What is hard water?
Water naturally evaporates from oceans, lakes, and rivers to form clouds. Pure water then falls to the earth as rain, snow, and sleet cleaning the air, and picking up contaminants on the way down. This water, which falls back to the earth, becomes more aggressive. As moisture hits the earth and filters through layers of rock and dirt, it picks up minerals like calcium and magnesium which concentrate the hardness of the water. Hardness can cause a variety of aesthetic challenges for homeowners. Hard water creates a mineral buildup on water-using appliances such as water heaters, dishwashers, and laundry machines. This mineral scale decreases efficiency and causes premature ware on the appliances. In addition, because hard water contains contaminants that interfere with cleaning, homeowners find themselves using more soap and chemicals to clean. To avoid these problems, homeowners often invest in a water softening unit to remove the hardness from the water.
It’s water high in minerals — some of which are essential for health. However, laundry washed in hard water may not seem as clean. Water softeners may help, but because they add sodium, they should not be attached to water lines used for cooking or drinking. Note: bottled mineral water is extremely “hard.
When rain falls it is naturally soft, having been evaporated from the earths surface, rivers, lakes and the sea as well as plants and trees, it leaves behind contaminants and eventually forms water droplets and again falls to earth as rain again, but as it percolates through the limestone and chalk layers in some parts of the country (approximately 60% is hard) it dissolves and collects these minerals as dissolved solids of calcium and magnesium.
We call water “hard” if it contains a lot of dissolved calcium or magnesium in it. Hard water causes two problems: It can cause “scale” to form on the inside of pipes, water heaters, showers and so on. The calcium and magnesium ions precipitate out of the water and stick to surfaces. The scale doesn’t conduct heat well and it also reduces the flow through pipes. Eventually, pipes can become completely clogged. Also it reacts with soap to form a sticky scum, and reduces the soap’s ability to lather. As natural water moves through soil and rock, it dissolves very small amounts of minerals and holds them in solution. Calcium and magnesium dissolved in water are the two most common “hardness” minerals. The degree of hardness becomes greater as the calcium and magnesium content increases. • < 1 grain per gallon (GPG) is soft. • 1 to 3.5 GPG is slightly hard (water softener generally not required) • 3.5 to 7 GPG is moderately hard (would see improvement with water softener) • 7 to 10.5 GPG i
