How can we deal with hard water / limescale?
These issues do not adversely affect the taste and odour of water. In fact most people prefer the taste of hard water.
Water is 'hard' because it contains calcium and perhaps, a little magnesium both of which, we are told, are good for us. For potable use, medical and other expert bodies favour hard water over soft water and over 'softened' water in particular because of the added sodium.
It is irritating to de-scale a kettle but a lot of people use denture cleaning tablets overnight or even vinegar (a bit slow) to good effect.
The biggest problems with hard water are caused by limescale in your pipework, tanks, valves, cysterns, kitchen equipment and, especially, your hot water system. We suggest you consider either a Whole House Ion Exchange System (aka Salt Softener, Base Exchange) or an electronic solution - we do not sell either of these.
Unlike drinking water filters, for an ion / base exchange salt softener we urge you to buy locally at a good DIY store, ironmongers or plumbers merchant. These are electro-mechanical devices and you need to be able to get hold of parts quickly when needed. Softeners are not complicated, rest assured, but you do need to view and understand them and sort out a supply of salt. The softener must be installed with a separate hard water feed for potable water for which you will need a water filter, available on this website, to remove chlorine, sediments, Volatile Organic Chemicals (eg pesticides, herbicides), chloramines, Trihalomethanes (carcinogenic chlorine disinfection byproducts).
For an electronic solution we suggest 'Scalewatcher' only because our our water filter customers have spoken well of this product. We have absolutely no links with Scalewatcher in any way other than the Internet hyperlink below. We are just trying to be helpful and you will still need a water filter.