Best Water Softeners in the UK in 2022 | Comparison & Buyer’s Guide

If you are looking for a reliable and high-performance water softener, go with trusted, time-proven brands, such as the BWT. The latter is an Austrian manufacturer of water treatment systems that was established 30 years ago and since then has become a leading European company in the industry. Based in Mondsee, the company runs production facilities not only in Austria but also in Germany, France, and Switzerland, let alone multiple subsidiaries all over the world.

Apart from making treatment systems for drinking water, BWT AG supplies units producing pharmaceutical water, industrial water as well as water systems for air conditioners and swimming pools. The BWT products utilize a wide range of technologies from decarbonization and disinfection to membrane technology microfiltration and reverse osmosis.

Water Softeners Compared | Technology

As for the latter, the company offers an awesome system called the BWT WS555 Hi Flow Electronic Demand Block/Tablet Water Softener. Fully automatic and equipped with modern electronics, this unit is efficient and provides you with water of premium quality. It passes hard water through a cylinder with ion exchange resin, where hardness minerals are captured by small beads.

Then, the unit lets softened water into your water supply system. The beads are automatically cleaned from time to time, with the use of salt. The whole process is automatic and all you need to do is add some salt once in a while.

Note that although you can drink a small amount of salt softened water, it is generally not recommended for human consumption. Instead, it is used in the shower, laundry, and dishwashing. Softened water is beneficial for your skin and hair, makes fibers softer, and protects appliances and the plumbing system.

The WS555 unit is designed for a family of 6 and has an operating flow rate of 5 litres per 30 minutes. Compact in size, the unit will easily fit into a kitchen cupboard. It has a 14-liter size, which is the amount of ion exchange resin in the unit, and delivers a max capacity of 2,500 litres of softened water.

The product meets European and British standards and is loaded with features. Specifically, it has a low-voltage control system, a high-capacity resin, and an advanced memory function. Countercurrent regeneration reverses the flow of water so that the entire resin bed is treated optimally. The inlet and outlet have the optimum size ensuring a consistent water flow.

What do you need to know before buying a water softener?

Keep in mind that water softeners require that you regularly add salt to their brine tanks. The thing is that over the course of the water softening process, the machine breaks down this chemical compound, scientifically known as sodium chloride, and uses its element called sodium in order to efficiently remove hard minerals. If your water softener does not have sufficient salt, it will not operate properly. The rule of thumb is that the brine tank must be no less than one-third full or, ideally, should be half full. Then the question arises of how often you need to refill the brine tank and how much salt you should have at hand. Normally, you will need to add salt once every 2 or 3 months.

As for the quantity, you are likely to use approximately 18 to 22 kg of salt per month. Since this is a crucial ingredient for a water softener, we recommend that you stock up on salt for half a year ahead. Some 120 kg will be sufficient to keep your mind off of it. The good news is that the WS555 model is more efficient and requires 5 to 12 kg of salt per half a year for a family of 4. However, much depends on the family's lifestyle. What makes the WS555 model so efficient is the ability to build up a water usage pattern. The system regenerates only when there is not enough softened water for the rest of the day.

If you don’t need that much capacity, you may opt for the BWT WS455 Hi Flow Electronic Demand Block/Tablet Water Softener which is a little bit cheaper. Designed for a family of 4, this system has a 10-litre capacity and is 7 cm smaller than the WS555 model. For the rest, the unit offers the same advantages and features.

How Compact Cabinet Water Softeners Work

Soft water is not only a pleasant feeling when showering, bathing and washing hands. This, also, saves electricity, detergents, as well as the cost of preventive maintenance of heating equipment.

The standard equipment of the softener includes an ion exchange column and a brine tank.

Ion exchange loads for such softeners can be either direct or mixed action. That is, loading can remove only hardness salts, or solve a whole range of problems, removing not only hardness salts, but also iron, manganese, permanganate oxidizability, and sometimes even hydrogen sulfide.

The softener package includes a control valve, an ion-exchange column installed directly in the body, which is also a salt tank with a salt mine. This means that when servicing, salt tablets must be added directly to the body itself.

Best-Selling Water Softeners in the UK | Comparison Table