Water Softeners

[ponkle]

what is the average price for 2/4 people free standing salt based water softener

[woofgang]

including fitting? single chamber or dual chamber?

[ponkle]

Seems dual tanks are better do you agree woofgang.maximiser claims their systems don,t need lt. I would do my own instal depending on the professional cost, thanks

[bhg481]

I have had both single and dual chamber softeners and would only ever buy double-chamber, even though they cost more.
As you know, softeners need to regenerate every so often. Double-chamber ones use alternate chambers and regenerate one whilst the other is in use. The water NEVER goes hard because the regeneration takes less time than running a cylinder to needing regeneration. Single chamber models use various tricks to decide when a regeneration is needed, from simple time dependent to a clever computer program which monitors your usage to predict when the regeneration will be necessary. Whilst the regeneration is taking place any water used will be hard, so the regenerations are usually timed to take place in the night when there is probably) no water being used. Unfortunately prediction is not fool-proof (come back from holiday, wash car, wash clothes etc after not using any water for weeks). If the water runs hard it gets into your header tank and can take days to clear, so hard water showers until then.
Installation of either type is simple, easily within the abilities of a DIYer.

[woofgang]

Mine is a single tank and is fine, I would replace with another single tank but that is partly because the space and shape of space that I have is quite limited. We would have DIY fitted except when it came to it, we had a strange pipe configuration where the kitchen sink water came off the house piping last instead of first. This meant that a crossover need to be put into the system to make the kitchen sink served first off the system.

Looking around, 400 quid from Wickes, 399/549 from B and Q, cheaper on amazon but i don't know the brand.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/WATER2BUY-SOFTENERS-HOUSEHOLDS-GUARANTEED-LIMESCALE/dp/B009SOYMTE

[woofgang]

I have got a single chamber model and have never known the water to go hard over 20+ years of use.

[ponkle]

Thanks to everbody who replied. Have looked at water2buy it has an 8ltr resin tank and a flow rate of 118lpm. I also looked at BQ psm65v4 it has 10ltr resin tank and a 50lpm flow rate.there is a huge difference between 118 and 50 what is the average reqd flow rate for 1/4 people with a combi boiler.?
TIA