Welcome to Thailandblog.nl
With 275.000 visits per month, Thailandblog is the largest Thailand community in the Netherlands and Belgium.
Sign up for our free e-mail newsletter and stay informed!
Newsletter
Language setting
Rate Thai Baht
Sponsor
Latest comments
- Rudolf: Quote: What are the current estimated costs of building a house per m². That just depends on what kind of requirements you meet
- Johnny B.G: In the 50s-80s/90s, Dutch regularly grown food also contained poison and yet there are 20% elderly people in the Netherlands and in TH that is also the case.
- Johnny B.G: The interpreter bases himself on a number of sources, but there is of course much more to it. In Isaan since 50-60 years ago r
- rob: On average I stay in Thailand 6 to 8 months a year and enjoy the food there every day. I will never, ever be told
- Eric Kuypers: Robert, do you know how big the Isaan is? Say NL three times, so it makes sense if you give a little bit of direction like the pro
- RonnyLatYa: Yes, I say that Kanchanaburi is just an example and that you can change that. You can also do this on the web page itself and then see
- william-korat: In the dry period the line is bottom of Bangkok and lower and east of that to just above Khao Yai National Park usually we
- Eric Kuypers: If you change the command line, such as https://www.iqair.com/thailand/nong-khai, you will get a different city or region. But you
- Cornelis: Well, GeertP, I am absolutely not a 'Brussels sprouts supporter' or THE Red Brand addict, but that does not mean that I don't like the Thai cuisine.
- Rudolf: It depends on what you are looking for in Thailand, but to be honest you don't have much choice in my opinion. The big cities are falling apart
- RonnyLatYa: Also take a look at this. https://www.iqair.com/thailand/kanchanaburi Also scroll down a bit and they will also give you some explanation
- Peter (editor): I also enjoy the Thai food and yes, the price is very attractive. But it's just a fact that Thai farmers are unbelievable
- Jacks: It is best to go in the period November to February. Someone with asthma should absolutely not come here from March to May
- GeertP: Dear Ronald, I completely agree with your story, I also enjoy Thai cuisine every day and even after 45 years of Thai
- Eric Kuypers: Wilma, bad air is not in all of Thailand. Thailand is more than 12x the Netherlands! These are the big cities (traffic) and some
Sponsor
Bangkok again
Menu
Arrivals Bangkok Airport
DOSSIERS
Learning objectives and topics
- Background
- Activities
- Advertorial
- Agenda
- Tax question
- Belgium question
- Sights
- Bizarre
- Buddhism
- Book reviews
- Column
- Corona crisis
- The Culture
- Diary
- Dating
- The week of
- Dossier
- To dive
- Economy
- A day in the life of…..
- Islands
- Food and drink
- Events and festivals
- Balloon Festival
- Bo Sang Umbrella Festival
- Buffalo races
- Chiang Mai Flower Festival
- Chinese New Year
- Full Moon Party
- Christmas
- Lotus Festival – Rub Bua
- Loy Krathong
- Naga Fireball Festival
- New Years Eve celebration
- Phi ta khon
- Phuket Vegetarian Festival
- Rocket festival – Bun Bang Fai
- Songkran – Thai New Year
- Fireworks Festival Pattaya
- Expats and retirees
- state pension
- Car insurance
- Banking
- Tax in the Netherlands
- Thailand tax
- Belgian Embassy
- Belgian tax authorities
- Proof of life
- DigiD
- emigrate
- To rent a house
- Buy a house
- In memoriam
- Income statement
- King's day
- Cost of living
- Dutch embassy
- Dutch government
- Dutch Association
- News
- Passing away
- Passport
- Retirement
- Drivers license
- Distributions
- Elections
- Insurance in general
- Visa
- work
- Hospital
- Health insurance
- Flora and fauna
- Photo of the week
- Gadgets
- Money and finance
- History
- Health
- Charities
- Hotels
- Looking at houses
- Isaan
- Khan Peter
- Koh Mook
- King Bhumibol
- Living in Thailand
- Reader Submission
- Reader call
- Reader tips
- Reader question
- Society
- marketplace
- Medical tourism
- Environment
- Nightlife
- News from the Netherlands and Belgium
- News from Thailand
- Entrepreneurs and companies
- Education
- Research
- Discover Thailand
- Opinions
- Remarkable
- Calls
- Floods 2011
- Floods 2012
- Floods 2013
- Floods 2014
- Winter prices
- Politics
- Poll
- Travel stories
- Travel
- Organizations
- Shopping
- Social media
- Spa & wellness
- Sport
- Cities
- Position of the week
- The beach
- Language
- For sale
- TEV procedure
- Thailand in general
- Thailand with children
- thai tips
- Thai massage
- Tourism
- Going out
- Currency – Thai Baht
- From the editors
- Real estate law; and
- Traffic and transport
- Visa Short Stay
- Long stay visa
- Visa question
- Flight tickets
- Question of the week
- Weather and climate
Sponsor
Disclaimer translations
Thailandblog uses machine translations in multiple languages. Use of translated information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for errors in translations.
Read our full here disclaimer.
Royalty
© Copyright Thailandblog 2024. All rights reserved. Unless stated otherwise, all rights to information (text, image, sound, video, etc.) that you find on this site rest with Thailandblog.nl and its authors (bloggers).
Whole or partial takeover, placement on other sites, reproduction in any other way and/or commercial use of this information is not permitted, unless express written permission has been granted by Thailandblog.
Linking and referring to the pages on this website is permitted.
Home » Reader question » Reader question: Who has experience with a water softener?
Dear readers,
Where we live the water is quite hard. I had already looked at a water softener at Homepro, but that thing cost around 20.000 Baht. Isn't there a cheaper solution?
I just want to soften the water that goes into the house. We already have a filter installation in house for drinking water, but obviously not for the water from the washing machine and shower.
Who has experience with it? I have already searched for TB with the keywords water descaler and water softener, but did not find anything…
Regards,
Jack S
We ourselves have also bought a very expensive complete installation. In the Netherlands, friends of ours have also paid more than 2000 euros for lime-free installation
20.000 Baht is not expensive for such a thing.
What is “quite hard” and what value do you want?
In NL, a value above 12DH is seen as "hard". Our raw water has a DH of 37. Once it has gone through my softener it has a DH of 19. Much better, but still very hard. So I run it through my softener two or three times until I get a reading of 7-8DH.
Remember, you have to regenerate one of those things too. Depending on your use, the time between each regeneration is determined. You have to flush salt water through it. If you buy a good softener, the thing will do it itself. But there must be a bucket of saturated salt solution next to it, and there must be a drain. Contrary to what almost everyone thinks, the discharged water is NOT salty. That is a fairly complicated chemical reaction, but with your internet knowledge you can probably look it up.
You're better off looking at TV. You will find much more there. (Incidentally, also about solar panels)
Good luck with your search!
Arjen.
Hardness of the water is caused by Ca and K salts dissolved in that water. In an ion exchanger, those Ca and K are replaced by the Na of NaCl = cooking salt. That is why the granules in the softener must be regularly rinsed (= regenerated) with table salt.
The same goes for the softener of a dishwasher and sometimes a washing machine.
The more automated, the more expensive that device becomes.
Those Ca and K salts are NOT magnetic, so… that marketing fairy tale with a magnet on the water pipe to remove limescale is only good for one thing: the turnover of the seller.
Just a few additions that are actually very important to know.
You need to know your current hardness. "quite loud" says little or nothing. And you really need to know what hardness you want to go to. Then you need to know how much water you need. (Are you going to fill your bath, or are you going to fill a container with water very slowly for a shower?) And if you know those values, they can't help you with a homepro either. You really need to go to a specialist for that.
A softener has a fairly large pressure drop. This can be quite difficult, especially if you want to tap a lot of water. (instead of filling your bath in 20 minutes, it now takes 1,5 hours)
I put my softener parallel to my water system, parallel to a supply tank. If the water in the tank is too hard, I circulate with a pump through the softener and the tank until I have the value I want. My pressure pump keeps the supply tank pressurized. In this way I am not bothered by the pressure drop across the softener. If the water threatens to become a little harder, the circulation pump switches on. If I switch on a large consumer (for example, if we are going to run two large washes), I switch on the circulation pump manually.
At some point, the softener stops working and needs to be regenerated. That happens automatically for me. 'at night. And because it is automatic and I don't want to get out of bed, there is always 100 liters of saturated salt solution next to the softener.
For a good, working system, count at least 100.000 Baht.
I spent about 15 Baht 200.000 years ago and I had to import a lot myself.
Arjen.
we also bought a water softener at Meerendonk. We are extremely satisfied. http://Www.wegmetkalk.nl
When I read the answers like this, I will continue with what I am already doing. I have a 2000 liter tank, which I will fill up with rainwater during the rainy period. I will then use this…and when that is gone, the normal hard water again until the next rain showers.
Dear Jack S,
Building such a water softener yourself is actually very simple, you don't have to be a technical marvel for it. It won't be an automated device, of course, but it will work just fine. What do you need?
-a small water tank: 50l is already enough with a well-sealable lid or, as I used, thick-walled PVC pipe with a diameter of 200mm and a length of 1m. You can glue a closing plug on both sides there...
- some accessories such as bends, sleeves… taps….
softening resin: this is easily available in Thailand and it is best to buy the crystal form and not the powder form
salt to regenerate
Too bad I can't attach a drawing here otherwise I would. Have already built 3 of which 1 larger one for a resort with 10 homes….. For a home with 'normal consumption' the total cost was approximately 8000THB. Those who own a 'fully automatic system' eventually also have to pour the salt into the receiver of the device…. placing it next to the device does not mean that it jumps in on its own and you can lie quietly in bed ……
Those 'magnetic' things do NOT remove the lime from the water. These items only prevent the lime from depositing as the lime remains in the water in 'dust form'. You may have little or no problems with the white limescale, but the limescale is still in the water. If you do a measurement you will see that the hardness, both BEFORE and AFTER this 'magnetic softener' is identical.
Bit of a weird comment about regenerating.
If the device is fully automatic, it is. And yes, I have to make sure there is a quantity of salt-saturated water next to it. But when the thing starts to regenerate, the salt water is taken out of the tank, and yes (!), it doesn't jump in, but is pumped in. Completely without me having to do anything!!!! Nice, technique.
I just have to top up the salt again in a month or so, because then it will regenerate again.
I agree with you about your comment about those magnets, that's like those magic power savers. Basically your pure scam.
Arjen.
Then you have to order the Alfa 4000 at dekalker.com, which is a magnet on the water pipe, I have it, it also works perfectly!
I've come that far, a water softener with a magnet, so it appears to work only very limitedly, see https://kosten-waterontharder.nl/radar/
Much depends on the amount of lime in the water, is it well water or water from the local network, well water always contains a lot of lime but depends on the region, the network usually uses surface water and is of fairly good quality.
In Hua HIn I used well water from a depth of 130 meters, there was so much lime in it that descaler could hardly handle it, I had to have it cleaned twice a week, which costs quite a bit in salt, now I use local mains water, and I measured it, there is hardly any lime in them, they use surface water and are therefore of good quality, I no longer need a descaler!
My descaler cost 40.000 baht in Hua Hin and is really not too much, the home pro devices, well I had less confidence in them, a descaler also needs a good technician and service.
Good advice, use mains water for the household and well water for the garden.
A good fully automatic water softener can be purchased from € 890. We have very good experiences with it. Can also be shipped abroad. Installing it yourself is fine.
I read a lot of fable-based information above. Read the facts (and myths). http://www.mooiwater.nl
we recently got an Aquacell water softener.
Wonderfully soft water. Regenerates automatically. Cost us including assembly and 21 fillings of salt 2454 euros.