Water Softeners

[SteffiS]

Today, at great expense , we have had a water softener installed. The previous owners of the house said it was impossible to have one and consequently everything is affected by lime scale, also, after 20 years of Scottish water, my tea here was disgusting .
It wasn’t impossible but it did involve much jiggery pokery of the existing plumbing (hence the expense) and a complicated system of pipes under my sink.

I have kept a separate supply of hard water for drinking and my question is, should the boys only be drinking from the hard water supply? Although they are used to soft water I can’t imagine artificially softened water is the same

 

[Ashley]

Yes, the water is softened using salt so you should only give them hard water to drink. You should only drink the hard water too! We have a totally separate tap at the sink for hard water to drink and use for cooking. Edit to say, not entirely sure if UK is different to what we use here - homes here with softeners always have a separate tap and never drink soft water.

 

[SteffiS]

Thank you @Ashley , that’s what I thought about the boys. Although I’m quite happy to drink the hard water I am definitely not making my tea with it! For the last 4 weeks I’ve had to endure horrible scummy tea, I’d sooner move back to Scotland than drink any more of that .
Ours is a 3 way tap with softened hot and cold, and a separate bit for the hard water. Another part of the expense I guess.