Londonlisa2001 said:
Some sort of Franke 4 in 1 that does boiling and filtered water. To be honest, I had it as part of the kitchen when that was done last year and I don’t think it was more expensive than having a normal tap, or only a few quid more.
It’s good actually - obviously for a cup of coffee or tea, but actually more for stuff like filling a pan for pasta or stock etc. We have such hard water here that using a kettle to do it used to mean a mouthful of limescale half the time. And it’s cheaper than a kettle by quite some way in terms of energy use.
Worth having if you’re having your kitchen done. Probably expensive to retrofit if you’re not.
Lisa, I live in Bromley and like you in our part of London our water is hard. We used to get loads of limescale build up in the kettle and scum on our tea. I also suffer from eczema.
About 5 years ago I had a softener system installed. Just a box the size of a desktop pc under the stairs. No power needed, just put a couple of salt blocks in it every few weeks.
I find it fantastic. No limescale (even dissolves existing deposits) so imagine how much better it is for your washing machine and pipework/boiler.
The only downside is that as the softened water is every so slightly saline (not that you can detect it by taste) it's not good for your plants inside or out. The installer should offer to put a bypass tap in so that you can easily switch back to hard water for watering purposes.
Showering in soft water has dramatically improved my eczema (and believe me, I've had all sorts of treatments for the condition). We don't have to spray our bathroom tiles or shower screen to keep the scum away.
We used a local firm in West Wickham but I think Harvey's are a national one and they were a similar price to the place we used.
Cost me about £1k to get it installed and the salt costs about £100 per year delivered.
I can't recommend more highly.
