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LadyArowana
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Congratulations! I bought a water softner, but I have no idea if it's any good because it's the tenants that use it :lol:
jocelyn plummer
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Well Moo, many congratulations.--- However, will it be Grandma, Granny or Nanny next?.... You will be a brilliant Mother in Law xxxx
Penners
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Shouldn't that be, "WE ARE A MOTHER-IN-LAW"?!Moo said:
Wonderful news, Moo! Here's wishing Mr & Mrs HW... nay, the whole family... long life and happiness. And many congratulations to the antecedents without whom... etc!
As regards the equally important matter of the water softener, my only suggestion (which is probably superfluous) is to ensure that you have a separate tap for non-softened drinking water. I am given to understand that the softening process, which uses salt, as I'm sure you know, raises the sodium content of the softened water. Not good for ingestion!
Penners
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Next?jocelyn plummer said:
You sweet old-fashioned thing, Joss!
DJH
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Congratulations Moo, you could be a great granny, nanny, grandma or whatever soon, Mrs DJH is... 
Penners... 'As regards'??? Surely 'Regarding'???
Doug 8)
Penners said:
Penners... 'As regards'??? Surely 'Regarding'???
Doug 8)
jocelyn plummer
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Funny that Penners, some do do things wrong way round I suppose & I don't care about my gramma anymore, it comes as it is wrote!
Good advice about the water softener-- does it improve the taste of Gin though :?:
Good advice about the water softener-- does it improve the taste of Gin though :?:
Penners
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I find your participial phrase clumsy, Doug. "As regards..." is a more elegant construction. Either is correct.DJH said:Congratulations Moo, you could be a great granny, nanny, grandma or whatever soon, Mrs DJH is...
Penners said:
Penners... 'As regards'??? Surely 'Regarding'???
Nah, pooh, nyer!
I excel at the elegant use of language.
Please accept my apologies for dragging the conversation down from its lofty heights, but I'd be very grateful for the odd crumb of water-softener-related information. Something along the lines of "Make XXX is excellent" or "don't touch Make YYY with a barge pole".
I need to know because Which? doesnt seem to test them, and John Lewis no longer sells them, so PPUK is my only hope.
I need to know because Which? doesnt seem to test them, and John Lewis no longer sells them, so PPUK is my only hope.
Nigel Watts
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Congratulations!
DJH
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Sorry about the diversion Moo.
Water softeners... Well first off you really need to have a sample taken,(tap water that is :roll to see what's in and then and you can go from there. There are water testing companies on line who will send you a bottle which you fill and return to them for testing and a report is sent you by e-mail. Usually the sample is taken from your cold water tap at the sink after water has been drawn through it first. It's advisable to first wipe the spout with a disinfectant type wipe or blast it with flame both methods will get rid of bacteria which is in the scale on the spout.
There are generally two tests of the water the cheaper option being a check for chloroforms and other nasties while the full test ( which costs more of course) will check for metals such as iron, manganese, nitrates, solids, alkalinity, odour, taste, sediment, colour, conductivity,hardness and turbitity. It will also tell you the acidity or ph which for a softener to work properly should ideally be around 7.
All these things can be treated quite easily by filtering through different mediums depending how the water needs to be treated. For example water high in metals can be passed through sand charged with potassium permanganate or salt if the lime is to high. Bacteria can be treated by passing through a tube with a uv light in it and ph by passing it through a neutralising medium.
You don't actually say whether your water is from the mains or a private supply but, if it is from the mains, perhaps your water company might test it for you for free?
Hope that helps.
Doug
Water softeners... Well first off you really need to have a sample taken,(tap water that is :roll
to see what's in and then and you can go from there. There are water testing companies on line who will send you a bottle which you fill and return to them for testing and a report is sent you by e-mail. Usually the sample is taken from your cold water tap at the sink after water has been drawn through it first. It's advisable to first wipe the spout with a disinfectant type wipe or blast it with flame both methods will get rid of bacteria which is in the scale on the spout.There are generally two tests of the water the cheaper option being a check for chloroforms and other nasties while the full test ( which costs more of course) will check for metals such as iron, manganese, nitrates, solids, alkalinity, odour, taste, sediment, colour, conductivity,hardness and turbitity. It will also tell you the acidity or ph which for a softener to work properly should ideally be around 7.
All these things can be treated quite easily by filtering through different mediums depending how the water needs to be treated. For example water high in metals can be passed through sand charged with potassium permanganate or salt if the lime is to high. Bacteria can be treated by passing through a tube with a uv light in it and ph by passing it through a neutralising medium.
You don't actually say whether your water is from the mains or a private supply but, if it is from the mains, perhaps your water company might test it for you for free?
Hope that helps.
Doug
Penners
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What the urologists call "mid flow"!DJH said:
DJH
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Now you're taking the .... :lol:
LadyArowana
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The one I bought was made by these people http://www.culligan.com/en-us/d/homes/water-softener/ but the website is a US one and the UK part seems to be just commercial. Mine was sourced by the plumber, so they must be available in UK.
Penners
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Sorry, Miss, but he started it...Moo said:
DJH
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Oh yea, never your fault is it? It couldn't have been me miss. Nobody saw me do its so it couldn't have been me... 8) nah nah na nah nah....
Softened water is fine but it doesn't, as far as I know, do anything but remove lime from the water. Softened water shouldn't be used as a drinking water supply as it isn't good for us.
Doug
Softened water is fine but it doesn't, as far as I know, do anything but remove lime from the water. Softened water shouldn't be used as a drinking water supply as it isn't good for us.
Doug
timinder
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I've had our softener for a few years now and wouldn't be without it.
It's a twin cylinder thing and it fits happily under the sink in the kitchen where it treats the whole house supply. I got it second-hand so not sure if it's available any more, but it has a meter which measures the amount of water used before it "regenerates" one of the cylinders (while switching over to the other so you don't get any interruption in softened water supply. I think this kind is better then the sort which run a regeneration cycle every night, no matter how much water is used.
Softened water is fine to drink, according to the research I did before getting mine. It has a little more sodium in it than un-softened water, but apparently less per pint than in a slice of bread.
On the insistence of my wife, I bought a special kitchen tap which as well as the usual hot and cold handles, has a third one which is connected to the supply before the softener and supplies unsoftened water that is passed through a filter. I find this is an ideal solution as it avoids having one of those odd-looking filtered water spouts sticking out near the tap.
Last week, I let the salt run out in the softener and within a day the stainless steel sink looked awful, covered in lime marks and really hard to get off.
I also noticed that I had to use a lot more detergent to get the same cleaning effect - it's really amazing just how little you need to use with soft water!
It's a twin cylinder thing and it fits happily under the sink in the kitchen where it treats the whole house supply. I got it second-hand so not sure if it's available any more, but it has a meter which measures the amount of water used before it "regenerates" one of the cylinders (while switching over to the other so you don't get any interruption in softened water supply. I think this kind is better then the sort which run a regeneration cycle every night, no matter how much water is used.
Softened water is fine to drink, according to the research I did before getting mine. It has a little more sodium in it than un-softened water, but apparently less per pint than in a slice of bread.
On the insistence of my wife, I bought a special kitchen tap which as well as the usual hot and cold handles, has a third one which is connected to the supply before the softener and supplies unsoftened water that is passed through a filter. I find this is an ideal solution as it avoids having one of those odd-looking filtered water spouts sticking out near the tap.
Last week, I let the salt run out in the softener and within a day the stainless steel sink looked awful, covered in lime marks and really hard to get off.
I also noticed that I had to use a lot more detergent to get the same cleaning effect - it's really amazing just how little you need to use with soft water!
Penners
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Could.DJH said:
