duztee

My part of Hungary suffers very hard water, bad for the heating system, washing machine etc, and clogs the shower head and tap nozzles.

Has anyone looked into or fitted a domestic water treatment system?
I have looked at various web sites but it is always nice to get first hand advice if anyone has any to offer.

wolfi

We have kind of given up - cleaning everything that gets "vízkö" in vinegar regularly, about once a month or when my wife feels the coffee maker is no longer fast enough ...

Luckily strong vinegar (20%) is relatively cheap in Hungary - you add water and it dissolves "everything".
Of course it's a pain in the a** - but we also find rust and little metal pieces in the small sieves that sit at every water tap - which I also screw off once a month or when guests are complaining: Not enough water at the tap!

Peter_in_Hungary

All of Hungary suffers from hard water because with water is from deep wells bored into the water bearing rock (kvarc víz = quartz water)

I don't bother with water treatment, as above we use vinegar when the bits get clogged up. For the electric hot water tanks I wait until they stop working and then remove the base plate put it in the bin and then replace the whole lot. (about every 5 years) I reckon that this is cheaper than a water treatment unit. Heating systems should not suffer as they should be closed circuit so once filled that's it until a fault causes draining.

You can reduce the problem in the hot water tanks by running them between 60 and 70 deg rather than at 80+ but then you may run out of hot water more frequently due to not so much dilution with cold (assumes the tank is heated on cheap rate over night)

I have 1 combi boiler that has been in for 3 years and so far no problems.

If you do put in a water treatment it should not be on the drinking water.

duztee

I take the point about cost vis cheaper options.
Yes Wolfi, the problem is not just with constantly having to clean the tap and shower heads. it is also the horrible almost instant build up on the shower glass, I have to spend longer cleaning the glass than I did showering!

The reason for the inquiry is that I am fitting a massage bath and was strongly advice to fit a water softer to avoid the jets clogging up, I certainly don't fancy having to strip all these out to clean every couple of months.

wolfi

Duztee, then you might ask a specialist - I'm sure they exist ...

And don't forget to tell us about the results - please!

Re the shower:

Is it that bad? I really haven't seen any build up there but I usually clean/wipe the glass with a special wiper (similar to a car's wipers) that came with one of the showers.

enter

After every shower we use a rubber squeegee to clean the glass and it works fine,easy and no marks, good quality one from Tesco.

Peter_in_Hungary

I've never noticed lime-scale marks left on our shower curtain

Pulaski

You need something like this, which is inserted into the main water line into the house, and it filters out any solid debris, down to around 30microns, or less, depending on the disposable filter you fit in it.



I use one to filter out sand from my well, and change it quarterly. For a lesser problem with mains water the filter might last 6 months or a year.

duztee

Squeegee's would be a good solution except I am a man, finish shower and exit, worry about cleaning up later.
Curtain would also solve the problem but I find the temperate difference inside the shower tends to suck them in, so I either stick to them or have to squeeze into the corner.

I do have the name of an specialist company and they have an English speaking engineer who will come to see the house and advice. it depends not only on usage but on flow rate, as if I am ever going to have both showers going at the same time, it's bad enough if the washing machine kicks in during shower time. ( I told you I am a man, guaranteed to forget and take a shower 10 mins after starting the washer.)

I will give details when I get them, but it will be a couple of weeks. I am still busy with fitting the bath which has finally arrived after 6 weeks.

fidobsa

I did fit a carbon filter to the water supply coming into the Croatia house but it does nothing for the limescale. I was getting iron oxide particles the size of tea leaves and it does remove those. I still get reddish limescale in the kettle so I guess some impurities get past the filter.

I'm also in the process of putting in a new bathroom but progress is very slow, mainly due to my limited skill at plastering. When removing the old tiles a lot of plaster comes with them so I'm left with a very uneven surface. I made more mess yesterday as my rewiring work in the living room led me to the source of that rooms supply which turned out to be the bathroom. Most of the bathroom wiring which was embedded in the plaster is now hanging loose! There was a triple switch in the hall for bathroom light, water heater and washing machine. They had actually used 3 core wire for the water heater and washing machine but all 4 earth wire ends had been cut off short and not connected! I suppose they thought such appliances don't need earthing.

duztee

Exact same problem Fid.
Stripped all the old tiles off, some places they came off neatly but the majority took chunks of the soft so called plaster with them, especially over the points where pipes and cables were chased in.
Not only because the plaster is a very poor quality mixture but also the water pipes are all wrapped in a sort of hairy bandage which just ripped out with the tiles.

I would not even attempt to plaster this mess myself, I have a local chap who does it as a part time job at the week ends. I have to buy all the supplies and do the mixing for him, but he does a first class job and is so ridiculously cheap I would be a fool to even think of doing it myself.

FenTiger

Duztee - you need to grit your teeth and wipe the shower screen with a windscreen wiper. I do it .... and I'm not really the kind of person who clears or cleans up immediately .....

Pulaski

I would go so far as to say that tiles can't be removed from a wall without destroying the surface, and I wouldn't even waste my time trying to remove tiles from plasterboard - you just have to pull it off and put up new plasterboard.

I gutted my kitchen in London, and was glad that I did tear the plasterboard off the stud partition wall with the dining room, because the studs were 4ft on center apart, and the only thing holding tha wall to the ceiling joists appeared to be the cove molding on the dining room side I was going to hang cabinets on that wall so I was glad to find out that it needed major strengthening bracing.

fidobsa

In Hungary the internal walls tend to be brick, it would be a lot easier to deal with plasterboard. I wanted to buy wetwall panels for the bathroom as they save a huge amount of work but they don't seem to be available in this part of the world.

almafak

Our tap water contains dissolved sulphur as well as lots of calcium and flakes of iron. It would make great spa water!