Water softener for washer disinfector

Q.We are looking into getting a washer/disinfector. I was told that we need a water softener as we have hard water in the area. As our decon room is not large enough we need to house the softener in another part of the building.  What this means is that ALL the water coming into the building goes through the water softener, and I am thinking is this necessary? Do I need soft water for the toilet flush? My concern is that larger volume of water will need extra salt and hence extra storage space will be needed. Also we would have to purchase a higher capacity softener which would be more expensive and will have the associated higher running cost.  

A.We have a w/d as well. We do not have a water softener. We use salt. This is in the instruction on how to use the W/D.

At first I purchased the salt from Eschmann. It was too expensive. Now I get the salt pellets from cash/carry. A bag is probably about £10 to £15.

August 2015