Jennifer
These âextra kalkschutzâ Brita filters are doing magic, if you replace them regularly. I bought a big pack with 50% discount in Coop for the whole year. They are great.
I donât know why the old thread reappeared, but these filters were much less effective 17 years ago. The new ones are much better.
I was wondering whether to install one of these âsoften at the mainsâ machines to handle water for the whole house.
Has anyone got one of these and what do you think of it. It seemed like just additional monthly maintenance (to replace salt etc.).
We are going to install it, but havenât yet agreed this with an owner. I donât think she would object, as we have some filter already (not against calc) in the boiler room and it can be easily replaced by the big anti-calc filter standing on the floor. I asked the person, who came to check the boiler, and he said that the installation would cost about 2000 CHF. But I have seen prices from 1000 in internet. I have yet to compare the prices.
I had one in England and it worked fine, just needed salt about once a month
We installed it so that one tap was not softened water.
Our apartment house has one just for the hot water and it is almost 40 years old. The Verwaltung wanted to replace it but we said no so long as it worked
Vinegar, I use Essig Essenz, a highly acidic vinegar concentrate, I also use it to clean metal and stainless steel surfaces in the kitchen.
Good stuff, just donât put it on your chips.
Calcium or magnesium in the water is generally considered to be good from a health point of view.
I fill the kettle from the hot water tap which really reduces the scale problem.
17 years later
???
Yes, vinegar (aka. acetic acid â the cheaper, the better) does magic removing calk (aka Calcium Carbonate).
by the way, vinegar (also the cheaper, the better) helps removing the acidity of strawberries, in about 30 minutes (at room temperature), and also creates around them a very yummy, sweet and flavored syrup. So, if you have bought strawberries that are not ripe enough, and you need them for dessert, or for cooking a cheesecake ( @bossybaby ) cut them in dices, and add 1 teaspoon of vinegar for every 200g of strawberries, mix it well, and let it stand for 30 minutes (minimum) at room temperature (optimal results at 2h) 
And, coming back to those things that happen only on weekends⌠for those drains and pipes that get clogged because of human debris (hair, shampoo, soap, and whatnot), sodium hydroxide (Lye, NaOH) is the first option (and you need only 100g, but read the instructions first!). Interestingly enough, in any country in Europe, you can buy the real stuff (solid pearls of NaOH) it in any hardware shop for 3 -6 CHF / kilo - here you have to go to a drugstore, and costs 30 Francs!!
If anyone is interested in the chemistry behind, it involves, respectively (a) acid+base=salt+water (+CO2), (b), stronger acid >> weaker acid and (c) pH >>10 burns chemically and denaturalizes proteins
We have one and it works really well.
Weâve had it for close to 13 years without any problems, we just lob a bag of salt in there every once in a while.
I think we might have had it serviced once or twice in all that time but thatâs it.
We have one tap which isnât connected to it and thatâs what we use for drinking water.
Try strawberries with balsamico and crushed pepper.
House-wide water softening is very common in the US. Iâd probably do it if my setup allowed it (Currently Iâm in a flat, with no real place to install it as the water enters at 2 different bathrooms.) For me, the justification would not be to avoid descaling kettles and the like. I find them easy enough to descale manually, and using water from a Brita-type filter greatly reduces the problem. Rather, the justification would to avoid calc on shower and kitchens surfaces which are less convenient to immerse is long enough to dissolve the stuff.
You are signing up to add salt regularly - Iâd go in expecting to need to haul in a 20kg bag of salt every month or two. Otherwise a proper setup should be trouble free for years at a time.
The other option to be aware of is a reverse-osmosis setup. These tend to be lower volume but sometimes they are plumbed into a single tap (or coffee machine) and will remove more stuff than the ion-exchange of the classic salt-regenerating softener. In fact, the salt is effectively used to replace the calcium carbonate with something more soluble, not to âfilterâ in the usual sense.
Using hot tap water for your kettle is not a good idea because the hot water from the tap may contain higher levels of contaminants compared to cold tap water.
The hot water can pick up more gunk, which can then end up in your tea, affecting the taste. In our house, weâve got two water boilers in the basement that only run at night to save on electricity, so the water sits there for hours before we use it.
So itâs generally better to start with cold, fresh water and heat it up yourself to ensure youâre getting the purest water for making tea.
Using Brita water filter helps prevent mineral buildup (like limescale) in your kettle and no more weird filmy layer on top of your tea and your tea actually tastes better!
However, we skip Brita filters because they can raise the sodium levels in water, plus you have to keep replacing the cartridges. Instead we use a home RO system hooked up to the kitchenâs cold water tap.
If youâve ever been to a Persian household, youâve probably noticed they all have an RO filter: itâs super common! Theyâre basically a staple in their kitchens. RO is just easier and keeps the electrical kettle scale-free in the long run.
We only use it for making tea and coffee. For everything else including drinking water and cooking, we just use regular cold tap water.
I had one for about 15 years and it worked well at the beginning but at the end I couldnât find good quality filters. I even tried connecting two in series but the result was not good
I was brought up to think that using the hot water tap was somehow bad for making tea, coffee etc. However this makes no sense with modern heaters. The minerals in water are good for you. Removing them (RO is better than an exchange filter which increases your sodium intake). Taste should be less affected by heating than by filtration. In countries with poor water supplies a filter system may be unavoidable but in Switzerland the water supply is generally excellent with, in most areas, low PFAS levels.
That used to be so back in the day when pipes were made out of lead or copper. Not a problem these days and if there is any contamination then in such small amounts that you donât need to worry.
So keep calm and drink tea.