Plumb2U stocks water softeners alongside the elements, valves and fittings that hard water damage tends to bring in for replacement, at trade prices with next-day despatch, for trade buyers dealing with the practical, unglamorous end of hard-water problems on a daily basis.

Plumb2U stocks flexible hoses across the bore sizes, lengths and pressure ratings trade buyers actually need, all carrying the approval marks that matter, at trade prices with next-day despatch. Picking the right connector first time, rather than the closest one to hand, is a small decision that avoids a much bigger callback later.

Braided and rubber flexible hoses do the same basic job, connecting a fixed pipe run to an appliance or outlet with some give in the joint, but they are built very differently underneath, and that difference shows up in how long each type lasts on a job.

That process cannot run forever. Resin has a finite capacity, plumbing spares supplier and once enough calcium and magnesium have attached themselves to the beads, there is no sodium left to exchange and the softener stops softening. That is where regeneration comes in. On a schedule, or triggered by a meter tracking actual water use, the softener flushes the resin tank with a strong brine solution made from the salt in the softener's storage tank. The high concentration of sodium in the brine reverses the exchange, stripping the calcium and magnesium back off the resin and sending it to drain, while recoating the beads in sodium ready for the next cycle.

Water pressure and flow available at the shower's cold feed matter just as much as the electrics. An electric shower can only heat the water that reaches it; a poor incoming flow rate limits performance regardless of how high the kW rating goes, since there is simply less water for the unit to raise in temperature.

Neither option is universally better. A trade buyer fitting out a small annexe with one shower and one basin is usually better served by instantaneous. A buyer working on a house with a family's worth of daily hot water demand is usually better served by a cylinder sized correctly for the job. Getting the sizing wrong in either direction shows up fast, as lukewarm water, long waits, or an immersion element working harder than it should.