So wife wants one for the new kitchen. I’d like one too. What is the collectives view on what to get. It shall serve one kitchen and one bathroom. It needs to fit under the sink and be easy to fill with salt.

I have got a kinetico 2020c brilliant bit of kit

That looks perfect. How much did it cost please?

Mandog – get yourself over to Harvey softeners who are based in Surrey.

Hi Mandog. I got a kinetico 2020 and am delighted with it.
These are the new self powered softeners.
They use water pressure to regenerate themselves, so don’t require a mains supply.
They cost more but it’s well worth it as they work very well.

My previous softener was an East Midlands one and it completely destroyed the cupboard it was in as it leaked salt everywhere.
I’d be weary of Harvey Softeners. When I bought this softener in November I tried them and got the double glazing hard sell approach that I really didn’t appreciate.
Went with http://www.jmsofteners.co.uk in the end and could not fault them.

It’s going to cost between £1000 and £1500 with plumbing but it’s money well spent
It should fit under the sink cupboard but depending on the depth of your sink you may need to put it length ways so will lose the use of that cupboard.

We inherited one with the house we bought.

Personally, I can’t see the point. Yes, it takes less shampoo to get a lather and I’m sure I’ll be buying 0.563 less washing machines and dishwashers in my lifetime, but that’s about it for me.

The missus likes it though 🙄

Don’t forget you are generally advised to not have them on a drinking water tap, especially if you have young children.

Take a look at the service intervals as well. If they need to be serviced every year for 100 quid then you might want a different model.’

Just for balance, I’m not a fan of my (very expensive) kinetico 2020c.

In principle its great, and when it works it a joy of ease of use.

But it fails all the time. It gets to a point, about once a month, when it just refuses to regenerate itself. At that point I have to manually advance it to regenerate, then its good for another month or other random length of time. Strangely it happens more often if the washing machine is used, so I’m guessing it doesn’t like that flow rate or similar.

Its been serviced at least once with no joy, and all the (approved) installers seem to be able to suggest is to have it serviced again for another £100!

For the record, its about 7 years old, and has happened since installation.

Just my experience, YMMV.

It does all seem a bit double glazing. The last thing they seem to want to tell you on the websites is the cost.

I can install it myself so should be able to save a bit of money.

It does all seem a bit double glazing. The last thing they seem to want to tell you on the websites is the cost.

This. Gets your hackles up never seeing a price and the last thing I want is a visit with associated hard-sell.

I notice Screwfix do one for £550 but it doesn’t say what house size it is suitable for.

Its hard to quantify if the money saving is worth it. I’ve no doubt that in the long you save money on soap, boiler parts, washing machines etc. But the initial outlay is fairly big. Running cost are about £1/person/month in my experience for salt. As for servicing, excluding my problems, nobody I know has theirs serviced ever and never had any problems.

Why I have it if for other reasons. I hate cleaning, and with soft water you have to clean things like the bath much less and its much easier when you do. Also things washed in the washing machine feel much nicer, much softer. And personally I prefer washing in soft water, though I’m sure that is subjective.

I changed our immersion cylinder in the airning cupboard and realised at what state our water was in the house. I had the softener from our old house, but never fitted it , due to the water main running into the middle of the house, rather than under the sink at the back. Bear that in mind, if you do fit one, that it would have to breakdown the scale in the pipes and cylinder before actually being a bonus to you. I can honestly say, it is worth its weight in gold. I bought one direct from European Water Softeners. They are quite agricultural, but in 8 years, it failed once. The sparge pipe in the resin cylinder cracked and resin escaped and block the ballcock in the tank. I bypassed it and when the guy visited ( within a couple of days) charged me for a new resin tank, new sparge pipe, new seal kit for the regen and fitting and travel £110 !! . I would look now at a useage regen rather than a timer, which most new ones are, but family excema and lack of scale etc has made a world of difference. We dont have any form of descaler in the house , except for the kettle which still runs raw water in the kitchen.
Oh and a 25kg of salt lasts 6 weeks and I buy and get it delivered in quatities of 6 bags at £44 ish

Our main reason for want to purchase is skin issues as opposed to saving money on de-scaling.

How much will it throttle back pressure/flow on a direct mains plumbing system I wonder?

Mandog – none if you use a high flow version and hard plumb it with min 22mm copper pipework.