Hard Water

Hardness can be a serious nuisance for home owners, wreaking havoc on their skin, making their cleaning products less effective and doing damage to their pipes and appliances.

The Problems That Stem From Hard Water

Hard water is not exactly dangerous in the way other contaminants, bacteria and man-made chemicals are, but does have a way of creating various related problems for your home and general health. Hard water affects everything it touches, and can be detrimental to things like cleaning supplies, fixtures, appliances and more.

General guidelines for classification of water hardness are: 0 to 60 mg/L (milligrams per liter) as calcium carbonate is classified as soft; 61 to 120 mg/L as moderately hard; 121 to 180 mg/L as hard; and more than 180 mg/L as very hard.

Softer water creates more suds with cleaning products, making them more effective, and requiring less per use. Soft water also does not create the same mineral buildup in appliances that hard water does.

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Home and Appliances:

Limescale and Buildup

Homes with traditional metal piping, particularly copper and iron, are susceptible to corrosion and limescale build up over time. Effects from hard water on pipes will not be immediately evident but the effects will become noticeable over time.

Appliances and piping that frequently run hot water are more susceptible to build up than ones that do not, since heat is a major factor in the creation of calcium carbonate. Once a pipe is clogged you may have to get extensive repairs to get them replaced.
Damaged Appliances

Much of the same information that applies to build up also applies to damage to appliances since they are related. Most appliances that run water (like dishwashers, coffee makers, washing machines and water heaters) are also running hot water which means the effects of the hard water are exacerbated.

All appliances have finite life spans, but those that frequently run hard water fail more frequently and need to be replaced more often. This is particularly true of water heaters, which can experience far shorter life spans on hard water.
Soap Scum

Soap residue, commonly referred to as Soap Scum, is the byproduct created by soapy suds, dirt and minerals, and hard water. Typically, the harder your water, the more soap or cleaning product you will end up using to get your desired results.

Some cleaning agents can get rid of soap scum (like Borax), but the best way to reduce the amount of soap scum being produced is to reduce the volume of dirt and minerals in your water supply. When you see Soap Scum developing, cleaning in immediately will reduce the build-up.

Hygiene and Health:

Cleaning Products

With hard water, cleaning products of all kinds create less suds and are less effective overall. This is because the dirt and minerals in hard water combine with some of the cleaning products, creating byproducts like soap scum. As a result, homeowners with hard water tend to spend more on household and personal cleaning products than their peers who have softer water.
Dry Skin

When it comes to dry skin, the main issue that most people have is clogged pores. There are several ways people can get clogged pores, but with hard water, the issue comes from mineral deposits, which are the root of most other problems related to hard water. The use of more soap or more cleaning problems can actually make these issues worse in many cases.

The Solution to Hard Water: Water Softener

The system we generally recommend for hard water is the Water Right Impression Plus series water softener. These systems use ionized beads and salts to remove the minerals and solids that cause hard water. These units can be installed directly into your home's water, delivering soft water to every faucet and appliance in your home.

As residential installers in New York and Pennsylvania, we've become experts at water testing and softener installations. Water conditions here in the Great Lakes area are not as hard as some parts of the country, but we do see pockets in more rural areas of exceptionally high calcium carbonate volumes.

If you're interested in a free water test or treatment system recommendation, consider reaching out to us today. We offer free in-home testing and quotes for homeowners.

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