As we claim and promise, the only guaranteed way to treat limescale, once and for all, is to ensure you have soft water coming into your property. If you have recently installed or planning to install a CWS Clack Water Softener in your home, you must be thinking about how long before all of the limescale in your home is gone forever. In this blog, we answer this critical question that we get from people now and then. Let’s start.
How does a water softener treat limescale?
It is critical to understand that a water softener itself will not remove limescale buildup within our plumbing fixtures and pipework. It is the soft water that a Water Softener will produce that will run through the pipes that will gradually dissolve the existing scale buildup. The hardness buildup that is found in a house’s plumbing has been building up over a very long time, often many years. So when the softened water is introduced into the system, it will likely take just as long for the problem to be corrected. The key thing is to introduce soft water to stop this continuing buildup of hardness within the plumbing. Soft water will remove limescale-causing minerals from hard water at the entry point to your water system, preventing them from causing damage. At the same time, it will start to dissolve existing limescale deposits– reflecting the natural process when water goes underground to create cave networks. Over time, hardness is removed from your pipes by your Water Softener and flushed out through your taps or water-fed appliances, and down the drain.
When can you see the results?
As a homeowner who has either purchased a Water Softener from us or currently doing research about water softeners in general, it is important to set the expectations right. You cannot expect the equipment to remove all of the limescale present in your pipework in a single day. The limescale in your house has been building up over a long time, and it will take some time before it dissolves completely. In general, you will start to notice the softened water removing the existing scale from your home within two weeks. Typically, you can expect- In 4 weeks, the scale will be gone from your kettle
- In 4-6 months, the scale will be gone from your hot water cylinder
- In 2 years, the scale will be gone from the rest of your pipework