Hard water tap

[MCC]

I'm having a water softener installed becasue I live in a 'hard water' area - East Anglia. I've been told that I should have a separate tap installed, bypassing the softener, to get my drinking water from so that it is 'untainted' by the salt in the softener.
Failure to do this, I've been told, results in health risks, but what these risks are, and how serious they might be, has never been explained to me. Can anyone help, please?

[scotman]

If you are using the type that you feed with salt then the treated water will have more Sodium ions in it than 'normal' water. Some people/organisations think that this is not a good thing although others think the increased level is not sufficient to cause concern.

[NazNomad]

http://www.kindwater....stions.htm#Is_it_safe

[scotman]

If you search for 'water softener' on this site you will find the previous discussions here about this.

[NazNomad]

... and if you're currently using a single tap and don't really want an extra one, use a tri-flow tap.

[woofgang]

our system is set up so that the kitchen tap and downstairs loo are first off the system then the water softener then the main goes upstairs to the attic tank. The softener is installed so that its in the line after the kitchen water so only softens the upstairs cold and all the hot. That's how a softener "should" be installed. When the installer came. he checked our system and found that our house was set up backwards, ie the mains water went upstairs first then to the kitchen. The plumber lifted a floorboard upstairs and installed a crossover pipe which reversed the order of where the water went...simples.

[scotman]

Woofgang has a good point. You should only soften water that you need to be soft. This is usually anything involved in washing. Drinking water, toilet flush water etc do not need this. Obviously doing this completely may require plumbing alterations. It is up to you to decide if the cost and disruption are worth it.