Hard water solutions in Bournemouth
Bournemouth has hard water. Here is what that does to your home, what genuinely fixes it, what only appears to, and who can fit it locally.
Hard
South West Water, Wessex Water — and they do not all supply the same kind of water, so check your own postcode.
Water in Bournemouth
- Bournemouth has hard water, which makes it an outlier within South West Water's otherwise soft-water territory — the former Bournemouth Water area was acquired but the geology did not change with the ownership.
- Local supply comes from the Hampshire and Dorset chalk rather than from the granite moorland that supplies Devon and Cornwall.
- This makes Bournemouth one of the most commonly misjudged places in the country for water advice. 'South West Water supplies you' does not mean soft water here.
- Softeners are genuinely justified in much of the Bournemouth and Poole area, unlike almost anywhere else in the South West peninsula.
- The town's very large hospitality and care home sector drives significant commercial filtration and scale protection demand.
You have hard water — scale protection is worth having.
The World Health Organization notes that water at 200 mg/l or above will produce scale, and that is where this band begins. At this level limescale is a recurring cost rather than an occasional nuisance, and many boiler manufacturers require scale protection to keep the warranty valid. A softener is worth costing out properly.
Who supplies Bournemouth
Water company boundaries do not follow council boundaries. Check your postcode for the supplier at your address.