Soft or Hard Water? Help and information on all topics relating to your central heating, air conditioning and ventilation issues.

[S Leach]

Hi, Can anyone give me the answer to whether I need to have additional plumbing carried out because I have soft water going through my current Central heating system I have been told this is not suitable for new boilers; only hard water will do.

Many thanks [/i]

[The Heating Doctor]

New one to me, hard water is a boilers worst nightmare, just like a kettle element hard water if un-treated furs up the boilers water ways and causes premature failure of the boiler. Thats why in hard water areas you would be advised to fit one of the many available inline lime filters on to the cold water inlet. In soft water areas you should have installed a boiler with a stainles steel heat exchanger, as these are resistive to the very acidic condensate produced by condensing boilers soft water should pose no problems.