Start with your water, not with a product
Water hardness in Britain varies enormously over short distances, and it decides most of what follows. A household in Kent and a household in Cumbria have close to opposite problems — so a recommendation that ignores where you live is not a recommendation at all.
How hard is my water?
Enter a postcode and we will identify your supplier, the hardness band their supply typically falls in, and link you straight to their own official checker for the exact figure.
Check your waterWhat do I actually need?
Answer three questions about your water, your property and your problem, and see which of the twenty-one product categories are genuinely relevant — including when the answer is none of them.
Find your productWho can fit it?
Search our directory by postcode, town or county. Every listing shows where it came from and which accreditations we have actually verified, as distinct from those the business has claimed.
Find an installerPopular product categories
Twenty-one categories, each with an honest verdict on whether you can fit it yourself.
All categoriesUnder-sink filters
A filter housing plumbed into the cold supply under your kitchen sink, feeding either your existing tap or a separate filter tap. The most popular way to get filtered drinking water in a UK home.
Softeners
An ion-exchange unit plumbed into the rising main that removes calcium and magnesium entirely, giving genuinely soft water throughout the property.
Scale inhibitors
A compact in-line device that changes how hardness minerals behave so they do not stick as scale, without removing them. Far cheaper and simpler than a softener.
Reverse osmosis
A multi-stage system that forces water through a semi-permeable membrane, removing the overwhelming majority of dissolved substances. The most thorough domestic filtration available.
Whole-house filters
A large filter fitted to the rising main where water enters the property, so every tap, shower and appliance gets treated water.
Cartridges
The consumable at the heart of every filtration system, and the thing most likely to be forgotten until the water tastes wrong again.
What is hard water?
Hard water explained without the marketing: what causes it, how it is measured, what it actually does to your home, and whether it is bad for you.
Hard Water HubWater softener or scale inhibitor?
The two products solve different problems and cost an order of magnitude apart. Here is how to tell which one your household actually needs.
Hard Water HubHow to test water hardness at home
Three ways to find out how hard your water is, from free to accurate, and why your water company's figure may not match your tap.
DIY Installation GuidesDo I need a plumber to install a water filter?
An honest breakdown by product type of what is a reasonable DIY job, what genuinely needs a plumber, and where the line sits.
DIY Installation GuidesFitting an under-sink water filter yourself
A step-by-step guide to fitting an under-sink water filter, the tools you need, and the two situations where you should stop and call someone.
Costs and QuotesWater filter installation costs in the UK
Indicative UK labour costs by product type, what makes a quote go up, and how to compare quotes properly.
Why you can trust this site
- We do not install anything. We have no engineers, take no cut of installer work and never invoice you for a job. That means we have nothing to gain from telling you a job is harder than it is.
- We say when you do not need to buy anything. If your water is soft, this site will tell you that a softener is a waste of money — even though a softener is the most valuable thing we could sell you a link to.
- Verified means verified. An accreditation badge only appears when an editor has checked the official public register and recorded the date. Anything a business has told us but we have not checked is labelled as a claim.
- We cite our sources. Every hardness figure links to the water company's own published checker. See where our data comes from.
- Affiliate links are marked. We earn a commission from Amazon purchases. It does not affect what we recommend, and nothing on this site is paid placement. Full disclosure.
Install water filtration?
List your business free. We are building a directory of installers people can actually trust, which means we would rather have twenty verified listings than two hundred scraped ones.
- Free listing, no commission on your work
- You set your own prices and contract directly with the customer
- Enquiries come straight to you — we do not sell leads
- Accreditations verified against the official registers
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Water hardness across the UK
Every UK water supplier, and the hardness band their supply typically falls in.
Hard water hubWaterFilterInstallers.com is a participant in the Amazon Associates Programme. We earn a commission from qualifying purchases made through links on this site, at no extra cost to you. This never affects which products we recommend, and we earn nothing from installers — enquiries and installer listings are free, and no money changes hands between us and the tradespeople listed here.