Water softeners in Dublin. Supplied and fitted.

Dublin has four different waters. Which one are you on?

Nobody tells you this when you buy a house, but the hardness of your tap water in Dublin depends almost entirely on which treatment plant feeds your street, and the city is split between four. That is why a kettle in Finglas furs up in a month and a kettle in Rathmines never does.

• North and west Dublin: Leixlip supply, hard, around 200 mg/L. Liffey water treated at Leixlip. Dublin 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15 and 17, Swords, Malahide, Portmarnock, Howth, Lucan and most of north Co. Dublin. Hard enough to coat an immersion element and block a shower head over a couple of years.
• South Dublin: Ballymore Eustace and Vartry supplies, soft, around 75 mg/L. Dublin 2, 4, 6, 6W, 8, 14, 16, 18 and 24, Blackrock, Dún Laoghaire, Dalkey, Rathfarnham, Tallaght, Bray. Soft water. A softener would not earn its money here; if taste or chlorine is the complaint, a drinking water filter is the right buy.
• Dublin 10, 12, 20 and 22: a blend, moderate, around 155 mg/L. Ballyfermot, Crumlin, Walkinstown, Palmerstown and Clondalkin get a mix. Scale builds slowly; a softener is worth it if you are seeing it, a conditioner cartridge if you are not sure.
• North Fingal: Bog of the Ring groundwater, very hard, around 336 mg/L. Balbriggan, Skerries, Rush and Lusk are on limestone groundwater, the hardest water in Co. Dublin. See our Balbriggan page.

Type your Eircode into the checker at the top of the page and it tells you which one you are on and whether a softener is worth it. We would rather tell a Dublin 6 customer not to buy one than fit something that does nothing.

What hard water does in a north Dublin home

• Immersions and hot cylinders. Scale builds on the element and the coil, slower to heat and quicker to fail. We change a lot of immersions on the northside.
• Electric showers. The heater can scales up, the flow drops and the shower starts cutting out.
• Combi boilers. Scale on the plate heat exchanger throttles the hot water.
• Dishwashers, washing machines and kettles all scale and go early.

A whole-house softener on the incoming mains stops every bit of it.

Which AquaSilk suits a Dublin house

On 200 mg/L water the AquaSilk Midi covers the four and five person semis in Finglas, Glasnevin, Santry, Coolock, Raheny, Clontarf, Castleknock and Clonsilla comfortably. The Mini fits under a kitchen sink and suits apartments, couples and the older terraces in Drumcondra, Phibsborough and Cabra. The Maxi is for big multi-bathroom houses in Howth, Sutton and Malahide. For an apartment with no drain near the mains, a scale conditioner cartridge is the practical alternative and we fit both. The size picker below marks the right one.

Getting it fitted in Dublin

We are a Dublin firm. CPS Plumbing & Electrical is based in Inchicore and EcoFilter Ireland is its water filtration side, so every Dublin install is done by our own plumbers from our own yard, usually within a few days of ordering. Order the softener fitted online or ring us, send a photo of your stop valve and the space beside it, and we book a morning or afternoon slot. Two to three hours and you have soft water. The fitted price shown is the full price anywhere in Dublin. For a quote first, use the quote form; the full range and the Ireland-wide hardness chart are on our main water softener page.