Preventing Limescale

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › Preventing Limescale

Paul1977

5171 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2192

#237931 25-Jun-2018 10:44

We've just put in a whole house water filtration system to get rid of chlorine.

I does a great job with the removal of taste and smell, but it occurred to me that I don't know if carbon filters do anything to reduce limescale buildup.

Are there filter options that help with this? Is this what a deionising filter does?

Fred99

13684 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 10018

#2043601 25-Jun-2018 15:54

I think an ion exchange resin filter may be what you'd need, but I expect that if you've got significantly hard water, then it's going to be a pretty big system needed to deal with it.

Perhaps something like this which I think is a 30l/minute capable unit and obviously not under-bench mount.
You'd probably best speak to suppliers of systems for rural bore water treatment etc.

Aredwood

3885 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1749

#2043857 26-Jun-2018 00:26

Now that is a cool system.

Although another method is to just get rainwater tanks instead.

Paul1977

5171 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2192

#2043913 26-Jun-2018 09:13

I'm on a mains supply in Christchurch, so don't think the water is particularly hard. I just figured that since I put this whole house system in, if I could relatively easily improve it with a different filter then it would be worth looking at.

I was thinking something more along the lines of two of these coupled together in a 20" Jumbo housing after my carbon filter?

I currently have 2x 20'" Jumbo housings with a 20 micron sediment filter in housing 1 followed by a 1 micron carbon filter is housing 2.

As mentioned I'm on a mains supply, so the sediment filter can probably safely be removed, then move the carbon filter to housing 1, and put the deionising filter in housing 2?

Can anyone advise whether this is a good idea?

Also, reading a lot of differing opinions online about whether deionised water is a good thing or not. Some claiming it is unhealthy, some saying it tastes weird, some saying it will eat into your your pipes?

Fred99

13684 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 10018

#2044082 26-Jun-2018 13:24

I don't think it's a good idea. For Chch town supply water, you're going to need a complex/expensive system to solve a problem which doesn't really need to be solved.

Our place is almost 60 years old, all the plumbing is original copper, where we've shifted / changed plumbing over the years, there's no sign of any significant scale buildup in the hot water pipes. The HWC is at least 30 years old, still going strong on the original element - so I haven't had a reason to ever look inside or see if there's scale on the element.

I have a heat exchanger type espresso machine now about 5 years old. I stripped that down last year to change seals etc (and an element that had blown). It was more-or-less clean as a whistle as far as scale goes.

Aredwood

3885 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1749

#2044363 26-Jun-2018 20:53

Paul1977:
I'm on a mains supply in Christchurch, so don't think the water is particularly hard. I just figured that since I put this whole house system in, if I could relatively easily improve it with a different filter then it would be worth looking at.

I was thinking something more along the lines of two of these coupled together in a 20" Jumbo housing after my carbon filter?

I currently have 2x 20'" Jumbo housings with a 20 micron sediment filter in housing 1 followed by a 1 micron carbon filter is housing 2.

As mentioned I'm on a mains supply, so the sediment filter can probably safely be removed, then move the carbon filter to housing 1, and put the deionising filter in housing 2?

Can anyone advise whether this is a good idea?

Also, reading a lot of differing opinions online about whether deionised water is a good thing or not. Some claiming it is unhealthy, some saying it tastes weird, some saying it will eat into your your pipes?

If you remove too much of the dissolved minerals. The water will become aggressive, and it will dissolve copper pipes. This is also a health risk. As you will be ingesting large amounts of copper, which is a heavy metal.

Paul1977

5171 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2192

#2045951 29-Jun-2018 11:01

Aredwood:
Paul1977:

I'm on a mains supply in Christchurch, so don't think the water is particularly hard. I just figured that since I put this whole house system in, if I could relatively easily improve it with a different filter then it would be worth looking at.

I was thinking something more along the lines of two of these coupled together in a 20" Jumbo housing after my carbon filter?

I currently have 2x 20'" Jumbo housings with a 20 micron sediment filter in housing 1 followed by a 1 micron carbon filter is housing 2.

As mentioned I'm on a mains supply, so the sediment filter can probably safely be removed, then move the carbon filter to housing 1, and put the deionising filter in housing 2?

Can anyone advise whether this is a good idea?

Also, reading a lot of differing opinions online about whether deionised water is a good thing or not. Some claiming it is unhealthy, some saying it tastes weird, some saying it will eat into your your pipes?

If you remove too much of the dissolved minerals. The water will become aggressive, and it will dissolve copper pipes. This is also a health risk. As you will be ingesting large amounts of copper, which is a heavy metal.

Thanks @Aredwood, that's a much better explanation than I've found elsewhere.

Turns out the mixed bed resin cartridges (even when 2 are coupled together for my 20" jumbo housing) would drop the flow rate way to much for whole house anyway.

New World

Shop on-line at New World now for your groceries (affiliate link).

Bung

6736 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 2929

Subscriber

#2045984 29-Jun-2018 12:05

I use PureDew brand distilled water from Countdown for anything that must have pure water and white vinegar occasionally in the kettle.