Water softeners in Kilkenny, Co. Kilkenny. Supplied and fitted.

Why Kilkenny water is hard

Kilkenny is built on limestone, famously enough that the local black marble is a polished limestone. The city's public supply comes from the River Nore, which drains that limestone country, and from boreholes in it. For the south-east midlands the regional figure is around 300 mg/L of calcium carbonate, on the boundary between hard and very hard. Put your Eircode into the checker at the top of the page for a reading closer to your street.

The signs are the ones every Kilkenny household knows: scale on the shower screen, a crust on the taps and a kettle that needs descaling every few weeks.

What hard water does in a Kilkenny home

• Immersions and hot cylinders. Scale on the element and coil, slower heating, higher bills and an early failure.
• Electric showers and mixer valves. The heater can and spray plate block, pressure drops and the shower cuts out.
• Combi boilers. The plate heat exchanger furs up and the hot water fades.
• Dishwashers, washing machines and kettles scale and get replaced early.

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

Which AquaSilk suits a Kilkenny house

Most of what we fit around Kilkenny is family homes in Loughboy, Newpark, the Castlecomer and Callan road estates and the newer developments on the ring road, usually four or five people and two bathrooms. Up to four people suits the AquaSilk Mini, which fits under most kitchen sinks, five or six people the Midi, and seven or more people the Maxi. A house with three bathrooms goes up from the Mini to the Midi, and four or more bathrooms means the Maxi. The size picker below marks the right one for your household.

Private wells around Kilkenny

Between Kilkenny, Castlecomer, Thomastown, Callan, Freshford and Gowran a large share of houses are on their own borehole. Kilkenny well water is reliably hard and can also carry iron, manganese or bacteria that a softener alone will not deal with. The AquaSilk range on this page is for mains water only. On a well we build a Clack system to suit your water test report, so it's quoted from the report rather than sold online. No report yet? Order a well water test through us and the fee comes off your install. See our well water treatment page.

Getting it fitted in Kilkenny

We fit nationwide with our own technicians and Kilkenny, Castlecomer, Thomastown, Callan, Bennettsbridge, Gowran and Freshford are covered on the same run through the south-east. Order the softener fitted online or ring us, send a photo of your stop valve and the space beside it, and we book a slot. Two to three hours and you have soft water. The fitted price shown is the full price for Kilkenny. For a quote first, use the quote form; the full range is on our main water softener page.