Kinetico or Harvey water softener... but from where?

[Adsibob]

I've decided on a Kinetico or Harvey water softener system, but I don't know where to buy one from and looking online there seem to be a lot of suppliers peddling myths like "you should only use our salt tablets because other suppliers might dilute the strength of theirs with fillers". I also rather not pay for installation as I've already agreed for my builder's plumber to install a water softener and I just have to supply it - or do all Kinetico and Harvey water softener systems need to be installed by an authorised installer.

 

Any recommendation as to where I can get impartial advice on which specific model is going to be best for me and at a fair price, please share.

 

Thanks

[PeterW]

Try these guys 

 

https://www.eastmidlandswater.com/water-softeners

[joth]

I think Harvey's are direct sales only, and like to do a in home trail and stuff but I did get a self install price for them eventually

In the end we went with kinetico just because I could pick it up same day from a shop In our town: https://www.totalsoftwater.com/products/kinetico-premier-compact/

 

Our plumber installed it, the supplier said he'd pop over to check the work and "activate" the warranty, I still need to chase that up.

One thing to be wary of is the kinetico has two outlets (for regen cycle and overflow). The former is highly salty so can't be used for e.g. filling a water butt, the later is gravity fed so needs to go into a drain lower than the softener itself. The instructions say the overflow show go out through a wall but that's a disaster for airtightness so our plumber ended up building a plinth to put the whole unit 50cm higher so it can gravity feed down into a wall height drain. Doing it again I'd have insisted on the floor level drain in the plant room!

 

 

 

Edited April 28, 2021 by joth

[Adsibob]

On 27/04/2021 at 22:03, PeterW said:

Try these guys 

 

https://www.eastmidlandswater.com/water-softeners

This was a good recommendation.  Thank you @PeterW. Not sure how impartial they were, but they gave me a different take on things, and I've ended up going for a powered unit, rather than a twin tank unpowered one, saving me £300 on the Harvey or Kinetico models I was considering that offered the same high flow rates. Apparently only consumes 30p a month of electricity when it regenerates, which it does at 3am, when nobody will notice.

[Gone West]

48 minutes ago, Adsibob said:

Apparently only consumes 30p a month of electricity when it regenerates, which it does at 3am, when nobody will notice.

I had one of those once. Bloody thing lost the timer when there was a power cut and as a result it regenerated when I didn't want it to and we had a lot of power cuts. The one I had couldn't deliver soft water and regenerate at the same time unlike the twin cylinder Harveys, etc can.

[Adsibob]

3 hours ago, Gone West said:

I had one of those once. Bloody thing lost the timer when there was a power cut and as a result it regenerated when I didn't want it to and we had a lot of power cuts. The one I had couldn't deliver soft water and regenerate at the same time unlike the twin cylinder Harveys, etc can.

Yes, this is a “downside” of the unit I’ve gone for, but as the salesman explained, it will only regenerate once a month for about 20 minutes. Hardly an inconvenience to have to use hard water during those 20 mins, particularly if it’s at 3am. We’ve only ever had one power cut in the four years we’ve been there. Fortunately a fairly rare occurrence, but yes I suppose it would make a power cut slightly more annoying than it already was.

[dpmiller]

once a month? How many litres is that?

[Adsibob]

22 minutes ago, dpmiller said:

once a month? How many litres is that?

Every 3000 litres, which I guess is not once a month, but at that rate will probably regenerate once every week.