Soft water-advice please!

Thank you! Yes, Pjoenix there is still a little pink stuff in the shower in the en suite, but I do think, as someone else said, that it may not have been used much. We are definitely rectifying that! Mains drainage, but thanks anyway. And good luck tomorrow!

Mrs JJ I do agree about the benefits of soft water on the whole, and will persevere. You're right about the absence of that chorine taste in London water!

Love our soft water here in Devon. You need very little detergent in the washing machine, never need salt in the dishwasher and my skin and hair are much better.

Our drinking water tastes much nicer than the chlorinated stuff we used to get in the South East, and there is never any of that nasty scum in the teapot!

Ariadne as you know I live not far from you, by Devon standards! Firstly, are you on mains drainage, because if you are on a septic tank, bleach isn't a good idea.

We bought this house brand new in 2005, and the upstairs toilet has been prone to developing a weird black stain in the same place time after time! I bung on a rubber glove, furtle about under the rim with a scouring sponge type thing, but back it comes.

We have a slight problem with discolouration in the bathroom, round the taps and the section of the grouted tiles that take the most hammering from the shower, but in our case it is pink, not black.

Never had a problem with the drinking water, but get in touch with South West Water and ask them. Who knows, you might even get a visit from Mr P as he is on a 2 week placement with them!

Thanks, folks! A really good scrub and copious dollops of bleach have worked wonders.

number I agree about the taste of the water, but will persevere as I cannot bear to buy bottled water! A filter, perhaps?

tend to agree with granny23. Try scrubbing the tap not forgetting the actual outlet, with an old toothbrush and really cheap paste. Turn off the water to the w.c cistern, emptying it and scrubbing out with something like borax on a sponge scrubber then filling cistern again.

Even a funny taste!

Whilst soft water is better for doing the washing, I also love our hard water because is nicer to drink than soft. Soft water always has a funnt taste to it, I find.

Sounds as though your predecessors did not use their en suite much, perhaps preferring the bathroom. I would be inclined to leave the water running for a while to see if it eventually runs clear, but then I do not have metered water. Is there a separate header tank for the en suite? We had a problem with very hot, rusty coloured water in our holiday cottage this summer. Managed to locate the local plumber who discovered that we had inadvertantly activated the old water tank with an immersion heater, which had lain unused (but not disconnected) since the new system had been installed a year previously. Much cursing from the local plumber about the imported plumber who had done the job and the absent holiday letting person who had not seen fit to lable (or disable) the relevant switches.

Our water is very soft and we've never had that problem, Ariadne!

We spent 25 years in Cornwall with beautiful soft water and don't remember having problems with black mould. Now we are living with water so hard you practically have to chip it out of the taps we've put in a water softener and again it doesn't seem to be producing black mould. I would definitely get it looked at.

Does not sound typical of soft water to me and seems odd that only part of house is effected, apart from getting a trusted plumber in to check things out I don't have any other advice, sorry.