Water softener advice request

[Bonzodog]

Is anyone aware of any *effective* water-softening technologies aside from salt-based systems? E.g. I've seen ads for magnetic devices that clamp on to pipes - can't possibly see how magnetism could have any effect, but what about electrolysis, etc?

Waste of money in my experience .

[Kingstepper]

RO filters water down to a few ppm (in my case 22) but it is very wasteful so only suitable for drinking water. Softened Tap water for me is the same as the mains (274 vs 278 ppm) in my experience it does still spot but is much easier to clean off and makes showers and shaving etc. much more enjoyable and leaves the bathrooms clean and sparkling - only exception is the taps under the shower but this wipes off so easily and there really is next to no scale in tapes/showers that I used to have to clear regularly with bits falling out of them.

When I looked at protecting the pipework and boiler heater there were polyphopshate dosers which looked effective and are used in many industries, but I decided with my plumber that a water softener would provide the best overall experience.

If I moved house the softener would definitley be coming with me !

How is RO wasteful - expensive cartridges, in water or something else?

[MB2]

How is RO wasteful - expensive cartridges, in water or something else?

Water wasteage - you make 1 litre of RO water from 5 litres of tap water so unless you catch and reuse the waste water for something else they are very ineffiecient. They are also slow to filter the water so I doubt you could use one to provide whole house water even if you wanted to.

[domwells]

I thought RO was far too slow for use on whole house. Also, for drinking water I believe RO removes all of the minerals which isn't necessarily what you want - sometimes this is countered by having a mineralisation stage iirc.
We went for a Doulton duo ceramic filter on the drinking tap.

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[konlew]

I'm using Buderus water softener (model Loga Soft 25) - not sure if it's available in UK - as far as I know, some Italian company is the manufacturer for Buderus and some other brands.
It's attached on main water pipe in my house, so all water is softened - it's working flawlessy for 5 people since 2011. No health problems :)
Price is about 400-500 Euro.