Carl joined the Family construction business from school and having served his apprenticeship went on to study construction management & design at Richmond College in Surrey. Having been active in the construction industry since 1977 his wealth of experience combined with Peter’s makes a staggering figure of 67 years in the building ,plumbing and plumbing supplies industry. Although Carl is a fully qualified service technician and engineer, he is also very customer centric and committed to offering the best in customer service.
Carl’s journey through the Water Treatment world really started in 1990. Having worked as a Project & Site Manager for the family business for many years he felt it was time he flexed his muscles in the Water Softener Industry. He joined Aqua-Dial and within 2 years was promoted to UK Sales Manager. Carl then moved to Culligan Household Products Division as UK Sales Manager in 1997 (at this time Culligan was the parent company behind many household brands of water softeners including Waterside, Aqua-Dial, Liff and Permutit). Moving on to become UK Sales Manager for EcoWater in 2001. Whereupon he and Peter, after a couple of years of thought and further research, created Friendly Water in 2003. 10 years later they are still building and developing the flourishing business that is Friendly Water focusing on listening to their customers, providing independent, unbiased advice, solutions and excellent after sales care.
Q:
Hi - I have a Hague Maximizer 410 which is displaying the message ‘Home not Found’ and bleeps continuously. Powering the unit off and on clears the issue but this has now happened 4 times in the past 4 weeks. Does this warrant a service call and if so could you let me know if this is something you can do and the approximate costs. NB: you installed the unit in 2018 and it’s been working fine until this recent episode. Thanks and regards, Kevin
Kevin
A:
If the “Home not found” message displays, the correct thing to do is power off and power on to reset the Home position.
If the message appears repeatedly this could be indicative of a problem and a service visit would be advised.
The most likely culprit is high water pressure.
Answered by Peter Hines
Q:
My 410 Hague Maximizer is bleeping and there’s a message stating “home not found”. Would be grateful for advice please. Many thanks. Liz
Liz Kearney-Bloomfield
A:
I don’t advise anyone to strip down the valve, but if the power off reset does not work then call for service. Regards.
Answered by Peter Hines
Q:
Hi I fitted a used tapworks water softener model ad11 in November 2022 i put 25 kg bag of salt tables in now it needs refilling is this about normal or is it using too much .the setting is number 18 for this area. Thanks.
Robert Page
A:
For a single user that sounds about right but actual usage will vary depending on water consumption and hardness.
Answered by Peter Hines
Q:
Hi, We got a message on our recently installed Hague 410 saying "Home latched" and its constantly beeping. Please advise.
Wei-Li Di
A:
Suggest power off, then leave 2 minutes and power on , may solve the problem.
Answered by Peter Hines
Q:
Hello We have a Tapworks water softener around 9 years old. Working perfectly well as far as I can tell. We have had a 'special offer (£59) for servicing the device from Kinetico who I think have taken over Tapworks. Is servicing necessary or advisable?
Susan
A:
Tapworks is a sub brand of EcoWater and due to a series of acquisitions their service database has ended up with Kinetico.
Kinetico are targeting repeating income streams and regular servicing for water softeners falls into their gunsights.
There is no need for annual servicing with the Tapworks product.
If you have a problem then an independent water softener expert or EcoWater would be my recommendation.
Answered by Peter Hines
Q:
Hi on my Harvey twinnteck block salt water softener how do I adjust the brine adjustment for the softer water!
Rod
A:
I am afraid that the “adjustable brine valve” comes with the sticker “do not adjust “ and only some models have this fitted.
The actual adjustment is just a twist but you should be aware that adjustment may cause the softener not to have sufficient rinse time which can cause “salty water to service “ which is clearly not desirable.
I hope this helps
Regards
Peter
Answered by Peter Hines
Q:
Hi, We got a message on our recently installed Hague 410 saying "Home latched" and its constantly beeping. Please advise
Mohamed Vali
A:
Good afternoon, please could you send us your email address to: [email protected], and we will send you the instruction manual for Hague 410.
Thank you.
Answered by Peter Hines
Q:
I have a tablet water softener. Prismetrec 1000 which has just stopped working. Battery and power supply all fine can I get this model serviced ? Am hearing that it can’t be done as valve or parts not available any suggestions?
Walter
A:
Firstly the Prismertec 1000i is not designed to be operated with tablet salt .
Unusually, this model needs Granular salt to operate as designed.
This may be all that is wrong with the system.
If the problem is more significant than this and parts are required then unfortunately this model has been discontinued and spares are no longer available.
However, many softener problems can be resolved without parts and we would therefore recommend a service visit is arranged.
In the event that the softener is unrepairable the service cost is deducted from the quote for a replacement.
Answered by Peter Hines
Q:
Can softened water cause corrosion in metal that it is constantly in contact with? Our toilet cisterns are metal and have been 'leaking' salt deposits as well as building up salty gunge inside. We have had them replaced by the manufacturer who has now lined them with plastic so I guess they must have come across this problem before. We initially thought there might be a problem with the softener (Kinetico2020) as the housing has also had salt leakage which has corroded the hinges. However I contacted Kinetico directly and they told me this was due to Salt Creep and is harmless. I would appreciate your opinion on all of this. Thanks
Carol Harrison
A:
The most likely cause for your flare up, assuming that it’s water related is under rinsed clothing and linens after washing.
Softened water requires much less detergent so reduce your use per wash by at least 50%.
Keep in mind the usage advice on the packaging is written by someone who sells detergent.
Also existing fabrics that have been regularly washed in hard water will have soap residue in them.
Rinsing and spinning bedding in softened water without washing frequently gives a lather just from the soap residue.
Another possibility is some water softeners do not include a fast rinse or backwash cycle in the regeneration process.
This can leave residual sodium salts in the water immediately after regeneration.
Which water softener are you using?
Answered by
Q:
Hi, Hope you are both well in these crazy times. I’m in a new build, about seven years old. We have been experiencing blue water in our master bathroom, practically since we bought. The developers water tester, is putting down to our softener - so the developers don’t see it as there problem. I have said if it was the softener, we would have blue water everywhere. I’d appreciate your view. Many thanks in anticipation. Leon [email protected]
Leon Toffel
A:
Blue staining from the water is more often than not Copper sulphate staining.
There can be a number of reasons for this including residual acid flux in newly installed plumbing.
If however the problem is long lasting the most likely explanation is electrolytic corrosion caused by dissimilar metals being used in the plumbing system or poor earth bonding.
It may be possible to alleviate the symptoms by blending some hardness back into the water and introducing a threshold polyphosphate dosing system into the plumbing.
Alternatively improve your earth bonding and ground spike.
Remember Plastic water and gas mains do not make a good earth .
Answered by Peter Hines
Q:
I have an aqua dial domestic water softener. It is flowing non stop so has been isolated. it is probably 20+ years old. Is it worth repairing or should I buy a new one. regards Rick
Rick Craft
A:
Well sometimes there’s a simple and low cost repair which can be worthwhile undertaking however at 20 years old your softener is coming to the “do not resuscitate” part of its life.
I suggest you book a service visit with us and in the event that your unit is beyond economic repair we will refund the full cost of the service call out against a replacement. (supplied by us of course)
Answered by Peter Hines
Q:
i have a tapworks water softener installed for my home. can I use this water to make teas and coffees? is it safe to use it for cooking too?
pearl selvadurai
A:
Assuming that your feed water hardness is not over 440 mg/l your softened water will meet the standard for wholesome drinking water suitable for human consumption.
Even if your water hardness exceeded this then the water would only be exceeding a flavour based guideline and not a health based guideline as determined by the WHO
In short yes perfectly safe to drink!
Answered by Peter Hines
Q:
I have a Hague Maximizer 410 water softeners which was installed by Friendly Water and has been really good but I woke up this morning to a beeping and I it says Home not found and I just keeps beeping. What can I do
Pauline Moore
A:
Power off for 15 seconds and power back on should trigger the system to look for and find it’s home position. If not let us know and we will arrange an engineer visit.
Answered by Peter Hines
Q:
Can I use softened water in my heating system i.e. in the radiators or should this just be mains water
Mrs Helen Lawry
A:
You will have to check with your Heating engineer as some boiler manufacturers use Aluminium in their heat exchangers which are susceptible to corrosion. Unfortunately the Water Softener is easy to blame especially when there’s the question of expensive parts which might have failed under warranty so our recommendation is to connect the primary system to the hard water and use a good quality inhibitor.
Personally my own system is filled with softened water and Sentinel X100 (formulated to be suitable for hard, soft or softened waters)
Answered by Peter Hines
Q:
My automatic Harvey Water softener is using too much salt and the brine tank water level is too high. Can you instruct me on adjusting the brine valve please? What governs the water level?
Matthew
A:
Hi Matthew,
The Harvey water softeners (even when fitted with the adjustable brine valve) should not be adjusted. According to the manufacturers. If it’s using too much salt due to high water level then it’s probably leaking. If the water level is normal and the salt usage is still high then your plumbing system is probably leaking.
Either way I think you probably need a visit
Answered by Peter Hines
Q:
Can I replace the 2 filters in my ro system with 2 , 10 inch OBE Doulton ceramic filters
Stephen Coleman
A:
Yes, but you will reduce the flow to the faucet as the pressure loss across the Doulton Ceramic filters is very high.
There’s no advantage to doing this.
Answered by Peter Hines
Q:
Hello Peter & Carl. I am hoping you can help. We recently installed a Harvey water softner, more than two months ago. My skin is not reacting well to the Harvey salt blocks. My head is very itchy and the skin on my hands are starting to peel off in patches. I put it down to the soap I was using and so I changes to a very pure product that has no parabens and SLS. Sadly it hasn't solved the problem and so I'm thinking perhaps I could change the brand of block salt I use? It would be amazing if you could advice me as I can see other people have been writing in with the same problem. Kind regards Angela
Angela
A:
Hi Angela
Since the worldwide shortage of Block Salt last year, Block Salt has started coming from many and varied sources. Sadly some of these sources are not of the best quality. Even more confusing for the consumer salt carrying a given Brand, say Harveys, could have been sourced from a number of different manufacturing plants in different parts of the world.
At present the only Block salt we are comfortable to recommend as consistent from a European manufacturing plant is Kinetico Block Salt.
Having said all of that it is possible that your water softener is leaving residual chlorides in the water after regeneration as the Harvey’s Block Salt softener does not include a backwash or fast rinse cycle in the regeneration process.
I hope this helps….
Answered by
Q:
Could you please advise the difference between a water softener and an aquabion which seems to be a more advanced water conditioner?
Neel Chandarana
A:
Yes
A water softener softens the water and an Aquabion doesn’t.
You will still get water marks and soap scum using the Aquabion system.
Answered by Peter Hines
Q:
We have an Ideal boiler which is now broken, we are told that the heat exchanger has been damaged by the water softener. Help
Sarah
A:
Generally.
Answered by Peter Hines
Q:
I have developed skin irritation following use of softened water. Do you know whether there are any "pure salt" block salts suitable for a Kinetico Premier Compact softener
Lisa Kalo
A:
Since the worldwide shortage of Block Salt last year Block Salt has started coming from many and varied sources. Sadly some of these sources are not of the best quality. Even more confusing for the consumer salt carrying a given Brand, say Harveys, could have been sourced from a number of different manufacturing plants in different parts of the world.
At present the only Block salt we are comfortable to recommend as consistent from a European manufacturing plant is Kinetico Block Salt. If you are already using the Kinetico branded product it may be that you have another problem with the water softener…
Answered by
