Approximately 60% of the UK suffers with hard water which is shown by the blue area in the map. Extremely hard water is mainly found in Eastern England, in the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and parts of Lincolnshire.   Very hard water is considered 300 ppm or more. There are different methods of measuring hardness in the water, which are shown below.

Measurement of hard water

Mg/l or ppm (parts per million calcium carbonate)

• 300 ppm or over          – very hard water
• 200-300 ppm               – hard water
• Under 200 ppm           – moderately hard water
• Under 100 ppm           – moderately soft water to soft water

Degrees Clark or English

• 21 or above                   – very hard water
• 14 to 21                         – hard water
• Under 14                       – moderately hard water
• Under 7                         – moderately soft to soft water

US Grains

• 17 or over                      – very hard water
• 12-17                             – hard water
• Under 12                       – moderately hard water
• Under 6                         – moderately soft to soft water

Water Authorities

Most water authority websites will show the hardness of the water in your area using your postcode or you can use our post code checker.

Areas of the UK particularly affected by hard water are:

• Bedfordshire             Berkshire                Buckinghamshire
• Cambridgeshire
• Derbyshire                Dorset
• Essex
• Gloucestershire
• Hampshire
• Kent
• Leicestershire         Lincolnshire
• Middlesex
• Norfolk                     Northamptonshire             Nottinghamshire
• Oxfordshire
• Rutland
• Somerset                 Staffordshire                        Suffolk                                       Surrey                                 Sussex
• Warwickshire         Wiltshire

Water authority websites:

• http://www.cambridge-water.co.uk - Cambridge area
• www.choldertonwater.co.uk - Cholderton & District
• www.eswater.co.uk - Essex and Suffolk
• www.portsmouthwater.co.uk - Portsmouth area
• www.sembcorpbw.co.uk - Bournemouth area
• www.southeastwater.co.uk - South East
• http://southernwater.co.uk - South
• www.waterplc.com - Sutton and East Surrey
• www.thameswater.co.uk - Thames area
• www.veoliawater.co.uk/southeast
• www.veoliawater.co.uk/central
• www.wessexwater.co.uk
• http://stwater.co.uk - Severn Trent Area

Domestic water softeners eliminate the hard minerals from the home’s water.  Only with this type of domestic water treatment will the home benefit from, not only reduced limescale but the great feel of softened water, which transforms the bathing experience for people living with hard water.

See how the family will benefit from soft water.

Learn more about our domestic water softener or just give us a call we will be happy to answer any questions – 0800 052 1120

I’m not sure what happens, maybe because the sun shines through the window and shows up all the dust and marks in the home! (Well, it did in my house last Saturday!) Spring, traditionally is the time when the home gets a ‘thorough clean’ and home improvements take place. It’s also one of the busiest times for water treatment products.

60% of the UK suffer from hard water. Water treatment in hard water areas is becoming increasingly popular. Householders now realise that if they are going to fit a new bathroom or kitchen, installing a water softener will protect them from abrasive hard water, and it just makes cleaning easier.

Hard water contains hard mineral deposits (calcium and magnesium) and these are left behind to form marks on shower cubicles and scum (mixture of soap and limescale) around baths. Limescale builds up on taps and shower heads.

Modern families seem to always struggle to fit everything in the day and water treatment just frees up ‘cleaning time’ as without the hard deposits, soft water just flows away. Using less harsh cleaning products is also kinder to the planet.

Only water softeners, by using the ion-exchange process, take out the hard deposits from water.

There are plenty of other benefits softened water brings to the home.

If you would like to know how water treatment can transform your home call: 0800 052 1120.

Lime scale in a storage tank

What is limescale?

Limescale is the deposits left behind by hard water. Limescale is mainly made up of calcium and magnesium. The limescale deposits mixed with soap then leaves a ring of scum around the bath or basin. Limescale builds up around taps, marks shower cubicles and clings to hair and clogs skin pores. Soaps and detergents are also less effective with hard water. Probably the easiest way to spot limescale is to look inside the kettle. However, the unseen damage is just as bad, clogged pipes and showerheads, deposits in water heaters and water using appliances makes them inefficient and increases maintenance.

Approximately 60% of the UK suffers from hard water and is mainly a problem in the south of England as highlighted by the blue areas in the map below.

Hard water is created when rain water percolates through soft rocks such as limestone and chalk. The water picks up the minerals which, even after treatment by the UK water authorities, ends up in millions of UK homes.

British Water, the trade association for the UK water industry, has calculated hard water used by an average family of 4, accumulates 70kg of limescale a year.

There are many limescale removers that you can buy in supermarkets, but water treatment is one of the most effective ways of dealing with limescale in the water.

The only effective water treatment product that will actually remove the limescale from the water is an ion-exchange water softener.

Water softening is becoming increasingly popular because of the many benefits softened water brings to the home:

• Bathing with softened water leaves hair and skin feeling softer and healthier

• Softened water stops staining on baths, taps and shower cubicles

• Softened water prevents clogging of shower heads

• Laundry feels softer

• Softened water prevents limescale build up, protecting new bathrooms and kitchens, to keep them looking new for longer

• Softened water helps water using appliances last longer, by preventing limescale build up

• Softened water can lower energy bills by up to 20% by preventing limescale build up in pipes and central heating boilers

• Softened water will eventually remove limescale already built up in pipework

•Using softened water can reduce the amount of bathing and laundry products by up to 50%

• With softened water there is no need to use harsh chemicals to clean the bathroom and kitchen, saving time and money, as well as being kind to the environment

A home water softener can transform the home.

If you would like to know more about our domestic softener range call 0800 052 1120.

Creating soft water is a straightforward process. By installing a water softener to your mains water supply, hard water passes through a tank of resin beads which extract the calcium and magnesium (limescale) from the water. When the resin beads become saturated by the hard water deposits, the water softener automatically carries out a self-cleaning process called regeneration: a concentrated salt solution flows through the resin beads removing the hard deposits which are flushed away harmlessly. The resin beads are refreshed and ready to create more soft water.  EcoWater softeners can provide soft water for 15 years and more.

EcoWater patented innovation

Since 1925, EcoWater Systems has pioneered several industry firsts. These include high-capacity resin, fiberglass tanks, tank-in-tank units, iron-free systems, plastic automatic valves and remote monitoring. Not only have we learned from history, we’ve shaped it.

EcoWater water softeners current patents include:

•  Patented regeneration algorithm: proprietary equation used to predict future water needs (based on actual water used) means EcoWater softener’s are as cost efficient as possible.
• Patented stratified resin: for high soft water creation while maintaining good flow rates
• Patented six cycle valve: controls water flow and direction for all six cycles using fewer parts. With up to 60 fewer components than other brand valves, the EcoWater valve is simpler to service and requires less maintenance. No metal parts come into contact with water to rust or corrode.
• Patented: Hydrolink – EcoWater’s exclusive electronics with two-way remote technology allows you to control / monitor the water softener from anywhere in your home.
• Patented: EASE telephone facility allows the performance of the softener to be checked remotely.

EcoWater on demand soft water designed for efficiency

The EcoWater domestic water softener range provides soft water on demand. It is completely automatic and designed to cope with modern plumbing systems. EcoWater’s unique technology controls the water softener’s performance throughout its life. For better efficiency, the EcoWater softener is set to your home’s exact water hardness.

• EcoWater technology monitors your home’s water use from the moment it is installed. The intelligent technology keeps a history of water use. Predicting patterns of water use, for example knowing on specific days that more water is used than others, it provides soft water on demand, but importantly keeps running costs to a minimum.
• All your household needs to do is to keep the water softener topped up with tablet salt. The EcoWater softener display shows an alert message when it needs to be refilled. There is even a convenient remote control. Tablet salt is used as it is a far cheaper option than, for example, block salt.
• For additional peace of mind an EcoWater softener has a unique EASE telephone facility which allows the performance of your softener to be checked remotely.
• During power cuts the EcoWater softener has power protection for 72 hours.

 EcoWater is designed for reliability

• A single resin tank has been designed for high soft water creation and to keep component parts to a minimum for added reliability. The EcoWater patented valve features Teflon® coated rotors to increase the life of moving seals. The corrosion resistant design includes minimal metal parts and coated circuitry with sealed connection points.
•  A patented mix of stratified resin inside the resin tank increases the water’s contact time. This provides high soft water creation, without sacrificing flow rate. Self cleaning distributors prevent clogging to maintain excellent flow rates.
•  A cost efficient recharge only cleans the resin that has been used and by using a counter current method using soft water, it effectively cleans the resin without contaminating unused resin. The recharge not only cleans and refreshes the resin, but for reliable soft water creation it repacks and mixes the resin, to ensure water will flow evenly within the resin bed.

 EcoWater for convenience

• A convenient large salt storage means the water softener only needs filling up on an occasional basis. To ensure you are always in control, a salt alarm will be displayed and capacity bars will show how much salt is left in the cabinet.
•  The EcoWater softener’s rolling display provides information at your fingertips.
• The EcoWater softener will display the total amount of water that has been used and the average daily water use which is helpful for homes using water meters.
• The EcoWater softener will also show how much soft water is available before the next regeneration. So you can always be assured that hard water isn’t creeping back into your home.
•  The EcoWater softener can also alert burst water pipes by displaying the home’s water flow.
• All the display information can be seen on a convenient remote control.
•  EcoWater’s unique EASE telephone diagnostics means your water softener’s performance can be checked remotely.

Go to our web page to find out more about domestic water softeners.

Our team of experts will be happy to tell you about our water softener range – on 0800 052 1120.

The UK water authorities do a great job bringing safe water to our homes. Many people who own water softeners, which will remove the limescale from hard water, will also choose to improve the taste and quality of their drinking water by using either a jug filter or a tap water filter. There are many different types of water filters but most will use carbon.

Carbon is made from organic material eg: coconut, coal, wood and is formed by heating the material in the absence of air. Carbon has been used throughout history as an adsorbent for contaminates and is considered the most powerful adsorbent known to man. Its use dates back to 2000 BC.

The reason carbon is used in drinking water filters is because it is a very porous material.

Active carbon has been activated by a chemical process which gives it a slight positive electrical charge. Active carbon used in drinking filters will be more efficient because the positive electrical charge makes it more porous than normal carbon.

Active carbon removes contaminates using two processes:

Adsorption (Van der Waals force).

Contaminates are attracted by this force into the pores of the active carbon where they stay attached to the walls. The process depends on:

• the type of source material of the active carbon to determine the size of the pores and thus the contaminate type and removal level

• the chemical nature of the source material

• the chemical composition and concentration of the contaminant

• the temperature and PH of the water

• the contact time, determined by the flow rate and volumes of active carbon

Catalytic reduction.

The positively charged active carbon attracts the negatively charged contaminations. The level and type of contaminant removal is determined by the activation process. For example the level of oxygen, level of electrical charge.

Active carbon is most effective in removing organic contaminates from the water and so improving the aesthetic appears of the water (colour, taste and odour).

What is removed by active carbon?

Reduced or removed

Large organic molecules, Radon, Ozon, Chlorine (including cancer causing by-products trihalomethanes like Bromoform, Dibromochloromethane, Bromodichloromethane, chloroform etc), Carbon Tetrachloride, Toluene, Tetrachlorethylene, Trichloroethane, Vinyl chlorides, Methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), many (54) volatile organic chemicals (VOC), pesticides, Phenol, herbicides, benzene, solvents, Xylenes, some heavy metals.  Limited arsenic, limited sediment.

Not reduced or removed

Microbes, sodium, nitrates/nitrites, fluoride, minerals/salts (hardness) halogenated hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, polcyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, asbestos, barium, beryllium cadmium, chromium, copper, mercury, nickel, selenium, sulfate, thallium.

NOTE: The above listing is purely indicative and is based on data provided. The actual removal/reduction of contaminates depends on many factors such as type of active carbon, temperature, contact time, PH, level of contamination. The exact removal or reduction can only be confirmed by lab testing.

Active carbon and bacteria 

Active carbon is seen as a breeding ground for microorganisms. However, the likelihood that microorganisms will enter the drinking filter system is small since the public water system treats the water to prevent pathogenic microorganisms being in the water. ‘Studies of activated carbon units, have not shown this medium to encourage pathogenic bacterial growth’ – (WQA Water Processing by Wes McGowan)

As well as our extensive water softener range, EcoWater Systems produce two water filter systems.

The reverse osmosis system removes up to 95% of impurities using membrane technology and carbon filters. The reverse osmosis drinking water system is often used when the household has a water softener and all taps are linked to the water softener. It will improve the taste of drinking water and removes sodium that is found in softened water.

The EcoWater safe filter has a microbiological filter and a carbon filter. The microbiological filter removes 99% of bacteria, viruses and cysts. This filter retains the minerals in the water for ‘bottled water’ taste.

While our water supply remains constant, we are polluting it faster than nature can clean it.  And, we are polluting it with more contaminants than ever before.

The hydrological cycle

Nature purifies water through a process known as the hydrological cycle.  In this process, water evaporates from lakes, streams and other surface water rising to the sky as vapour.  In this vapour state, water is in its purest form with all contaminants left behind.

When enough vapour has joined together in the form of clouds, it falls to the earth as rain, snow, or other precipitation.  This pure moisture begins to collect impurities from the air on its journey down.  When it reaches the ground, it continues to collect everything from minerals to pesticides.  Because of this ability to collect or absorb other substances, water is often referred to as nature’s solvent.

Natural water problems

The ‘path’ that water takes to enter a home determines the types of problems it can have.

Water passing through shale, limestone and other soft rocks will dissolve and carry calcium and magnesium from those rocks into the home, causing hard water problems.

Water passing through granite, marble and other hard rocks cannot dissolve or absorb anything: it remains ‘hungry’ or acidic as it enters the home, and begins dissolving or eating away at pipes and chrome plumbing fixtures.

Water passing through iron-bearing rock will collect iron, causing rust stains and other iron-related problems in the home.

Water also collects tastes and odours as it passes through decaying vegetation, gases, minerals, and organic material beneath the earth’s surface.

Man-made water problems

In addition to natural contaminants, water absorbs man-made contaminants that cause significant water problems.

Modern society has made many scientific advances, but in the process has also created many new by-products and contaminants.  Thousands of chemicals and compounds have been invented in recent years, but effective methods for disposing of them after use have not kept pace.

Petrochemical spills and leaks from decades ago have seeped into the underground water supply.  Pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and fertilizers are washed by rainwater into streams, rivers, lakes and wells.

Identifying common water problems

Public water authorities ensure we receive good quality water in our homes.  However, they can’t tackle all of our water problems.

Hard Water

It’s easy to spot; it leaves a bathtub ring made up of hardness minerals and soap.  This scum will also collect on shower walls, clings to hair, clogs skin pores and makes house cleaning difficult.  Hard water deposits can also clog pipes, cause water heaters to operate inefficiently, and increase maintenance on water-dependent appliances.

Hard water has been created when water passes through rock formations and picks up calcium and magnesium.  About 60% of homes in the UK suffer from hard water.  Hard water can be found in central, eastern and southern areas of England.

Water hardness can be corrected by the use of a domestic water softener.  The hard water passes through a tank containing resin beads holding ‘soft’ sodium ions.  The ‘hard’ calcium and magnesium ions are exchanged for sodium ions, thus softening the water.  When the beads have trapped all the hardness they are able to hold, the unit is recharged with salt brine to replace the hardness ions with sodium ions. The water softener is then ready to soften water again.

Taste and Odour

Tastes and odours in water do not normally cause physical problems in the home but can be very objectionable.

Tastes and odours are caused by many things including chlorine.  Common tastes and odours can be easily treated by a filter containing activated carbon.  The carbon absorbs the tastes and odours.  Minor problems can be treated by a single tap filter.

For help choosing a water softener, please give us a call or use our live chat system found to the right of the page.

Amongst the huge variety of ion exchange water softeners available in the UK there is a one question which is asked again and again, ‘which water softener is better, a single tank system or a twin tank system?’

For those people not familiar with the design of water softeners.  All ion exchange water softeners use resin beads to provide an exchange process which, as the hard water passes through the beads, takes out the calcium and magnesium from the hard water and replaces it with trouble-free sodium ions.   Some water softener systems will use a single resin vessel for this process and some use twin tank resin vessels.  All water softeners have a self cleaning process called regeneration or recharge.  This is when the water softener will wash the calcium and magenisium collected by the resin beads to drain, and recharge the resin ready to create more soft water.

As far as deciding which water softener is better, a single or a twin tank, is unusually for water softeners, not too difficult to answer; it’s a matter of performance and efficiency.

Water softeners which use twin tank systems by their very nature normally have two low capacity resin vessels which produce around 350-400 litres of soft water before they need to regenerate.  In comparison an EcoWater ESM11+ single tank system produces 2,400 litres of soft water (at 300 ppm hard water) before it needs to regenerate.

It is true that a single tank system will use more salt and water per regeneration than its twin tank counterpart, however this is counteracted by the fact that a twin tank system will regenerate much more often and therefore actually use more salt and water per 1,000 litres of soft water produced.

Costs per 1,000 ltrs of Soft Water

As you can see the twin tank systems use much more salt and water than the EcoWater ESM11+, which is not only bad for your pocket but bad for the planet.

There are also some technical issues with water softener twin tank systems which need to be considered.

As mentioned earlier twin tank systems are normally made up of two low capacity resin vessels and when one tank starts a regeneration this means a single vessel is supplying all of the water for the property and as a result you can experience flow rate issues (pressure drop-off). This will not happen with a single tank system such as the EcoWater ESM11+ as it predicts regeneration based upon your usage and will regenerate, if necessary, at 2:00am when there is no requirement for water.

Two tanks also means twice the amount of parts therefore reliability is a concern. This can be experienced as drop off in performance, water which is not fully softened or worst case scenario breakdown resulting in costly repair bills.

With the additional number of parts as well as the greater number of regenerations (more than four times as often in the example above) taken into consideration this means that the unit is working much harder and therefore life expectancy is compromised.

Twin tank systems are normally seen as advantagous because they provide 24/7 soft water and because of their size.  However, most homes are not using water 24 hours a day, and therefore, this requirement is not normally necessary.  The design can be compact and will fit into spaces that are too small for conventional water softeners but as you can see this feature comes at a cost, a significant cost over the life of a water softener.

Therefore if you have enough space then there is only one decision, single tank water softener every  time.

View some of our frequently asked questions about the water softener range

EcoWater Systems – a history of excellence

1921
Servisoft formed in Rockford, Illinois pioneered portable exchange tanks for softening water.

1925
Lynn Lindsay, founder of The Lindsay Company in St Paul, Minnesota obtains the first patent for automatic water softeners.

1933
Lynn Lindsay and his sons struggle through the depression and eventually put the operations of The Lindsay Company on hold during World War II.

1945
The Lindsay Company begins manufacturing water softeners in St Paul, Minnesota and starts to build a dealer network.

1955
The housing boom in the USA propels The Lindsay Company to its first million-dollar sales year and a new bigger facility.

1957
The Union Tank Car Company purchases The Lindsay Company

1969
Continued success makes expansion necessary. The Lindsay Company moves to a new facility.

1971
International growth accelerates with the opening of Lindsay’s European manufacturing plant in Olen, Belgium

1983
The Lindsay Company purchases the Water Refining Company of Middletown, Ohio owners of Miracle Water and Servisoft brands.

1988
EcoWater Systems Inc is formed joining three companies to become the largest manufacturer of residential water softeners.

1990
EcoWater Systems becomes the largest manufacturer of residential water softeners in the world with independent dealers spanning the globe.  In 1990 EcoWater Systems Inc purchases Permutit Domestic from Sketchley Water Softeners and EcoWater Systems UK comes into existence.  The first Permutit water softener was installed in 1911.  EcoWater Systems UK now has the best of both worlds, a long established British company combined with the expertise of a world leader.

2000
EcoWater continues to lead the industry with innovative products, including the first water softener with a wireless remote monitor.

2002
EcoWater Systems finishes a $9m expansion of its Ripley facility.

2004-6
EcoWater invests $16m in capital investments including investment in blow mold and process control technologies.

2007
EcoWater introduces the first water softener with patented Hydrolink communications technology.

2008
EcoWater introduces the only reverse osmosis drinking water filter with patented Hydrolink communications.

EcoWater today
EcoWater systems has been manufacturing water softeners since 1925 and continues to lead the way with more than 40 active patents and unparalleled quality guidelines that ensure the excellence in all our products. Product quality and an investment in R&D are hallmarks of our company.

EcoWater’s manufacturing facilities are ISO 9001 certified. This is the most prominent certification by three international organizations monitoring quality systems standards. The certification registration safeguards excellence in our products from initial specification to product design to you.

The Eco DNA: Strength in Numbers
Today EcoWater Systems is a member of Berkshire Hathaway’s Marmon Group, an international association of more than 100 autonomous manufacturing and service companies. The group is ranked number 19 on Forbes’ list of the largest privately held companies in the United States. Marmon emphasises member autonomy, lean management and investment in new state-of-the-art technology. Marmon Water, a global leader in the manufacturing of equipment to treat water comprises, in addition to EcoWater Systems, several other sector leaders in the residential, commercial and industrial water treatment and purification space.

If you would like information on any of our products please call us on: 0800 052 1120 or 01494 484 000.

If you own an EcoWater water softener, don’t worry about your soft water.  Your EcoWater water softener will keep on producing lashings of soft water, even if your home is bursting at the seams.

EcoWater’s intelligent technology measures the home’s water usage and collects information from the day it’s installed, and it keeps a history of your home’s water use.  It knows each day how much water you have used and its clever technology calculates the optimum point when to regenerate.  If you do all your laundry at the weekend it knows that and ensures you have loads of soft water to cope with the extra demand.   Therefore, if you start to use more water over the Christmas holiday than normal that’s fine, your water softener will just adapt itself and when Christmas is over and you are back to normal, it will adapt again.  EcoWater softener’s  unique intelligence provides you with the most cost efficient soft water solution and you’ll always have soft water on demand but without costing the earth.

So you can easily sneak upstairs for a lovely relaxing bubbly bath away from it all, maybe using that Christmas present of bubble bath, knowing there will be plenty of soft water for everyone.

(A new bubble bath is the one present I really look forward too!)

Merry Christmas!

Limescale in storage tank

Hard water is water that contains dissolved chalk, lime and other minerals. The affects of hard water is easy to see, scale in the kettle, scaling up of showerheads, limescale marks in the sink and loo.  However, it’s what you do not see that is the most troubling.  Heating systems, washing machines and dishwashers are prime targets for hard water damage.  Every year 1.5mm of scale can build up within the home.  Scale will form around the heating coil and even fill a hot water cylinder.  It’s estimated that the annual amount of hard water used by an average family contains 70kg of scale!  Untreated limscale simply means wasting energy, wasting money and having to replace appliances and heating systems.

Major independent research study in the USA has concluded that water softeners are amongst the ‘very best’ household energy savers. The research was undertaken over 9 months at a cost of $700,000 and commissioned by the Water Quality Research Foundation – a not-for-profit association that provides public information about water treatment issues. The research findings back the energy saving claims made by EcoWater over many years and this information can be found in the Batelle report findings.

The study found that instantaneous gas water heaters – similar to combi boilers here in the UK – operated on softened water maintained the original factory efficiency rating over a 15 year lifetime. Softened water, the report says, saves 34% of costs compared to operating on 340ppm hard water. As a consequence of the study, the WQA, is now promoting water softeners in the USA as ‘the best energy saving device you can buy’.

This reports highlights that by installing an EcoWater domestic water softener, if you live in a hard water area of the country, you will be ‘conservatively saving up to 20% a year on your energy bills.

If you would like to find out more why not contact us.

Contact Us for more information