Waterside MC250
Durability
Ease of Use
Service & Support
Waterside MC250
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User Reviews
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Style
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Value For Money
Getting Rid Of It
The previous MC 250 packed up after a few years and did only a barely adequate job when it worked. I replaced it with a refurbished model from Ward. I do not think it has ever worked properly in the 2 years since installation. A new bathroom coincided with the fitment. There is limescale visible, water tablet tests show the water produced is hard and emails to the company go unanswered. I have no faith in the product and as a result of their inaction, no trust in the company. I have decided to simply get rid of it and go for a Harvey supplied by a company with a highly responsible reputation.
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Help I Need Advice
I have owned and operated a MC250 Ultra for nine years and apart from a few early problems it has operated well. I decided not to have a service contract so it has not been serviced in this time.It has now developed a fault of the salt chamber fills with water and does not drain away on regeneration. I have been in touch with the service department at High Wycombe and they want £180 + Vat for a parts and labour repair.
Having read some of the other comments about the longevity of this machine I do not consider this worthwhile. Does anyone know if this would be a repair I could undertake myself.
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Had One For 17 Years
I have had an MC250 for over 17 years and it has just broken. It has been serviced, but infrequently, and unlike some members of the family and other appliances has just existed, doing its job. Waterside say that after 10 years service it cannot be repaired.
I am amazed at the poor reviews here for the MC250 [and for the MC350] as I had just intended to swop the old out for another.
Has something happened to them in the intervening 17 years to make them worse? Totally amazed!
I'm in Maidenhead. Are you interested in it?
Do you still have it ?
Where are you in the UK?
I have a brand new MC250 (still boxed) if you haven't replaced your 1
Yes they got taken over, the people who worked or waterside now call the selfs softener services in braintree Essex. Still make great softeners
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Watercrap Mc 250
Had this rubbish installed by Corgi approved installer 7 years ago . Within 3 months the cabinet began to leak from the raised Waterside lettering. The cabinet was replaced under warranty .
One year later, the dreaded leak returned same place again !
Last year the thing got greedy and started eating salt like crazy , and that was the last straw.
Easy to use and access etc but let down by very poor engineering and customer service.
I have read 70 reviews on the Kinetico ( was also recommended by the installer and i wished that i had listened ) , so now i will get my self the 'Rolls Royce ' of water softeners ; the 2020c .
I will burn the old MC 250 , and put it out of its misery , RIP !!
Hi.. good news everyone, tracked down the orginal people who worked for waterside.
Had a new fleck valve fitted and everthing is now fine.
Hi , many thanks for replying . I have discarded the Waterside MC250 , and now have Harveys Water softener ,installed by their approved installer , end Jan 2012. The new one uses block salt and is very convenient and easy to use . Furthermore , it does not use electricity and has twin tanks too , no problems so far and they even supplied and installed filtered drinking water tap with filter !
Highly recommended and Harvey is a nice bloke too , very down to earth and business focussed at the same time !
Dear Customer,
As the manufacturer of your MC250, I have read your review and would like to take this opportunity to say that I am disappointed to hear about your experience. When the MC250 was originally launched, it heralded a major breakthrough in water softener design, bringing electronic control, a compact footprint and ease of use to the broader market. Whilst the MC250 was revolutionary in its time, the modern equivalent is far removed from those early days. Development in electronics means that the Waterside machines of today are more efficient and flexible than ever before, easier to use and supplied with an industry leading 5 years parts and a full 2 years on-site labour warranty.
The Waterside brand has since July 2010 been owned by BWT, Europe’s number one water technology group, and is supported across Europe by a team of sales and service professionals on hand to offer advice and support in choosing, installing and servicing the whole range of BWT water softeners.
With Waterside water softeners typically lasting over ten years, BWT are still pleased to support the MC250 in the field with a full range of service options.
Customer service and feedback is important to us and if you feel less than satisfied with the service you have received, please call 01376 334200.
Yours Sincerely,
Ian Fraser
Marketing Manager
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They Like To Leak
I repair water softeners for a living, MC 250 leak for a living and they are very inefficient. I normally recommend my customers replace them but failing that we put the newer more efficient MC350 head on. People notice a big saving in salt. We do not offer a guarantee on the new heads as I still do not trust them. Its a shame that a british company makes such a poor product.
How old is the machine. If less than 6 years then I would recommend a new head.
I normally recieve a call spatter they have contacted you. Many times your engineers have offered new machines, but the customer normally realises that they should shop around. Sorry.
Hi,
Production of the MC250 ended in 2004, so please contact BWT on 01376 334 200 and select option 2, as parts from the newer range of water softeners have been designed to be compatible with older products; therefore, the MC250 can be repaired.
However, there comes a point where replacement might be a better proposition. The current models of water softeners come with extended manufactures warranties.
If you have any questions or would like any more information, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Kind regards,
Steve Harper
Service Sales – Operations Manager
Have the same trouble with my waterside 250 ie leaking water into salt tank. can they be repaired?
Dear Customer,
As the manufacturer of the MC250, I have read your review and would like to take this opportunity to say that we are disappointed to hear about your experiences. We would like to inform you that because of our continuous improvement we implement in our manufacturing, the MC 250 was superseded in 2004, making the youngest models a minimum of 8 years old. However, in most cases, we are still able to provide a comprehensive service facility for these older units at favourable prices. If you, or any of your customers own one of these models that require attention, please call our service team on 01376 344200 and explain the situation. Our dedicated team can offer you free advice or arrange for a home service visit. At the end of a call, if you feel less than satisfied with the service you have received, please ask to speak to the senior manager on duty who will personally deal with any remaining issues you have.
Yours Sincerely,
Ian Fraser
Marketing Manager
Ease of Use
Durability
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Value For Money
I've Had 2 Mc-250 Hi-flow For Over Ten Years.
I've got two of these both badged as Waterside MC250. One is in Spain. Both models of the same number are subtley different. First you must realise that water softener products are sold like 'luxury goods' which means high prices, glossy brochures emphasing lifestyle attributes and tight lipped manufacturers who want to sell you after sales services and are unlikely to provide sufficient information for you to fix them yourself. Most will not even supply parts direct and some just assemble the key components and badge. I am entirely negative about the style since both mine have the horrible grey top with a gaping hole at the back where the pipes connect. Still at lease they made the casings out of virtually indestructible polypropylene.
The first MC250 I bought was fully electronic. The valve head is driven by a small synchronous motor, there is an electronic water flow sensor and a second sensor to detect the position of the valve. The system is microprocessor controlled which should make it 'plug and play' - just keep filling the salt bin. The second MC250 I have in Spain uses the Fleck 5600 valve. I chose this version because in a holiday flat, electricity can get turned off for months and I could not guarantee their electronic version would remember the accumulated water flow readings.
Their electronic version suffers from one big drawback - the water valve used is not that common worldly wide and I think may be obsolete. I have had to accept that it would be virtually impossible to get parts. The electronics used are actually fixable provided the big microprocessor chip has not been destroyed. All the other discrete electronic parts, including those for their two external sensors can be sourced as original or equivalents. That said, it is made much simpler than the Fleck clock motor type and many parts like O rings can be got easily. Some parts peripheral to the valve, like the brine filter and its metering, are available through USA sites, since they are common to many softeners. I have replaced the resin once and that wasn't difficult.
I've had a few problems with brine suction leaks which means more water gets put in the tank than is taken out and recently discovered the water flow turbine was stuck and not measuring small flows. But every problem on the MC250 has so far been fixable and it just carries on working for me.
It's biggest weakness is the crude way it seems to measure how much water to put in the brine tank and how much brine is taken out. If more water goes in than comes out, you get overflow! If more tries to come out than goes in, you don't get the resin bed fully re-charged.
Doing some maintenance is very important. Once every couple of years I remove the salt, fill the salt bin half full with warm water and force brine suction. Once you've worked out the marks and position of the valve in the cycle, it's easy. That simple procedure makes sure any salt clogging up the brine jet gets dissolved and flushed out.
The MC250 in Spain is fitted with the clockwork Fleck 5600 water valve. OK it might seem a bit clunky with its water flow sensor gear driven and connected to the mechanical programmer clock with a Bowden cable, But Fleck is a long standing international company, the exploded parts views are downloadable for each model and all parts are listed by part number and available. For anybody looking at alternatives to the MC250, start looking at the water valve and don't touch it if it isn't Fleck. In fact, you can take the MC250 case then buy and fit your own Fleck valve to the resin holder if you get fed up getting ripped off for service calls or trying to source Waterside parts. Fleck are not cheap, but at least you know you have got the best.
I have had one problem with the MC250 Fleck valve version. Because the unit is turned off and left standing for months, there was no brining because the plastic injector valve had got encrusted with dry salt and blocked. That's why I now test run the brine suction cycle with salt removed and warm water in the tank. I now have a 12 page 'How to' on the MC250 so I'll try and post it somewhere one day. But I have to be honest and say that both my machines have performed well for me - I just had to spend some time learning how they worked to fix a few problems along the way.
Dear Voxmagna,
As the manufacturer of your MC250, I have read your review and would like to take this opportunity to say thank you for sharing your experience. We would like to make you aware that because of our continuous improvement we implement in our manufacturing, the MC 250 was superseded in 2004, making the youngest models a minimum of 8 years old. The valve that you are referring to, the Fleck 5600, whilst is no longer fitted in our machines, is still widely available online, as well as from us directly.
If you do encounter any future problems, we are still able to provide a comprehensive service facility for these older units at favourable prices. If one of your units require attention, please call our service team on 01376 344200 and explain the situation. Our dedicated team can offer you free advice or arrange a home service visit. At the end of a call, if you feel less than satisfied with the service you have received, please ask to speak to the senior manager on duty who will personally deal with any remaining issues you have.
Yours Sincerely,
Ian Fraser
Marketing Manager
Voxmagna, Your review is very informative...I would also be really interested in any manual...the Mc250 we have seems to be filling up with water in the salt compartment and we are worried about it overflowing - what should we do.
Sam - Beds
Vox, the above is already very useful, but publishing your manual would be immensely useful. We had ours installed in 2000 and it is still going strong, but we can no longer get service at a reasonable cost, so your manual would be great.
Thanks
Thanks for posting these comprehensive comments. I found them very useful.If you could find the time to post the twelve page "how to" guide I'll send you a christmas card!.
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Weak Product, Weak Customer "service"
We had a Waterside MC250 installed 6 years ago. Within 2 years noticed water seeping from the stamped "Waterside" logo on the front of the tank and large clumps of salt building up on the outside. It was obviously a manufacturing fault where the stamp had gone too deep and actually perforated the tank. There was also a leak coming from the valve at the back. Phoned up immediately, but Culligan did not want to know. They wouldn't even send someone to look at it without a call-out charge and their attitude was very inflexible. This was an expensive item for me as an OAP and I purchased it to help a skin condition. I cannot afford to just buy another one after only 2 years. Avoid Culligan and Waterside like the plague!
Dear D Ayree,
Thanks for your response, I will personally pass on your comments to our service department.
I am sorry that you received a poor service from us, but I'm glad that you are now happy with your new water softener.
In the future, if you do require any advice, please do not hesitate to contact me directly at [email protected] or customer services helpline on 01376 334200.
Kind regards,
Ian Fraser
I did phone Customer Services, (9 months ago) but they were just not interested, despite the problem clearly being a manufacturing fault. If bad attitude was an Olympic sport, they would have won a Gold Medal! I guess I should have complained harder, but elderly people do not like spending a long time on the phone with negative people, who could not care less, arguing. I bought an Atlantic T120, which is brilliant and softens the water much better than the Waterside. The guy who took out the faulty one and replaced the new one assured me that the leaking through the walls of the main body of the tank was obviously, to anyone who could be bothered to look at it, caused by a manufacturing fault. Never too old to learn from an experience - good or bad!
Dear Customer,
As the manufacturer of your MC250, we have read your review and would like to take this opportunity to say that we are disappointed to hear about your experience. As part of Europe’s leading water technology group, we stand firmly by the quality of our products and our service team, however, because of our continuous improvements in our products, the MC250 was superseded over 8 years ago. With many years of experience, our engineers can normally solve most issues in a single visit. When this isn’t possible for whatever reason, we always aim to keep you informed as to the reasons why. Our engineers are friendly and approachable, but if you would prefer to speak to our Customer service team, instead then they can be contacted on any working day between 8.30 and 5pm on 01376 334200. At the end of a call or engineers visit, if you feel less than satisfied with the service you have received, please ask to speak to the senior manager on duty who will personally deal with any remaining issues you have.
Yours Sincerely,
Ian Fraser
Marketing Manager
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Style
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Useless Piece Of Equipment
Bought a Waterside MC250 (the later electronic model) 10 years ago when we moved into our house (installed by a professional plumber), never had one before but we were looking forward to a lime scale free life as we are in a hard water area. It broke down within the first 6 months sending brine continuously from the overflow, and a fairly unsympathetic engineer from Culligan came out to repair it, and replaced the rotary valve.
I was expecting to get nice completely soft water from the machine, but we ALWAYS had scale on the shower screens, chrome taps and in the well of sinks on the waste assembly, and I naively assumed that the water softener was doing all it could in such a hard water area, and that this was to be expected. We used a lot of citric acid descalers in our house! The Waterside softener seemed to operate, and requires regular salt injections as would be expected. (And before you say anything I examined the Waterside fully, and all was set up correctly, bypass valve off etc.). Anyway after 10 years it started putting salt into the water in the taps, so we called it a day, and bought a basic softener from Easywater- one with an 'Autotrol Logix' valve and I simply plumbed in place of the Waterside. What an immediate difference! Real soft water, you can feel the difference when washing your hands or showering, no scale on sinks taps or showers etc. Transformation! I actually think the old Waterside unit never actually worked at all, which makes me feel a bit of an idiot, and more than a bit annoyed.
Conclusion: avoid!
YES!! I agree. Thanks for the info on Easywater, will be changing mine for one of those.
Dear Frankiethe,
Thank you for your recent comments regarding your experience. I have passed these details on to a senior manager who will take these comments on board with a view of improving on the customer service you received.
Kind regards,
Ian Fraser
Marketing Manager
Further to Bwtuk's comment to my review, I stand by my comments. A water softener is not something that one buys very often, and so an expert comment for most people is difficult. However it is now apparent to me after buying another softener that my conclusion that the Waterside machine has never worked properly is a fair one. I still have the evidence in the shape of the scale on the glass of our shower cubicle. And I can assure you that the scale effect has been consistent from day one.
You say that the modern softeners are more efficient and flexible than before, however to put this into context it must be said that the basic water softener technology has not changed significantly since the ion exchange resins first appeared- the machine may use less salt and be more efficient in their recharging, but they are still the same as they were many years ago. Maybe my ion exchange resin was for some reason faulty, a conclusion I come to because otherwise when the machine operated it seemed to, for a period of 10 years (apart from the 6 month point failure), recharge and consume salt as the instructions suggested it would do. It didn't remove the scale problem though.
Out of interest I looked at the Waterside reviews on this website- curiously unusually the MC250 and 350 models had 50 and 30 review comments respectively, with both ending up less than an average score of less than 2 stars out of 5. Most other softeners had one or two reviews each and 5 stars. There's a message there I think.
Dear Frankiethe,
As the manufacturer of your MC250, I have read your review and would like to take this opportunity to say that we are disappointed to hear about your experience. When the MC250 was originally launched, it heralded a major breakthrough in water softener design, bringing electronic control, a compact footprint and ease of use to the broader market. Whilst the MC250 was revolutionary in its time, the modern equivalent is far removed from those early days. Development in electronics means that the Waterside machines of today are far more efficient and flexible than ever before and easier to use. Our Waterside machines are now supplied with an industry leading 5 years parts and a full 2 years on-site labour warranty and typically offer a service life in excess of 10 years. The Waterside brand has since July 2010 been owned by BWT, Europe’s number one water technology group, and is supported across Europe by a team of sales and service professionals on hand to offer advice and support in choosing, installing and servicing the whole range of BWT water softeners. If you would like to add any further comments regarding your experience, please do not hesitate to contact our customer service team on 01376 334200.
Yours Sincerely,
Ian Fraser
Marketing Manager
Ease of Use
Durability
Style
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Value For Money
I Thought I Was Alone In Having Problems With This
I thought i was alone in having problems with this product but apparently not.
Having had the device for a few years i had a burst water main which was not the device's fault but had tremendous problems getting it repaired through the Culligan/Waterside network. I live nr their HQ in High Wycombe so there can be no excuses for their lack of availability of parts.
I have now had 3-4 visits from their so called service engineers and have found them to be real jobsworths and on a couple of occasions with a real attitude problem. Despite replacing virtually all the parts on the softener it still didnt work. I ended up myself having to do a mix and match repair between components from 2 softeners as their agents could not/would not do it themselves.
Now it is working i find it often fills up with water of its own accord (which t did before as well), thank goodness for the overflow drain, otherwise I'd have had a flood. No real reason why it should do this and Culligan dont seem interested.
Its a shame as I'd like to support a UK manufacturer but the product is bad and the service is appalling.
Dear Customer,
As the manufacturer of your MC250, we have read your review and would like to take this opportunity to say that we are disappointed to hear about your experience. We would like to inform you that because of our continuous improvement we implement in our manufacturing, the MC 250 was superseded in 2004, making the youngest models a minimum of 8 years old. As part of Europe’s leading water technology group, we stand firmly by the quality of our products and our service team. With many years of experience, our engineers can normally solve most issues in a single visit. When this isn’t possible for whatever reason, we always aim to keep you informed as to the reasons why. Our engineers are friendly and approachable, but if you would prefer to speak to our Customer service team, instead then they can be contacted on any working day between 8.30 and 5pm on 01376 334200. At the end of a call or engineers visit, if you feel less than satisfied with the service you have received, please ask to speak to the senior manager on duty who will personally deal with any remaining issues you have.
Yours Sincerely,
Ian Fraser
Marketing Manager
Ease of Use
Durability
Style
Service & Support
Value For Money
I Bought Mc250 As Recommended By My Plumber About
I bought MC250 as recommended by my plumber about 10 years ago and had constant problems from valve being replaced to the cabinet in the kitchen being flooded. The service from Culligan was good but expensive and with the latest flooding incident due to faulty valve I have decided to buy a new one but not an MC350.
The MC250 required regular repair and therefore decided to take out a maintenance contract but that is not being renewed since the machine is over 10 years old. I would not recommend this product to anyone.
Dear Vinay Gandhi,
As the manufacturer of your MC250, I have read your review and would like to take this opportunity to say that I am disappointed to hear about your experience. When the MC250 was originally launched, it heralded a major breakthrough in water softener design, bringing electronic control, a compact footprint and ease of use to the broader market. Whilst the MC250 was revolutionary in its time, the modern equivalent is far removed from those early days. Development in electronics means that the Waterside machines of today are more efficient and flexible than ever before, easier to use and supplied with an industry leading 5 years parts and a full 2 years on-site labour warranty.
The Waterside brand has since July 2010 been owned by BWT, Europe’s number one water technology group, and is supported across Europe by a team of sales and service professionals on hand to offer advice and support in choosing, installing and servicing the whole range of BWT water softeners.
With Waterside water softeners typically lasting over ten years, BWT are still pleased to support the MC250 in the field with a full range of service options. Our dedicated UK team can be contacted on any working day between 8.30 and 5pm on 01376 334200 and can offer you free advice or arrange for a home service visit if necessary.
Customer service is important to us and if at the end of any call or service visit you feel less than satisfied with the service you have received, please ask to speak to the senior manager on duty who will personally deal with any remaining issues you have.
Yours Sincerely,
Ian Fraser
Marketing Manager
Q&A
Are there any operating instructions for the Waterside MC250 water softener? I seem to have lost mine, and haven't been able to locate a source for them.
Many thanks
We recently moved into a house with this water softener. It has been working fine, then since the storm and the power cuts it has been beeping periodically during the day. Could this be connected, what should I do?