What to do about hard water
Limescale isn’t just unsightly – it’s a real concern when it comes to the efficiency of your heating system. Read on to find out how to address it
The Green Homes Grant seemed like it was going to survive after Rishi Sunak’s latest budget left it untouched, but the axe has now fallen — it is no more. In any case, it was never all it was cracked up to be. Maybe the reason that it didn’t fulfil its objective of washing the government’s hands green was that the money got thrown at a lot of the wrong things, and not for long enough. Energy efficiency in our homes isn’t just about insulation. Of course that’s something that needs to be addressed, but there are some elephants in the room that have been ignored. One of these is boiler efficiency. Smoothly running boilers use less fuel, and as such maintenance is often a more realistic solution than replacement.
I received a phone call the other day from a homeowner who said that their boiler was ‘banging’, something that my teenage son would interpret positively, but which was a definite problem in this case. I ascertained that the boiler in question was a combination (combi) boiler and that there was no leak or air in the system. That left only one possibility: hard water.
A combi boiler heats hot water by passing it through a heat exchanger. Over time, limescale will be deposited in the heat exchanger, furring it up and making it less efficient. After a prolonged period the pipes in the heat exchanger will narrow, reducing the volume of water that can pass through it. Eventually this will reach a point where the water boils in the heat exchanger, resulting in a banging sound.
Limescale build-up is not exclusive to combi boilers. Any appliance that uses heated water will get it, resulting in a loss of efficiency and functionality over time. This includes hot water cylinders, washing machines, dishwashers, taps and thermostatic showers.
The only way to stop this problem is to treat hard water as it enters your property. There are a number of ways to do this, but here I will focus on just two of the more common options: water conditioning and water softening. Water conditioning treats your water so that the limescale it contains no longer adheres to the inside of pipes and appliances. The conditioner looks like a short piece of pipework and is fitted to the incoming water pipe. No additives are introduced, and the calcium (the element that forms into limescale) is not actually removed. According to the manufacturers there will still be marks left on your shower door and taps, but these will be easily removed and there will be no build-up inside heat exchangers or the internal workings of appliances.
The soft option
If you want to avoid limescale altogether, then your water needs to be softened, which means that the calcium is removed from it, keeping your appliances at peak efficiency and functionality. A water softener will also remove scale that has already built up in appliances, restoring some of their lost efficiency. These need to be planned in as they take up a bit of space. They also need to be able to be sized appropriately as they contain a salt block that needs to be replaced periodically, at a frequency depending on your home size and occupancy. This needs to be done for the softening to be effective.
I recently attended a site that had a Kinetico water softener fitted and having only been there a year previously I could see the reduction in scale build up in the pipes and a lack of white ‘watermarks’ on their shower door.
A Kinetico water filter had also been fitted. I didn’t previously realise it but there are quite a number of different water filters and filtration processes available. It’s worth checking which one is best for you. I was invited to do a taste test of the various water filtration processes available from Kinetico, and although I couldn’t actually believe it, the proof was in the tasting. If you don’t believe me, give it a try.
THE ONLY WAY TO STOP THIS PROBLEM IS TO TREAT HARD WATER AS IT ENTERS YOUR PROPERTY