[GarySFBCN]

I’m going to be doing a major reforma in Barcelona and I am considering adding a water softener. Do any of you have experiences with this?

Is it worth the money and effort?

Are there any good brands to buy or brands to avoid?

What’s the annual cost after installation?

Is there any downside to doing this?

Thanks in advance. Gary

[Anonymous]

Only a comment this. I have thought about this and I have seen equipment in the likes of Makro to buy off the shelf costing a few hundred plus filter changes. I have thought what do I need it for. Filtering water for drinking -a jug filter in the fridge might do as well or better -how much difference in cost with buying bottled water. Electric water heating -the heating element over time becomes encrusted requiring replacement of the whole unit or if very lucky just the element. Replacing the whole unit not necessary for 4 years. -Minimum replacement cost about 109 euro now for 12 litres. My present strategy is to use a jug as I am in fairly hard water area -Barcelona I thought was fairly soft -maybe check . Also to simply replace existing 12ltr heater for a 16 ltr one as I only use half a year .

[Anonymous]

Because it destroys lots of your equipment, plumbing and stains lots of things?

Have you had someone meassure if you really need a water softener?

[GarySFBCN]

My present strategy is to use a jug as I am in fairly hard water area -Barcelona I thought was fairly soft -maybe check . Also to simply replace existing 12ltr heater for a 16 ltr one as I only use half a year .

Thanks Ptr for the response. I find the water in Barcelona to be ‘hard’. I will be using a filter jug for drinking water (or a compact osmosis unit for the kitchen only) but I don’t like showering with the hard water.

Ardun as the previous owner of the flat never cleaned anything for the 6 years he owned it, it was easy to see the lime/calcium ‘build-up’, especially on the terrace. I had to purchase a chemical to remove it. I don’t know how this affects appliances, pipes or even humans. A water softener will increase the salt content of the water, but not by much. And since the kitchen will have its own, very different system, I’m not worried about it.

[Anonymous]

Barcelona has hard, awful water, so does the whole coast. Madrid has good water.

I’ve been toying with the idea of a water softener for years as the results on clothes, hair, and children’s skin are noticeable, not to mention household equipment. But it’s all quite expensive and not easy to install in a flat…..

[angie]

You Barcelona dwellers might like to try this, portable water softeners apparently ideal for apartments, don’t know the cost, but imagine a lot cheaper than costly re-jigging of plumbing system 😉

http://www.watersoftenersportable.com

There are probably similar sites in Spain

[GarySFBCN]

I’ve been toying with the idea of a water softener for years as the results on clothes, hair, and children’s skin are noticeable, not to mention household equipment. But it’s all quite expensive and not easy to install in a flat…..

As we are the sobreatico, we’ve got plenty of room to do this, so the installation should be easy. And both terraces have a ‘wings’ that wrap around the building, so it won’t clutter any usable terrace space.

[angie]

Thanks for the tip 😆

[Author]

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