EASY W2B200 Water Softener, Hi Flow Electronic Demand/Up to 6 People – Filtered Soft Water 1250 litres/Day, NSF/FDS/ISO 9001 & 14001 Certified, 100% Limescale Removed/App Reminder for Salt

This is a comparatively high-end water-softener which I purchased through Amazon in February 2013 for under £350. It has a 15-litre resin tank and a flow-rate capable of dealing with the needs of a directly connected household of up to 4 people at a hardness of 300 ppm (e.g. Megaflow and mains cold taps). I decided to fit it only to the feeds to the hot water cylinder and washing machine but leave the cold taps and loo cisterns on hard water. I am certain the flow rate would cope with both but there seemed no point in flushing the loo with softened water.My unit came with 3/4" BSP fittings but had two 3/4"-15mm couplings for use if you need them. (I chose to plumb my unit in with 22mm pipes, valves and connectors.) Installation and set-up is fairly simple. They offer an installation video. (but I hope I made a better job of it than they did...)The unit is very effective; reduced my water hardness from 300ppm to "SOFT" according to the B&Q hardness testing kit. Hopefully, over time, the scale in my hot tank, taps, shower mixer and pipework will gradually dissolve; at least the problems won't get any worse.Here are some tips:1)It is worth noting that the tables for hardness settings in the manual are based upon an average consumption of 100 litres per person per day. UK average is 150 litres (and we use more than that) - so adjust your Regeneration Capacity setting accordingly.2)The paper manual and the installation video disagree about the Backwash, Brine and Rinse times. Latest online manual says Rinse 5 minutes brine 20 minutes, rinse 5 minutes and refill 6 minutes. This seems to work OK and does not waste too much water.3)The first screen you see after holding down the "Menu" key for 5 seconds is the status screen. At the bottom of the screen is a counter that counts down in 10 litre decrements from your Regeneration Capacity setting until it hits zero; when it reaches zero it will execute a regeneration cycle at the next opportunity. When you set the Regeneration Capacity, it sets that value into the status screen regardless of what was there before - so you should make any changes on the morning after a regeneration cycle.4)Manual regeneration has to be done as per the website: [...]5)Take care when pulling the top off the unit. It is held on by four fragile-looking lugs.UPDATE 2.5 years on...The small turbine that activates the Hall-effect sensor has two small magnets pressed into each side. These tend to rust and the turbine sticks. If you find that the the unit is not producing soft water, check that the regeneration counter is going down. If not, you can do the following:1 dismantle the bypass valve assembly from the unit2 remove the pepper-pot end on the outlet3 with long-nosed pliers, pull out the turbine retaining ring (it is only pushed in)4 carefully file the rust off the magnets and leave the turbine to dry overnight5 apply a thin coat of nail varnish to the magnets and6 reassemble in reverse order.

Update after 4.5 years. Absolutely no faults or issues whatsoever after 4.5 years. All I do is add salt and it's working as good today as when I bought it.Update after two years operation:I originally gave this unit 4 stars but have upped it to 5 stars. Why? Well, it has worked 100% since I installed it and has no faults. The plastic case, pipes, valves etc all look as good as the day I installed it. No leaks, no cracks no problems. I originally marked it down due to a few minor things, one of which was a few problems with the manual but since reading my review W2B have updated the manual. I also marked it down due to the position of a waste pipe but in actual fact this has not presented any problems after 2 years of use.I have tested the effectiveness of the unit with water test strips and it works as it should.Just to be clear, I paid the Amazon price for this unit and have received no discounts or gifts for this review. I like it when technology works without any fuss and this is a good example. I just add salt and that's it. Well done W2B.Original Review:We live in an old house in a very hard water area and I wanted soft water to at least feed the boiler and the washing machine. I wasn't too worried about soft water to the toilets, hand basins, outside taps etc but due to the quirky pipe route into the house I had to compromise and leave the cold water to the bathrooms unsoftened. The only practical place to install was in the utility room at the rear of the house.I looked at several different water softeners and opted for water 2 buy based on size, price and amazon reviews. I haven't had much experience of plumbing and have no previous with water softeners and so this review can not compare to other devices. I decided to write a review because of the letter from water2buy requesting me to do so with the obvious bribe of a small packed of haribo sweets.The unit was delivered very quickly and was well packed. I didn't buy plumbing items and decided to work out what I need once it arrived and to buy from screwfix. I normally find that I buy several things that I don't need and omit many that I do, and being able to get that all important widget on a Sunday morning is worth going local for. I did buy a water hardness testing kit (strips) to test the water at my house, this wasn't from water2buy.Anyway, I read the instructions (which were supplied in several languages) and reread several times. I tested the water supply for hardness and found it to be very very high. The strip went very dark brown within 2 seconds which is the top of the scale, this seems a bit too hard I thought and so I looked up the hardness on south west water web site. The showed the hardness at a much more sensible level, still hard but not Vinnie Jones hard. So, don't trust the testing kit. I imagine that south west water probably use more than a testing kit from Amazon and I would believe them over a home kit. Anyway, helpful for testing the water post softener, more later... BTW, the scale for hardness is PPM in the water2buy (W2B) brochure and the south west water web site quotes several different units but none are PPM. However, searching on the internet showed PPM to be the same as CACO3. It would have been helpful if the manual had noted this and I expect W2B know this useful nugget.Once the unit arrived, I worked out the materials for the install which included copper push joints Ts, couplers, washing machine outlet, copper pipe, flexi hoses, clips, stop taps, garden hose, waste pipe and extra U bend, jubilee clips (requirement discovered later), washing machine drain hose x2, coffee. I also purchased a small pipe cutter, pipe bender and push joint decoupler tool (needed this!). I used my existing tools which included cordless drill, screwdrivers, wire wool, grips, SDS drill with big bit (to drill through a 14" brick and flint wall).Work started on 6 nations final weekend, a bad weekend to start and not much got done. However, a very exciting end to the 6 nations and much better than plumbing. The following weekend was better (from a plumbing perspective but still some time until the World Cup) and I got almost to completion but with all jobs like this I don't like to rush the end as once the main cold water pipes are cut there is no going back. It's good to aim the finish to be on a Saturday lunch time as there is still Saturday PM and Sunday to cope with leaks, missing bits, faults, trips to A&E etc.Anyway, back to the install...The pipe install generally went well. Quite a bit of bending of pipe which was fun, do watch examples on youtube... my first attempt had a puckered inside radius. And don't use the end of the copper pipe you buy, it will likely be slightly deformed and the push joints don't like it... mine was and they didn't, glad I bought the decoupler tool.Once all the plumbing was done (see the picture) I connected the softener to the water supply and the drain feed to the waste water and the overflow to a hose to the outside (copper pipe through the wall though). I needed the jubilee clips now and didn't have any and so I rummaged in the garage to find some. This made me think that it would have been helpful if W2B included a typical shopping list in the instructions.It also became evident that the waste water (wash) outlet fouls the lid of the softener and so the lid doesn't sit properly... come on W2B, its not rocket science is it! If you look at the close up picture you can just see the angle of the waste pipe. I also noticed at this point that I couldn't read the illuminated panel or the rotating dial due to the position next to the freezer (this always happens at this point doesn't it). Not the fault of the unit as I think it must be designed to fit lengthways under a sink and not sideways next to a freezer. I used my mobile phone camera at a angle to read the display while setting up... better than a mirror as its the right way around.The set up instructions were OKish... I must have slightly different firmware in mine compared to the instructions as some of the options were different. I don't seem to get the option to change the date but the instructions suggest that I should. Aside from this all went OK but I was a bit confused with the big dial thing, I couldn't read the legends ( I know... sited sideways and not lengthways) but turned it to see what would happen... sudden gushing of water... quickly turned it all the way around and read the manual again... seems like a manual wash control. Anyway, reset back to start all all seemed OK.The pictures in the manual weren't great, it would help to have photos and more of them. The manual provided instructions to assemble certain parts which were already assembled on my unit., Not sure why but a bit confusing.I ran the water for a while and then got out another strip tester and would you believe it the water was now soft rather than Vinnie Jones hard. Job done.Its been working away for 4 days now and all seems OK. I don't know how much salt it uses but as its a metered unit and only feeds hot water and washing machine I would hope it is not too bad. The manual contains a table to correlate the settings to the hardness and the number of people in the house. There are 4 in our house but as the softener is only doing hot water and washing machine I decided to use 3 people on the table to correlate the settings.Overall I give it 4 starts. The negatives being the accuracy of the manual/instructions, poor pictures in the manual, the angle of the outlet meaning that the lid doesn't fit properly and the firmware being different to the manual. On the plus side the unit appears well made, the instructions were clearly written by someone who speaks english (not sure about the other languages), delivery speed and free haribos.Good luck!