Water softener makes 'huge difference' at College

The Arthur Findlay College at Stansted Hall, Stansted Mountfichet recently needed a new hot water cylinder installed to improve the domestic hot water in what is a magnificent historic building in the Essex countryside. The college claims to offer facilities unequalled anywhere in the world in the Spiritualist movement as a residential centre where students can study spiritualist philosophy and religious practice, spiritualist healing and awareness and spiritual and psychic unfoldment and kindred disciplines. The old hot water cylinder at the college had to be cut out of its installation position because of the tightness of the basement area where it was situated and the contractors tasked with the job - Complete Property Services - were amazed to find that the cylinder was half full of scale - explaining exactly why the hot water system had been under performing.

Worryingly, the cylinder had only been installed in 1996, highlighting how quickly scale can impair the performance of any appliance that has hard water constantly running through it.

The College had had a water softener installed many years ago but it had not done its job and was disconnected.

Michael Hares - MD of Complete Property Services - recommended to the college that as part of the new installation they have a new, efficient water softener system installed and recommended a Tapworks North Star Ion Exchange system - a PA131 Triplex installation - that would soften the water for both the primary and secondary systems at the college, protecting the hot water system from the scale build up it was experiencing and ensuring a supply of quality softened water for all the appliances in the college.

Gareth David is the Assistant General Manager at the College: 'We're delighted with the new water softener set up here'.

'It isn't a cheap option, but over the years, the reduction in maintenance costs and the excellent quality of water we have now, makes it all very worthwhile to us'.

'Little, but important differences like the cutlery and the glasses coming out of the dishwashers we use - you can see the improvement'.

'It makes a real difference! And it's good to know that if its making that much difference to what we can see, it will be making an important difference where we can't - inside pipes and tanks and boilers!' Michael Hares is MD of the contractor Complete Property Services: 'When we saw the state of the old hot water cylinder we realised that they needed something to address the major problem of hard water'.

'We have installed a number of domestic water softeners in hard water areas but had not installed a big commercial system before'.

'We were going to ask Tapworks to assemble and commission the system, but frankly it was so simple to install we did the whole job ourselves'.

'We're happy with the Tapworks system, the college is happy with the system it's something we will be recommending to other customers too'.

Colin Pitcher, Tapworks Area Manager said: 'We're getting more and more enquiries for commercial ion exchange water softeners from the Tapworks North Star range as increasing numbers of businesses realise how much hard water is costing them, in the main through on-going high maintenance costs and the costs of replacing appliances'.

'We're working with restaurants, hotels, hospitals, nursing homes, laundries and many more businesses - a wide range that all need soft water and the confidence that soft water will prevent damage to their equipment or systems