Soft Water Specialists

The short answer is yes, the long answer is you may choose not to. A water softener doesn’t make the water harmful to drink, only adding a minute amount of sodium in most cases. But it does remove minerals from the water that are beneficial to health such as calcium. To get a balanced view we have written an article here (can this link through?) to help you decide.

In the majority of cases, a water softener is installed close to the main incoming water tap and, as a result, all the water in the house will become soft. This means all of the bathrooms and every tap and sink will stay limescale free. However most water softener companies, Shires Water included, will give the option to leave the garden tap untreated. You may also decide to have a separate drinking tap not softened. For more information please read this article (link to Does a water softener soft all the water in the house)

Yes on the whole water softeners are very reliable appliances. In our opinion, compared to washing machines, dishwashers or boilers, we see very few problems with water softeners. We quite regularly get called out to repair a water softener that could be 15 or 20 years old and has never had a fault at all. In this day and age that is quite a good life span. 

Obviously you get what you pay for with everything, so going for a well established brand is important. You will then get a quality product with a good warranty and more importantly spare and support will be available long into the future.