buzzdriving
New Member
I rent an apartment in Santiago, Chile where the water is very hard. For the last few years, I've been using the building's laundry on the ground floor but this costs a fortune over the long run and is frankly a ballache when you're on the 12th floor. A colossal waste of time. Not to mention the never ending hunt for coins.
With this in mind, I've decided to fork out for my own washing machine and dryer and install them in the apartment. There is a dedicated closet space with cold and hot inlets as shown in the below image. The hot water is supplied centrally through the building's HVAC.
If possible, I would like to install a water softener. The primary purpose for this would be to protect the washing machine NOT clothes; in other words, I can do without a full-blown solution if it means only protecting the machine although minimising damage to clothes would certainly be welcome. I don't care about hard water in the rest of the apartment.
In terms of space, the only option would be to keep the dryer somewhere else in the apartment to provide space above the washing machine to put a softener in. If it's not possible to put the softener above the washing machine, then that's game over for that idea.
If it's ok to install a softener over the washing machine, then the next issue is that I have no clue what size softener I would need for this application. Most of the options I've seen have these tall tanks that are around 100cm tall. One company's catalogue starts at 44in (112cm) which isn't going to fit into the roughly 90cm of clearance I would have above the washing machine. Do smaller form factors exist for water softeners or am I just barking up the wrong tree here? How much supporting infrastructure would I need to put in above the washing machine? I need to take "permanent changes" into account with regards to the rental agreement.
If I'm being fanciful with regards to a water softener solution, are there any other options I can consider for protecting the washing machine?
Thanks in advance for any recommendations or pointers.
With this in mind, I've decided to fork out for my own washing machine and dryer and install them in the apartment. There is a dedicated closet space with cold and hot inlets as shown in the below image. The hot water is supplied centrally through the building's HVAC.
If possible, I would like to install a water softener. The primary purpose for this would be to protect the washing machine NOT clothes; in other words, I can do without a full-blown solution if it means only protecting the machine although minimising damage to clothes would certainly be welcome. I don't care about hard water in the rest of the apartment.
In terms of space, the only option would be to keep the dryer somewhere else in the apartment to provide space above the washing machine to put a softener in. If it's not possible to put the softener above the washing machine, then that's game over for that idea.
If it's ok to install a softener over the washing machine, then the next issue is that I have no clue what size softener I would need for this application. Most of the options I've seen have these tall tanks that are around 100cm tall. One company's catalogue starts at 44in (112cm) which isn't going to fit into the roughly 90cm of clearance I would have above the washing machine. Do smaller form factors exist for water softeners or am I just barking up the wrong tree here? How much supporting infrastructure would I need to put in above the washing machine? I need to take "permanent changes" into account with regards to the rental agreement.
If I'm being fanciful with regards to a water softener solution, are there any other options I can consider for protecting the washing machine?
Thanks in advance for any recommendations or pointers.
