h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

new water softner was fitted yesterday. all went smoothly. well, it was tricky for him at first... the pluming is 'wired' oddly in this house, as its not a house, or not a flat, or... its just a weird shaped building so it took a while to find the stop-cock.... then took trips into two different loft spaces, and virtually every cupboard in the house, to figure out which odd route the water was taking in, and outflow taking out... to figure out what pipe was what pipe...
But then he fitted the softner no prob. until....
no hot water... no heating... the boiler, illogically just seems to not want to work... - its got water going through it, its got electric going to it (the display is looking fine), the pressure is a bit low, but well within limits of operating... but... there just isn't any hot water... - the engineer never touched anything to do with gas, so its a mystory... - he tried everything he could/could risk trying and was on the phone to his boss etc... but eventually had to give up trying to get the boiler working...
So now we're waiting for a gas engineer. apparently 24 hour emergency call-out (and call-out charges), means they take at least* 24 hours to bother coming out - we'll bill the water softner engineer/firm for the gas boiler repair, natch but... in the meantime... its cold - I'm gona go lift more weights in the front room, as that seems the only way I can try stay warm well, that and drinking tea... - I've no feeling left in my hands/fingers, thanks to the neuropathy they're also incredibably painful, as are my feet and toes - I've taken evasive pain measures, by attaching nipple clamps which works rather well to stop me feeling the pain in my fingers/feet no... seriously it does damn typing is getting tricky whink I'll go lift weights again after yet* another cup of to warm my fingers

The engineer turned up. and... pressed the button on the boiler.... to turn on the heating/hot water... - well, the button is misnamed, so its not obvious and we didn't touch that button, so it was the water softner fitters mistake - which the water softner fitter's company will now pay in excess of £100 to pay the gas repair engineer for 'repairing' I celibrated by turning on the heating, and then bathing tonight, in lots and lots of bubbles... and also, this afternoon, I de limb-scaled the tiles in the bathroom, and the bathroom window... - there is now a lot more light in the bathroom, as its able to travel into the room through the glass again

To quote Flanders and Swann: "The gas man cometh"

We had to have a water softening system fitted when we installed solar panels on the roof for hot water. Because the water is passing through inaccessible pipes on the roof, it has to be free of limescale so that the pipes don't clog up. I haven't noticed much difference in the taste of tea or the amount of soap needed for washing, but you have more sensitive taste buds, so you may well do so.

When I was at school we learnt that in East Anglia we were living on a chalk plateau and that's why the water in our area (Newmarket) was so hard. I didn't like the taste of the tea at my aunt's in Cornwall where they had soft water, but her pastry was to die for.

If you have a dishwasher, don't forget to check and adjust the setting for water hardness, or you will be using unnecessary amounts of product. Also, start hunting around for suppliers for the salt tablets that you have to feed into the water softening system. They need topping up about every 6 months or so.

I have heard that in the UK you can have an extra tap in the kitchen for untreated mains water if you prefer the taste.

- the idea of trying to get an extra tap fitted in the kitchen!!!! - wow, the pipes come into the house, somewhere, at street level; in the back of a cupboard that houses the electric metres.... then it goes up, to the middle landing on our first set of stairs, from where it goes sideways, into a sub-loft space, then up, into the first floor loft space in the eeves.... from there it does a weird route across the loft space floor, then walls, before at some point, going up, turning 90 degrees, to come through the wall into the utility room... so, then it goes to the boiler as the first division off... then the washing machine as the second division off... then up at a 90 degree angle, and upstairs to the bathroom... meanwhile, still in the utility room, the pipe continues, into the kitchen! - the water softner is installed, underneath where the boiler is on the wall; as that is where the pipe first enters the actual 'house' proper (I.E., coming out of the loft space) - this building is a weird shape - the hardness of the water here, is even more than it is back at my Dad's, in Lowestoft, we're 348 PPM (or is it PPB?) in Cambridge, my Dad's which has problems of its own with limbscale, is mid 200's (about 238 PPM from memory) - being a I used to be able to do the hardness tests myself, when a kid... mainly thanks to my Father stealing the necessary agents for the test, from where he worked; as he had to test the water hardness in the processing factory where he worked, as of course, in that setting the water hardness really can cause a lot of problems with machines etc


I can* notice the difference in taste... which will take a while to get used too; I can also notice already my skin is a lot softer (having bathed last night), and especially on my hands and fingertips, thanks to regular handwashing in it, over the last two days...

But, the big difference so far; my hair! - its so shiney! - I washed and conditioned it last night, using the same UGX shampoo and conditioner I always use, so it must be the water difference - if anything I threw less bonkers expensive bath rubbish into the bath last night; the almond oil/bubble bath bubbled up a lot more, for the small amount I used and the Lush bath bomb, albeit a slightly old one, seemed to put more 'gunk' into the water - though, oddly; there is little if any residue left around the bath after I bathed, despite all the bubbles.... - I had given the bath, tiling next to it and the window above, a big clean yesterday, with limbscale removing stuff, plus regular bathroom cleaner, so cleared a lot of everything that was there out already; a very noticible residue of 'dust' was left after that clean; which needed cleaning form the bath, itself, before I bathed last night... but, now, after my bath, and William showering, the bath doesn't look dirty at all (OK so its probably covered in my hair, but.... that's not unusual by any means ) guess I oughta give it a quick clean later, just to remove the hair etc


talking o hair; my hair, since stopping levothyroxine, has, since Christmas, grown more than the previous year. its now, finally, just about reached pre-chemotherapy length, having done little growing in length, for ever....

The watner softer, and especially the replacement blocks of salt, end up costing a fortune... but given how much the new bathroom will end up costing, plus then the kitchen, its worth it I think, just to save it all being wrecked immediately - not to mention being able to clean bathroom/kitchen tiles, taps, etc, properly, for once... - if I touch the bathroom taps, large lumps of limbscale fall off... and the showerhead well, good job that's being replaced soon, as its too much deposit to remove, without taking all the chrome/metal with it - gona try de-limbscale the kettle later; its fairly new, so worth trying to renew; I'm going to try the using the lemon juice method (not least as we've some sorry looking lemons that I can use)

Good luck with the kettle descaling. I tried doing it with vinegar when I was last at my Mum's, but it didn't help much. I have to use a proprietary descaler. Citric acid (in powder/granule form) might do the job, but just lemons?? Hmmmm.

Your plumbing sounds very Heath Robinson.

Lime scale story, the old stainless steel teapot after 30 years making tea with simultaneously temporarily (calcium sulphates) and permanently (calcium carbonates) hard water was layered on the interior with replacement nacre, forming the main substance of the teapot, so much of the metal leached away one could see light shining through it.

I've already done a 'hard descale' on the kettle... - this is a manual descale, involving my removing it with fingers... which always works well as I can hear the pitch of the kettle change post-removal of the limbscale, by this method... however, given we've now got the soft water, I also want to remove the more inbuilt stuff, using a lemon or two luckily its not that old a kettle (the last one died from limbscale), so it oughta do some good already things like coffee, tea cups, etc, are getting less dirty; less scale left in them after cleaning etc so hopes remain high and my hands and hair remain softer with les s 'product' than useual used in two days on them than useual - I may save a lot on bodyshop and Lush orders - having said which, in two days, the blocks of salt in the 'device' have already shrunk a lot... so we may end up using a lot of salt blocks in the new machine we've got a pile in 'salt' xcuse the pun, but we'll have a look round for the cheapest supplier of them, soon I guess

Last time i descaled Marvin he died on me

Marvin was my maker. I named him Marvin because he sounded like a Marvin.

I now suspect him of tricking me into aiding his suicide with all his sighing and puffing.

Not that I don't understand him. He was very old. I inherited him decades ago from a distant relative whom he had already served years. And lately he had a lot of pain in the diodes down his left side.

Good work, 2legs - glad the plumbing is somewhat improved, and that is funny but not funny about the button! I have lived in a softwater area, and an area with not very hard water, so I didn't appreciate quite what an effect that much limescale can have

"I have heard that in the UK you can have an extra tap in the kitchen for untreated mains water if you prefer the taste."

Is it the other way round - you can have an extra tap that dispenses *filtered* mains water if you prefer the taste? Taps these days can be quite exotic, dispensing 'boiling' water, too, but I prefer a kettle because it is easier to control and guaranteed to be 100 degrees (at work I have to use a 'boiling' water tap, but the tea is never quite as good as when I make at home).

Hard water is said to be good for you in the sense that it gives you calcium - I wonder about drinking softened water (rather than softwater), but presumably the salts are other minerals that are OK to ingest and which don't interfere with soap etc.

I'm not sure the salts you add to the softner, actually then go into the water; as I vaguely understand it, the softner is an ionic exchange; beads inside exchange irons with the water, and 'soak up', the calcium carbonate from the water coming into the house; the salt is then used, to 'refresh'; these plastic beads, by ion exchange again, 'knocking off' the sodium carbonate from the plastic beads, and then flushing that away.... *I think* - actually must try read more about it we may chose to also have the filter fitted to the tap in the kitchen, at the point we have a new kitchen put in - will be odd to have cupboard fronts on kitchen cupboards again (yes the kitchen is so old the old cupboard fronts have virtually all fallen off ) I've a feeling the current kitachen is the only kitchen the house has ever had, dating from early 70s, or late 60's though I guess its possible it may be from the 1980's as that was about the time the previous owner bought it off of the council
can't see the point in things like the boiling water tap; if that tap fails; then the whole sink unit, is, I guess for scrapping, = a kettle is a lot cheaper too to replace whenever one wants too - I may even have a dishwasher in the new kitchen, but I'm still not convinced I need one, or would bother using it much

I hear some water softener use sand. The calcium binds itself to the grains which are then filtered out. Sounds healthier to me. But like so often before I haven't got even the foggiest of ideas about what I am talking about

shhh! not having a clue about what your talking, is never* never* a reason to talk about it... - just look at the UK Prime Minister if ever a case were more deserving of someone not having a clue what they're doing, but somehow managing to do it.... or not do it... for two and a half years and still remain convinced they've got a clue what they're saying - gives hope to us all water softners to brexit... that's a neater U-turn than any government could manage surely a sign

OK, here comes the science bit...

*puts on glasses to make herself look more geeky/sciency, and then sweeps her hair back to add an air of sexiness to help ease the science overload...

The beads in the unit, carry a negative charge; the calcium and magnesium in the mains water, carry a positive charge; as the water passes through the positively charged MG and calcium ions, bind to the beads, so the water that passes through is free of the calcium carbonate and magnesium...

Periodically, after a volume of water has passed through (on mechanical, non electrical units) a small backflow of water, passes over the salt blocks; creating a saline solution, that is then washed over the saturated beads; the negative charge in the saline, is then able to 'knock off' the bound positive irons, that are flushed into the drains; leaving the negatively charged beads inside the unit able to bind to more calcium and magnesium...

as a double unit, with two 'barrels' of the beads, its capable of washing out one chamber, whilst the other remains working, to ensure always soft water is passing through...

- though by the look of it, it can't guarantee entirely soft water, if the hardness in the mains is over 100 PPM (parts per million), - as we're over 300 PPM here, I'll be interested at some point, to re-test the water that's reaching the taps...

The water in my area is quite hard and hot drinks taste foul if I fill the kettle directly from the cold tap*. So I have a Brita filter which I use for all heated water, but I can't drink that water as it tastes somehow...flat, lifeless. So I get my drinking water straight out of the tap and it's lovely.

* Bizarrely, if I fill the kettle from the hot tap, the resulting hot drink tastes fine - as long as the water was still running cold. Once it starts running hot, it results in foul tasting drinks again.

Deb

Thanks for the science - very reassuring

I agree, deb - filtered water tastes flat to me, as well. Fascinating about the hot water and the hot tap, especially given that cold water from your cold tap tastes fine!

I love the taste of my ice water from my Britta tap and pitcher filters; better than my previous PUR filter.


But maybe it's because their are likely still some minerals in the glass from the unfiltered ice cubes. I'm likely way overdue to replace my inline filter from the mains.

I just (10 minutes ago) replaced the old thermostatically controlled taps in my shower cabinet. They were old and I had the feeling that the water pressure had become low because of calcification. Sure enough: The hot water pipe was almost completely blocked by calcium!

I now have a full functioning tropical waterfall in my shower cabinet again!

Will test it now because I also had a haircut which has left all of my upper body itching