Softeners remove hardness. Melbourne mains water is already soft, so the first thing we do is test yours — and often that test ends with us telling you to save your money.
Where it goes: On the incoming main, with a brine tank beside it and a drain for the regeneration flush
Read this as a checklist rather than a sales pitch. If none of it is happening at your place, you are on soft water and you do not need a softener.
The kettle. Scale in a kettle is the most visible symptom of hardness and the least expensive one. If your kettle is clean, that is the first sign a softener is solving a problem you do not have.
What’s actually in Melbourne water, and what a filter does about it →
Tell us the symptom — taste, smell, grit, dry skin, tank water — and we'll tell you which fitting addresses it. Including when the answer is a cheaper one.
Salt topped up as it is used — how often depends entirely on your hardness and how much water the house gets through. The unit regenerates itself automatically on a time and volume schedule. Beyond salt, an annual look at the resin and the valve is all it wants.
Taste, smell, grit, cloudy water, dry skin, or just a general feeling that you'd rather not drink it straight. What you've noticed is the most useful diagnostic there is, and it usually points straight at which of the three is right.
~ 5 minMains or tank, what the pressure is doing, where the main comes in, and whether the cupboard under the sink has any room in it. On tank water we want to know about the roof and the tank as well, because that changes whether UV is warranted.
at the quoteIncluding when the answer is a cheaper unit than you asked about, or nothing at all. If your complaint is drinking water and you were about to buy whole-home filtration, we'd rather tell you that than take the bigger job.
within 12 hrsNot a handyman with a spanner. Filtration ties into your potable water supply, which means backflow protection and doing it to the standard. Same six-year workmanship warranty as anything else we fit.
install dayOn handover, on your unit, with you holding it. It's a ten-minute job once a year and there is no reason you should be paying anyone to come out and do it.
on handoverWe haven’t put a price on this page yet, deliberately. What the right unit costs depends on your water, your pressure and where it physically has to go, and a “from $X” with none of that behind it is bait.
Send the symptom and you’ll get a real figure with the reasoning attached — including the times the honest answer is a cheaper unit than the one you asked about.
No. Melbourne mains water is soft — among the softest supplied to any major Australian city, because most of it comes from protected forest catchments rather than groundwater. That is why we will usually talk you out of a softener if you are on mains. If you are on bore water the answer is completely different and worth testing.
We test the hardness. It takes a couple of minutes and it turns the question from an argument into a number. If the number is low, you do not need a softener and we will not quote you one. If it is high, you will see it in the same test and the decision makes itself.
Completely different jobs. A filter physically catches sediment and adsorbs chlorine, taste and odour. A softener chemically swaps hardness minerals for sodium using a resin bed, and it does nothing at all for taste, smell or dirt. Plenty of houses that want a filter get sold a softener, which is one of the reasons this page exists.
It depends on your hardness and your water use, because the unit regenerates on volume as well as time. On a residential unit you are topping up a bag of salt periodically rather than constantly. We will give you a realistic figure for your water at the quote, not a brochure number.
It uses some, yes. Every regeneration flushes the resin bed and that flush goes to drain. On a properly sized unit set for your actual hardness it is a modest amount, but it is not nothing, and it is one more reason not to fit one where it is not needed.
You can, but it is rarely the right first move. Rainwater is naturally soft, so hardness is not usually the tank-water problem — sediment, organics and the biological side are, which means filtration and UV. If someone is pitching you a softener for a rainwater tank, ask them what hardness reading they measured.
“Took the old gas Rinnai out, dropped in a Reclaim heat pump, sorted the VEU rebate so it came straight off the price. Bloke on the phone is the bloke on the tools, refreshing.”
“The VEU paperwork looked scary online. They filled it all in, I signed once at the quote and once on the day. Rebate was already in the price. Painless.”
“Quote number matched the invoice exactly. No 'we hit unexpected wiring' story at the end. Nice change.”
“Bedroom Mitsubishi went in before lunch. Neat pipework, brackets straight, temp checked before they left. Would use again for the lounge.”
“Took the old gas Rinnai out, dropped in a Reclaim heat pump, sorted the VEU rebate so it came straight off the price. Bloke on the phone is the bloke on the tools, refreshing.”
“The VEU paperwork looked scary online. They filled it all in, I signed once at the quote and once on the day. Rebate was already in the price. Painless.”
“Quote number matched the invoice exactly. No 'we hit unexpected wiring' story at the end. Nice change.”
“Bedroom Mitsubishi went in before lunch. Neat pipework, brackets straight, temp checked before they left. Would use again for the lounge.”
“Answered the phone myself, quoted the job, showed up to install the job. That trail of trust doesn't exist with most of the bigger mobs anymore.”
“Hot water died on a Sunday with three kids in the house. Answered the phone, had a temp loaner running by lunch, new iStore in on Tuesday. That's service.”
“A week after install they rang to check the heat pump was running quiet and the app was set up. First tradie who's ever followed up after payment cleared.”
“Answered the phone myself, quoted the job, showed up to install the job. That trail of trust doesn't exist with most of the bigger mobs anymore.”
“Hot water died on a Sunday with three kids in the house. Answered the phone, had a temp loaner running by lunch, new iStore in on Tuesday. That's service.”
“A week after install they rang to check the heat pump was running quiet and the app was set up. First tradie who's ever followed up after payment cleared.”
“Had three quotes for a ducted system. These guys were the only ones who actually crawled into the roof. Middle of the pack on price but installed cleaner than the others would have.”
“Full ducted retrofit over two days. When they left the roof cavity was tidier than they found it and the driveway had been swept. Small thing but it matters.”
“Walked me through the Milieu tablet, showed the wife how to use it, showed us the compliance cert. Ten minutes of teaching that other installers just skip.”
“Had three quotes for a ducted system. These guys were the only ones who actually crawled into the roof. Middle of the pack on price but installed cleaner than the others would have.”
“Full ducted retrofit over two days. When they left the roof cavity was tidier than they found it and the driveway had been swept. Small thing but it matters.”
“Walked me through the Milieu tablet, showed the wife how to use it, showed us the compliance cert. Ten minutes of teaching that other installers just skip.”
