with the same great products and service found at our other showrooms.

Total Soft Water goes "Live"

16 October 2010

A range of informative videos have now been posted on the Total Soft Water YouTube channel.
Ever needed to know how to put your water softener on bypass, wondered how Reverse Osmosis can improve the taste of your cup of tea, or even what is inside your water softener? Then visit Total Soft Water’s YouTube channel now for more info; http://www.youtube.com/user/TotalSoftWater.

Quooker Taps in Stock

13 October 2010

Total Soft Water are now able to supply and install the entire range of Quooker Boiling Water Taps; call your local store for more information now.

Filtered Water for Energy

12 October 2010

I’ve decided to give up coffee and in just 6 days the effects have been amazing! The reasons for giving up were two fold; Firstly, I would get headaches if I didn’t have my “fix” by 10 o’clock in the morning and secondly my penchant for decent coffee at £2.50 to £2.80 a cup was costing me around £1500 a year!!
A friend who did the same thing suffered headaches for about a week before “getting back to normal”, so when I came off the coffee I drank about 1.5 to 2 litres of filtered Reverse Osmosis (RO) water a day.
I was really pleased to find that my headaches lasted only 2 days which I’m sure was down to the RO water flushing my system through more effectively than normal or bottled water. I also now have much more energy being more awake at 9 in the evening now than I was at 6.30 just a week ago!
I’m convinced that the RO water has had a massive contribution towards this; although my wife remains as convinced that I’ll end up back in Costa’s again one day soon!!

Paul Riley