Faucet Taps - 3 way Taps - Quooker Taps. How To Use Them With A Water Softener (Do I need a hard water drinking line?)
Faucet Taps
With any water softener installation we always try and leave a hard water drinking line to the kitchen or utility sink position, because although soft water is fine to drink, it has a small trace element of sodium left from the water softener regeneration process (this is where the softener rinses out the lime it has captured, flushing it down the drain, using the salt brine (salt & water)). Although the sodium levels are very low (approximately 5 glasses of soft water has the same amount of sodium as 1 slice of bread, so it won’t overdo your daily intake by any stroke of the imagination) some people are advised against drinking soft water, for example if they are on a low sodium diet, or infants under 6 months who can’t process sodium (baby bottles should be made up with hard water).
The hard water line usually takes the form of 1 of the following 3 options:
- The cold tap: Leaving the kitchen cold tap on the hard water. (not such a good option if you are trying to banish the limescale from your kitchen sink).
- Additional tap: Installing a separate drinking water faucet (small tap) into the corner of the sink or worktop (even granite or quarts which we can drill.
- 3-way tap: Changing the existing 2-way tap (hot & cold) to one with an additional drinking water lever (hot & cold are softened, drinking water is hard).
See our collection of drinking water faucets and 3-way taps for sale.
Option 2 and 3 can also have an inline Granulated Active Carbon Filter which removes most of the smell and taste of the London Water. See our chart on the impurity’s that our 10inch GAC filter remove.
Why does the London tap water smell?
Pure water has no smell or taste, so the smell and taste comes from the impurities that the water company are allowed to keep in (in small amounts) in trace elements, such as lead, rubber particles, pesticides, contraceptives, and many, many more.
A Granulated Active Carbon Filter will remove a large amount of these impurities giving you fresh, clean tasting drinking water.
For 100% pure water you may require a Reverse Osmosis system with 4 or 5 stage filter, and remineralisation cartridge to make sure all the good minerals are retained.
The faucet taps are installed (where possible) free as part of any water softener installation by West London Water Softeners.
But we also offer them online to be purchased separately for DIY requirements.
The Granulated Active Carbon Filter and housing is installed where required for a small extra charge (see our section on drinking water filters) with the filter cartridge replacement available to purchase as an annual or bi-annual replacement from our website.
3-Way Taps
3-Way taps supply hot, cold softened water and drinking water supplied by the hard feed (teed off before the softener/using your original drinking water).
As with the faucet option the cold unsoftened can run through a Granulated Active Carbon Filter if preferred.
A 3-way tap is an optional extra that can be fitted when you purchase a water softener from West London Water Softeners. Either bought from us or we can install your own for a small installation charge.
Quooker Boiling Water Taps
Quooker taps supply instant boiling water and usually act as your hot and cold water tap too. They are available with also with a filtered drinking water option, making them a 4-way tap.
- 1st & 2nd way: Hot and cold domestic water tap for washing up.
- 3rd way: Boiling water for tea, coffee, blanching and many other uses.
- 4th way: Cold filtered drinking water.
- 5th way: And if so required the Quooker Cube add-on offers chilled sparkling filtered drinking water.
A Quooker tap goes hand in hand with a TwinTec or Infinity water softener, this is because boiling water taps fed by hard water can be prone to breakdown due to the limescale deposit buildup like you see in the bottom of your kettle.
This affects the valves and switches in any boiling water tap causing them problems which is why Quooker say you should either install their scale reducing cartridge at a replacement cost of £160 per year or use soft water. So running your Quooker on soft water saves £160 per year. (the filtered drinking water to the Quooker is still fed by hard water).
A Quooker tap is an optional extra that can be fitted when you purchase a water softener.