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What is Hard Water?
Most people live with hard water and don’t understand what it is or how it affects their home. Hard water is highly mineralized water. That is water that contains high levels of minerals, such as magnesium and calcium. This mineral accumulation occurs naturally in most water sources, especially if your water source is a well or city water with lenient standards.
Evidence of hard water can be found daily around our home and on our bodies. Hard water can cause sticky skin, even after showering. Hard water can also be responsible for dry, thinning, or breaking hair. Besides these more vanity-driven indicators of hard water, our homes can be evident from a beating with hard water.
Signs of Hard Water in Your Home
1. Kitchen Mineral Build-Up
When you use the sink, especially on black or stainless-steel surfaces, you may see the white mineral deposits left behind from your tap water. The residue known as scale is a mineral contaminant that is been left behind from hard water after being heated. You will most likely find this residue when cleaning dishes with warm water, when cleaning appliances with warm or hot water, or when boiling water in a pot. The pot will have the scale left behind even after a wash or the water has been dumped out. The hot hard water used to clean the dishes is leaving behind scale and soap scum due to the composition of the water.
2. Soap Scum in Bathrooms
The aforementioned effects of hard water in the kitchen also tends to affect the bathroom. Toilets, sinks, and showers alike may all have a soapy scum build-up. Sink heads tend to see this on handles where wet hands turn the water off and on, while the sink faucet will have mineral deposits from the hard water. Appearing white or green, it can make any bathroom unsightly.
Hard water makes lathering in the shower extremely difficult. The minerals present in hard water react poorly with soap. This phenomenon causes a soap scum film to be apparent in the shower, on the shower curtains, and the skin. What’s worse, the scum left behind on the shower curtain tends to be a breeding ground for unwanted microbial biofilm. This biofilm can cause bacteria to spread to undesirable bacteria to those who use the shower.
3. Lower Water Heater Efficiency
When hard water is heated, the minerals become an insoluble precipitate called scale. When this happens, the scale coats the container in which the heated water was inhabiting. Just as you see this residue on kitchen utensils, sinks, or pots with cooking, the same goes for your water heater.
When Scale begins to collect in the water heater tank, the efficiency of your water heater starts to drop significantly, causing a noticeable increase in energy bills.
4. Laundry is Problematic
The negative impacts of hard water on clothing may surprise you. Black clothes coming out lighter or white clothes coming out gray? These are common problems of hard water laundry. When a washing machine starts, the first step is to moisten and soften the clothes. With hard water, this is a nearly impossible task. The contaminants in the hard water on the clothing make soap build-up on the clothes rather than clean the dirt away. The build-up prohibits your clothes from becoming cleaner as well as cause clothing to become dingier faster.
Most detergents have a specific formula with soft or mildly soft water in mind. While there are hard water detergents directed at fixing this issue, it is only a temporary fix. The hard water build-up will continue to ruin clothing faster, along with the other aspects of your house, including your washing machine. The minerals that affect the kitchen and bathroom are also affected by the hard water as the sediments are tough on the washing machine as well. Hard water safe detergents will not save the longevity of your appliances.
5. Water Tastes, Looks or Smells Bad
If you have ever tried to get a glass of water to drink, or fill up the tub for a bath, you may have noticed the color of the water is slightly yellow. You may have also experienced a funny taste or smell to your water as you try to drink it. These signs are showing a water contaminant. The flavor of your water can give significant hints on what the probable contaminants are before testing (which you should have done to obtain a correct water analysis).
If your water has a metallic flavor, your water is probably suffering from an iron overload. Excessive amounts of Iron can cause unwanted health problems, as well as wreak havoc on your plumbing. Copper-colored staining on toilet bowls is another common sign that an iron build-up is affecting your water and plumbing. These signs are usually due to the iron causing rust within your pipes, originating from the main topic- hard water.
If your water tastes like dirt, it may be just that- dirt. Depending on the age of your pipes and area in which you live, sediment (aka dirt or algae) can be present in your tap water. The presence of these sediments can give an aftertaste that may taste like dirt or mold.
If your water smells like rotten eggs, Hydrogen Sulfide (Sulfur) gas reacting with magnesium in the hard water creating sulfates, is to blame. Not only is the smell unpleasant in drinking water, but filling a bathtub can stink up an entire room!
While the discussed areas are not the only areas affected by hard water, knowing areas to start observing is critical. The excellent news is Crystal Clear Water can make this completely disappear for you! With our state-of-the-art technology in Whole Home Reverse Osmosis and Water softeners, we can create pure water for your entire household. Looking, smelling, and tasting better is only the beginning of your journey with us. You will notice a complete rejuvenation in your home and energy bills. Give us a call today to speak with one of our trained staff members!
