FranE

Hello everyone

My hubby is trying to make a decision on what to buy. We have tested our water for hardness (30 grados franceses) and decided we need 15 litres resin for up to 3 people, emptying into a rather small septic tank. There are four makes/models available which appear suitable to our situation, and we wonder if anyone has any knowledge of any of them ?

Robosoft RBS-14ED @ 746 euros

AEG 15L @ 890 euros

BBAGUA mini 14 @ 399 euros

Aqualaria Kube 15 @ 609 euros

(These are all available from Filtec, AKI and Leroy Merlin)


Huge difference in price, but reading whatever is available on the web, including the fichas tecnicas, we can't find any indication of what the differences are to justify the prices.

Many thanks in advance for any help/comments/advice.

Fred James

We have an ATH softener. It's a big one and cost about €800 but it's fully automatic and recharges based on usage not time. They have a big range including some quite small units. It's a Spanish company and they have many agents.

uk_grenada

I assume this is for washing etc and you dont drink the water?

Fred James

I don't drink the water. That's not because I have any concerns about the sodium content but because it comes from an agricultural supply and can spend some time in our deposito.

The medical evidence I have seen suggests that the added sodium is only likely to be a problem if you have a serious problem with sodium levels and are on a proper low sodium diet.

Apparently a glass of milk can contain 5 times the sodium found in softened water.

uk_grenada

Apart from the taste, i heard it was more of an issue with long term consumption - if you drank it for 10 years you stood higher chances of several issues. Also it wasnt just about the sodium, but also the lack of some other minerals of which calcium / magnesium were mentioned a lit.

Fred James

Interesting point. I had another Google and didn't find any mention of it. I suppose there could be similar problems (if it is a problem) with any water supply as it is a bit hit and miss what exactly is in it.

I usually limit my water intake to the 85% of the contents of a bottle of wine which are water!

uk_grenada

Its safer...

Although i concur re wine - we have some excellent stuff here from chile and argentina - the locals swear by some organic sugar cane juice treated like brandy - the result is only 25% water, and honestly i cant drink 1/4 of a bottle!

If you leave it in a barrel for 25 years, something magical happens and the water content increases to 50-60% and i swear, in taste tests it get preferred to remy martin xo or hennessy xo, which costs about 6-10 times as much.

Get yourself a bottle of demarara 21 or 25 year old from guyana - worth it...

Fred James

I bought some Gold Bacardi in the Bahamas once and that was about 85% alcohol - it had a fire warning label. The coke to go with it was much more expensive.


Sadly we are now getting wildly off topic! Smacks wrists!

FranE

We do indeed only use our (pozo) water for washing. So, anyone have any experience or knowledge of the ones I mentioned? It's the price difference I don't understand.

FranE

Fred - the one we're looking at now also works on water usage and not time. We're puzzled as to how it knows the hardness of the water, as in, the higher the hardness the more often it should re-generate (?). Do you know how this works? Our water is 30 HF, and the machine treats water up to 85HF, which suggests that unless it has some way of "knowing" the hardness it would regenerate more quickly than we would need? This is an important factor for us as the waste water will be going in to our septic tank which is not overly big!

Thanks

Fred James

It doesn't know the hardness, you have to enter the figure manually.

The rest works on usage. Be careful where you buy the salt. The best place we have found is the local big builders merchants. They charge €5.30 for 25kg. Pool shops will charge 2 or even 3 times that price for exactly the same brand.