What is a 'Duplex' water softener?

It's not always the most straight forward of things, buying a softener. The most frequent question is, "what is a duplex?"

The best way to describe this is to explain a simplex softener first - the 'simplex' describes a single vessel within the softener.

The picture to the right, shows a model with two vessels (the two dark blue canisters) ; this is known as a duplex model.

The simplex softeners were the first ones on the market; These need time to 'regenerate' the resin. Or, in lamens terms, to soak up all the sodium goodness into the small resin beads, before the softening process starts again. This limits the use of your softener, but only on occasion. There are many ways to get around that, one is to use a 'timer' softener (which we will link to another post shortly) and the other is to invest in a 'duplex'.

A duplex softener only uses one canister/vessel at a time, so one of them has a full chance to 'regenerate' before needing to be used - it's a feature that ensures soft water is being made 24/7, and is the choice most people make when deciding to buy a softener.

This is what happens when a softener regenerates...

Block Salt For Water Softeners - Let's Take a Look at The Top 10 Reasons

BUY NOW for £5.24 per bag! 

There could not be a better time to buy a water softener these days - prices are going down, the units themselves are improving, but most people just want to know what the best kind of salt is to use in what softener. This question crops up very frequently, and we only have one answer....


Block Salt.
Is it the best kind? 
Yeah, we think so.


There's nothing worse than splitting a bag or granular salt all over your garage floor, or taking forever to pour a heavy bag of pellet (or tablet) salt into a softener tightly tucked under your kitchen sink, shaking your head, asking "Why on earth isn't there an easier way of doing something so simple?"
Block salt, when used in a water softener, can increase the user experience as well as the performance of the softener itself. There are a fair few kinds of water softeners that take block salt now, so there's even more reason to buy! The comparison between using other types of salt (tablet/pellet or granular) makes it an easy choice for us - Here are our Top 10 countdown of reasons why:


10. Storage
These beauties stack up very neatly - their shape makes it super easy to pack them away in small spaces - They'll probably fit under the sink too!


9. Weight
Their weight makes them ideal for every type of person; The whole range of salt made available on the market today are usually around 25Kgs! And let's face it, unless your a fitness freak or a body builder, no ones going to find moving huge salt bags of 25Kg an easy task, especially if you want to stock up. The block salt comes in easy carry bags, that weigh only 8Kgs each (each block is 4Kgs)


8. Cleanliness
As I mentioned before, dropping a load of granular salt all over the floor isn't fun - it's a waste of money for a start, and cleaning it up is murder - definitely something we could do without - Thank god for block salt!


7. Widely Available
There are literally tons of suppliers in the UK that can delivery direct to the door - one phone call, and that's it! Of course, this is true for other types of salt too, but none is so widely available as block.


6. User Experience
There are many customers that find it difficult with softeners that take other types of salt to work out when they need to top up to make sure their softener carrys on running at its best. This is where block salt is handy as its shape means that once there is only a third of a block left two more can be popped in, meaning your softener never reaches empty!


5. Wide Range of Softeners that Take Block Salt
There is a huge range of softeners out there that take block salt so you will definitely be able to find one to suit your needs. The Crown softener is our most recommended softener as an all round great performer!

Check this out for a wide range of block salt eating softeners.


4. Softener Performance
Block salt's anti-caking agents mean that your softener won't get blocked up so there will be no nasty lumps to contend with and will save you calling out a plumber unnecessarily to service your softener.


3. No Mess, No Fuss
As previously said, Block Salt comes in an easy to use form so that no measuring is required and no spillages will occur, when you are filling up your softener, meaning no messing around trying to stop salt from pouring all over your floor!


 2. Quality Standard
Block Salt is made in the UK and is food grade salt promising you great quality salt at all times!


1. Cheap, Cheap, Cheap!
Block salt is much cheaper to buy than any other kind of softener salt so stock up now!

Top 5 Ways to Purify Water

There are literally hundreds of opinions on the chemicals we use in water in the UK, but which ones should we believe?

Personally I'm of the opinion (from doing some research) that there are far too many additives put into our mains water, making them harmful over the years, but luckily there are a few ways to fix that, and of course, we're being objective here... so lets look at the facts we have:

There are a few of you out there that wouldn't give it a second thought but, in actual fact, our water isn't just water at all, it harbours almost everything it comes into contact with - just like how homoeopathy works. Water will pick stuff up along its pipe travels, and will carry heavy metals, minerals and bacteria - but that's a natural function of water, what we want to look at is some of the additives to 'combat' the picked up stuff. There are many chemicals added to water to clean it, and there are also chemicals added to 'medicate' us. 


Firstly there's fluoridation. In 2009, the daily mail reported this:

"A health trust has become the first to force through a move to add fluoride to tap water to fight tooth decay in children.
The decision was made using new laws to introduce fluoridation, although three in four members of the public and a county council opposed it.  
Adding fluoride to water has been described by critics as 'mass medication' of the population because, unlike chlorine, it is not added to make supplies safe.
Around 200,000 people in Southampton will be affected in an area where four in ten children have a filling by school age. Dentists said it would reduce the number of decayed teeth.  Just 10 per cent of England's water is fluoridated, covering 5.5million people, mainly in the north-east and west Midlands.
The last fluoridation scheme was introduced in 1985, but the Health Secretary last year called for further schemes after consultation, saying most people were in favour."

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1156783/Fluoride-water--dont-want-it.html#ixzz1j4TTU4yD

So from that we can tell there has been at the very least some debate - It also tells us that fluoride was introduced to 'medicate' us with the hopes of reducing decay in teeth. It looks as though, there have been doubts about the effectiveness and the morality of dosing the nation. There are millions of reports from scientists, herbalists and bloggers alike, of finding information (whether first hand, or second) that suggest Fluoridation will only enhance the creation of cavities in teeth.


Then there is Chlorine. This was published on about.com by Larry West:


“Chlorine has been hailed as the savior against cholera and various other water-borne diseases, and rightfully so,” says Steve Harrison, president of water filter maker Environmental Systems Distributing. “Its disinfectant qualities…have allowed communities and whole cities to grow and prosper by providing disease-free tap water to homes and industry."
Interestingly the article goes on to discredit the chemical:

"Harrison says that ‘all this disinfecting’ has not come without a price: Chlorine introduced into the water supply reacts with other naturally-occurring elements to form toxins called trihalomethanes (THMs), which eventually make their way into our bodies. THMs have been linked to a wide range of human health maladies ranging from asthma and eczema to bladder cancer and heart disease. In addition, Dr. Peter Montague of the Environmental Research Foundation cites several studies linking moderate to heavy consumption of chlorinated tap water by pregnant women with higher miscarriage and birth defect rates."

Weirdly, wherever my research into the subject takes me, there seems to be less of an upside to these chemicals, and a HUGE downside instead.
Most people are savvy to these types of chemical dosings, and find several ways to deal with it, in their own homes. Here's the top 5 things we can do:


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#1 Filtration
Filtered water is one of the best and cheapest options to keep drinking water purer. Many items under this option are around £30-£70 off the bat, and about £10-£40 to replace the cartridge(s) every 6-12 months. They can easily be installed at home yourself too, which is a bonus, and are small enough to fit in very small spaces.

#2 Reverse Osmosis
Filtered water is good. Water that's been through a reverse osmosis treatment is a million times better - this basically means water is filtered up to 5 times, through very fine filter membranes, on the smallest scale possible, taking out all the additives, smell and even fluoride, which is especially hard to remove from water. The reverse osmosis units are particularly hard to find for home use at an affordable price, but we've found a great little one here, that will fit under a sink!


#3 Water Softeners
We never usually consider the effects the scale has on our bodies, it's usually the damage it does to pipework, the taps and the shower head! Having a bath in water that has magnesium and calcium particles floating around in it, can damage skin and hair, making them dry, and sink into our bloodstream whilst we clean ourselves. Water softeners, that use salt and resin, are a great for making the water 'soft' as apposed to hard. You'll also find your cleaning products and shampoo will go a lot further, in essence making this option somewhat pay for itself eventually!

#4 UV light
Ultraviolet water purification lamps produce UV-C or "germicidal UV," radiation of much greater intensity than sunlight. UV treatment is an great choice to get rid of contamination for most homes. For this option, we must be aware, that ultraviolet purification systems are usually combined with various forms of filtration, as UV light is only capable of killing microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses and molds etc.


#5 Bottled Water
If in doubt of a good source of drinking water, buy some good bottled water to keep your body healthy for the time being, at least until you can acquire some hardcore purifying kit of course, since this option can be very costly in the log run

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All these options are great for helping to keep water a little more in control at home, and there are some brilliant technologies up and coming; stay tuned for a sequel article!


<<<<<<<<Check out some great water treatment products available in the UK>>>>>>>>>>