And just as importantly, you shouldn’t put softened water on your plants.
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Again, this advice was not mentioned by my installer nor is it explicit on say the Harvey website. You may say why would they tell you/let the buyer beware but….anyway, would explain why Mrs TGRs indoor plants don’t do so well.
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It was our plumber who was very clear that the kitchen tap and outdoor tap ideal should be unsoftened, and he ran an extra pipe to achieve it. The answer for you is to use rainwater from the water butt for the indoor plants.
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The issue cant be “softened” water, as rainwater is naturally softened. It must be the increased levels of sodium.
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Rainwater is distilled, not softened: it is soft, but not added sodium simply no calcium or magnesium!
I assume from HH’s post that sodium may be an issue - which seems quite possible at least for some plants (not an issue perhaps if you live by the sea where rainwater will be salty - but different plants grow!)
Also if you use a hose on the garden (or washing car if you’re one of those Sunday morning car washers, you’d exhaust your resin in no time!
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I have had a Monarch (Midi HE) for the last 5 years and it works well, uses salt tablets which are only £10/25Kg.
The Monarch was about half the cost of an Harvey and tablet salt is much cheaper than their block salt.
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The cost of the blocks does vary. I get my 2x4kg packs delivered in 12s for about £65. But I think that is cheap.
Ive had a good look at the Harvey website and it’s all good news on there regarding the benefits etc of water softeners. Im a little surprised there is a bit more balance given the increased levels of sodium that these devices deliver.
One big advantage of Harvey, and maybe others is there is no need for a power supply. Effectively the thing is clockwork and is cycled via the flow of the water. However, this, combined with the pressure drop across the resin bed does reduce your water pressure.
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Interesting, but raw tap water is better for very young children, especially when making formula milk, due to electrolyte content. Here in Germany fluoride is not allowed in tap water supplies also.
Martin
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That is a good price.
That’s the advice yes; use the bypass for babies. I personally find the taste of softened good, that’s all I meant. Mrs G also appreciates the clean kettle and no endless descaling. I think if I was concerned about the sodium (maybe I should be, maybe not, it’s relatively marginal as compared to food) I’d have the main kitchen tap on bypass (we didn’t want one of the little bypass taps). It’s bathrooms where the big benefits are.
Interesting thread.
I’m wondering if anyone’s tried any upgrades 
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Many years ago we lived in a village that had EXTREMELY hard water from a local spring. Taps and showerheads clogged up very frequently and kettles did not last long.
A the time I worked for a very large chemical company who had problems with scale formation in their equipment.
Their solution was electronic water softeners which use no chemicals and work on some magical eddy current / magnetic effect.
I was very sceptical at the time, but bought a domestic version to try at home.
Did it work ?
100% yes
Dramatic reduction in scale formation and after a few years we still had almost no scale formation on taps, showers kettles etc.
I cannot remember the make or price but it was one that you placed near the incoming water pipe and wrapped wires round the outside of the pipe. Very easy to install and cost almost nothing to run.
Google them
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I’ve just had a look at their website and they found the text brlow. For reference, in UK only WRAS approved softeners are permitted to be connected to mains water supplies, and all will include any requirements or guidance issued for water softeners by that body. the remainder of this post is text lifted from the Harvey website:
A water softener installation is usually accompanied by a drinking water filter tap. This tap bypasses the water softener, meaning you are able to choose to drink non-softened water from that tap if you prefer.
The bypass tap is installed at your kitchen sink. You can choose from a range of styles to suit your kitchen, and the bypass tap can also include a water filter to filter your water at the source.
WRAS Water Softener Installation Guidelines
For many years there was considerable confusion with the interpretation of the regulations around water softener installation, in particular, drinking softened water and the provision of separate drinking water taps.
To clarify the situation, Harvey Water Softeners was instrumental in working with the Water Regulations Advisory Scheme (WRAS) to provide a document that could be understood by an installer.
A copy of this document can be obtained from our office by calling xxxxx xxxxxx. Our qualified plumbers offer a complete installation service of our water softeners according to these guidelines.
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Hello @james_n re water softener
As you will recall, a couple of years ago I shared the same water supply as that you currently ‘enjoy’ and we had the same problems. We installed a Harvey water softener in approximately 2005 and it was absolutely brilliant. Over time we had a number of parts replaced but all at a reasonable cost and eventually I think it was virtually rebuilt. Still going strong when we moved in 2024.
One point to watch: we had a combi boiler in the loft of our chalet bungalow and when occasionally topping it up, had to remember to put the softener into by-pass mode to prevent the treated water going near the boiler plate - not good for it! On one occasion a (British Gas) engineer told me he couldn’t work on the boiler as the softener had ‘destroyed it’. Clearly it hadn’t and the fault was elsewhere in the boiler. Cue new company for boiler servicing.
Also worth making sure any external taps are before the softener. Many plants don’t like the softened water.
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I assume you mean deliberately added. In the EU, so I assume also Germany, the maximum limit for fluoride is same as UK’s, 1.5mg/L. That allows for normal naturally occurring traces. I understand 0.7mg/L is considered the minimum to reduce dental caries, and proposals for fluoridation have generally been to dose sufficiently to 1.0 including any naturally occurring. Amusingly Back in the late 1970s or early 80s when UK was considering dosing drinking water with fluoride, I remember an amusing instance when one particular area was very vocal against fluoridation …not knowing that they already had something like 1.2mg/L naturally occurring in their water!
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a great choice, install a water softener if you live in a hard water area.We have one which was installed at the time we bought our house, we didn’t spec it but the builder installed it. it’s great. i fill it up every six months or so with tablet salt and it just does its job.
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We have a Monarch.
Ours is a twin tank model and requires no power, it just relies on water pressure to ‘power’ the regeneration process.
It regenerates when a consumption threshold is reached which can be any time of the day. It switches to the other tank during regeneration and when that tank needs to be regenerated it switches back and so on. This means that we always have soft water even during the regeneration process which is clever.
Ours can take all types of salt but we prefer to use the blocks which are a bit more expensive but so much easier to load as ours is in a cupboard.
No Wi-Fi but I just check every 6 weeks to refill.
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Folks - Apologies for the Tardiness in my response. Very busy at work at the moment so I’ve not been on the forum for a couple of days. Thanks again for your inputs and advice, I’m going to measure up the cupboard space tomorrow to seen what could fit. Our main supply comes in to the kitchen cupboard under the sink, so it would need to go there or at least in the near vicinity. The Harvey units look really good, especially as they don’t need a power supply and seem to be very well regarded from the responses above.
Your inputs have all been really useful and I’m rather more informed than when I first started looking at this, so thanks for taking the time to contribute to this thread.
James
We’ve gone for the Harvey ARC. Its relatively compact dimensions (it will be going under the kitchen sink), no electrical power requirement, good reviews and of course the iLid, sold it for us.
Installation in two weeks’ time, so that’s Mrs_n’s Christmas present sorted out too !
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Good choice, that’s what we’ve got. I hope you got them to throw in a couple of boxes of salt with the order.
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We certainly did, and thanks for the recommendation.
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