Under-sink water filter installation in Bournemouth
Getting an under-sink drinking water filter fitted in Bournemouth — what it costs, whether you could do it yourself, and where the job stops being DIY.
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.