Is your water softener operating as it should?

If you have had your water softener for more than about 10 years then it will be starting to lose its efficiency. Basically the resin, which is the stuff that your water passes through and that absorbs the hardness minerals, has a life of around 15 years after which time it starts to lose its ability to operate at full capacity. Often customers with older Softeners will first notice a problem when they say that the water is not as soft as it once was but the unit is still using salt at the same rate as before.

The other benefit is that modern Softeners are more efficient on salt and water than older units, usually offering around a 30% saving.

If you are not sure how well your unit is working then request one of our free water test kits to find out for sure and then call us and we can advise how best to proceed once you know for sure.

See our ecommerce web site www.fountainsofteners.co.uk selling to customers all over the UK and Europe. Or call us for a chat on 0845 10 80 685 (local call rate) or 01306 889090 and one of our friendly staff will gladly talk you through your water softener options.

Programming a Coral 15 litre Water Softener

10 Benefits of Softened Water

The hard water that comes into your house via the mains contains dissolved lime, chalk and other minerals which causes scale to form on all surfaces which come into contact with it - water softening is the removal of these minerals from the water.

To save you trawling the net we have compiled our top 10 reasons for installing a water softener in your home.

1. Heating System
By removing the existing scale within your heating system and preventing it re-occurring, water softeners reduce the amount of fuel used to heat the hot water. Tests carried out at a Government recognised laboratory confirmed that the steady state improvement was 5.6%.

2. Household Appliances
Softeners will, over time, remove all existing scale from within the household appliances, pipe work and on surfaces such as showers and baths. You won’t need to replace them as soon as you would if you had hard water. It will also prevent the scale from re-occurring.
 
3. Skin Conditions
Customers have reported that their horrible dry scalp has disappeared completely since the installation. Research shows Eczema and other skin conditions caused by the drying of skin by hard water may be alleviated, the suggestion is that soft water is better to wash with, and therefore needs less soap or detergent, clear irritants for people with eczema. Works for us.

4. Haircare
Your shampoo will lather up easily when washing your hair and will leave your soft, shiny and manageable. No more flaky scalp!

5. Shower Head and Screen
You can banish clogged up shower heads, no more sticking tooth picks in the holes every month (or is that just us?).
When tested hard water on showerheads scaled up and lost 75 percent of their flow rate in less than 18 months, the holes were beginning to get plugged after only 19 days of testing.

Your shower screen wont need strong harmful chemicals to get it only half clean, You could lose more skin from your hands from these cleaners than scale on the screens! Now they stay sparkling as the day it was installed with only a wipe over.

5. Laundry
Your washing will feel softer, cleaner, whites stay whiter, you will extend the life of fabric by up to 20% and you will use less detergent - fact.

6. Cleaning Products
No more cleaning limescale with a lemon, you wont have soap scum marks in sinks or spot marks on your taps, and you can use a lot less cleaning products. This saves you time money and effort, plus it also helps to make your home more friendly to the environment.

7. Shaving
For a better shave try softened water, Razor blades last longer, and the quality of the shave is second to none.

8. Money
Studies by the British Water Quality Group show that water softening can save a 4-person household an average of £200 per year.
As well a saving on washing powder or detergent you also save considerable amounts of money on all the other cleaning products used such as kitchen and bathroom cleaners, shower cleaners, scale removers, floor cleaners, whilst looking after our environment. Your boiler and heating system, plumbing, hot water cylinder, washing machine, dish washer, will all run more efficiently and their life expectancy will be extended by 10%, it all adds up!

9. Car washing
An outside tap on softened water for washing the car makes it a quick, easy as you don’t have to leather it off afterwards – soft water is used by most valet companies.

10. Environment
Installing a water softener will also help save the environment. The excessive amounts of chemicals used in our cleaning products mostly goes down the drain. By reducing this substantially you will help save our streams and rivers from the ravages of chemical degradation.

A quick way to tell if you have hard water in your home is take a look in your kettle, if there's white flakes and bits on the element you have hard water, this map shows the hard water areas in England and Wales.

See our ecommerce web site www.fountainsofteners.co.uk selling to customers all over the UK and Europe. Or call us for a chat on 0845 10 80 685 (local call rate) or 01403 700794 and one of our friendly staff will gladly talk you through your water softener options. 
 
 

Dedication.....that's what you need!!

Having spent a good portion of today in the company of a guy who is absolutely committed to giving 100 % to his specialism, it got me thinking about our own industry and how we can improve and change the way we do things.

 

We are all about ensuring every customer who calls or emails for advice is offered all the options and is guided to the correct system to suit their requirements and that often means them purchasing a cheaper unit than they initially enquired about. It is something that we are passionate about and will never change. This combined with our industry leading warranties and extras such as our free water test kit's ensure that we aim to offer a value for money, unbiased, service.

 

Having looked at this years sales figures then we are certainly doing something right and we are now looking at our supply chain to see how we can get our customers orders to them even quicker...watch this space.

Softened water and drinking water - what is the difference?

Here at Fountain Softeners, almost on a daily basis we are asked whether water from a water softener systems and water from a filtered drinking water system are the same thing – and the answer is no, they are not.

Water Softener systems operate by removing the elements that cause limescale, predominantly calcium and magnesium and do this very effectively. These are installed somewhere near where the water comes into the property in order to ensure that the maximum benefit is gained from the softener throughout the property - but are only designed to soften the water, not filter it. Once you remove the calcium and magnesium from your water, your soft water will protect your appliances from scale, you will use less detergent and your shower door and kitchen / bathroom taps will be gleaming!

Drinking water filters on the other hand tend to be installed near the point of use, i.e. to feed a single tap, and generally are designed to make your drinking water taste better by removing elements, mainly chlorine, which can give mains water a lot of its nasty taste. All drinking water through your mains supply will have chlorine present to prevent the colonisation of bacteria within the water pipes.

There are various filters available with varying degrees of filtration, from the single taste and odour filter to the 5-stage Reverse Osmosis drinking water system.  This is one our most popular systems if you want 99% pure water. As the name implies, it has 5-stages of filtration and as with all filters, allows you to have control over the quality of your drinking water.
Whatever your size requirements and budget, there is a filter to suit you. There are also filters to remove particular things that may be of concern - hardness, nitrates, hormones, heavy metals - the list is endless!

The boom of bottled water also triggered a huge influx of plastic bottles being dumped into our environment, which allows chemicals to leech into the ground and water supplies. So don’t buy expensive bottled water – filter you own!

At Fountain we stock a wide range of water softener systems, water softener salt, drinking water systems, water filters and domestic UV equipment.

See our ecommerce web site selling to customers all over the UK and Europe. Or call us for a chat on on 0845 10 80 685 (local call rate) or 01306 889090 and one of our friendly staff will gladly talk you through your options.

‘Once you have had a water softener, you will never be without one’. That was a quote from a customer some years ago and one we constantly use here at Fountain Softeners.  

We stock a wide range of Water Softener systems to suit all situations. From a small 2 bed house to a large 7/8 bedroom house with multiple bathrooms.  The size of softener you need is actually based on the number of people in your household, because that estimates the amount of water used. It also depends on the amount of space you have, but most softeners can fit in a kitchen cupboard or under a worktop.

Situated as close to the incoming water main as possible, softened water will save you time and money.

Now, the science bit - hard water contains dissolved lime, chalk and other minerals and quickly causes scale to form on all surfaces which come into contact with it, from sinks and taps to granite worktops and shower doors. The unseen and potentially more costly examples of hard water are clogged pipes and failure of central heating elements/pumps. British Water's Quality Group estimate that just 1.5mm of scale reduces the efficiency of your boiler by almost 10%.

 

You will also use less detergents, soaps, and other cleaning products as the water will lather using smaller quantities. Softened water will eliminate the build-up of limescale in your pipes and on heating elements found in dishwashers and washing machines, leading to fewer expensive engineer call-outs and spare parts.

 

Once installed the benefits of your water softener systems will be immediate.

• Your shampoo will lather up really easily when washing your hair and will leave your hair feeling and looking fabulous.
• Softened water can leave your skin feeling, smooth glowing and health.
• Softened water can clear up minor skin problems such as irritation and dryness, and itchy skin associated with Eczema symptoms.
• Your washing will feel softer, cleaner and you will use less detergent.
• Cut down your cleaning time with no more stubborn limescale hard water marks.
• Your sinks, taps and shower doors will have their sparkle back!  

We stock the most technologically advanced softeners including Harveys non-electric brands, along with the Coral electric softeners, both timed and metered models.  For people on water meters, the new Coral Water Save model would be ideal as it uses 40% less water than standard metered water softener systems!

At Fountain we also stock water softener salt, drinking water systems, water filters and domestic UV equipment.

Call us for a chat on 0845 10 80 685 (local call rate) or 01306 889090 and one of our friendly staff will gladly talk you through your water softener options.

Which Water Softener do i need?

We have added a helpful new tool to our menu - Which Softener do i need? - now selecting the right water softener for your home is far simpler!

Of course our sales team are still on the end of the phone if this doesn't answer your questions or you need any further assistance.