What are the Effects of Hard Water?
Do you have hard water? Are you wondering if you should do something about it? Well, before you make a decision about whether or not to treat it, we want to make sure you are armed with plenty of information first.
Does your water leave stains and residue on dishes and glassware? Are your shower and bathtub walls covered with an embarrassing film that is hard to clean? Does your hair and skin look and feel dingy and dull? Does it require an excessive amount of soaps and detergents to clean clothes or create suds?
If you answered yes to any of those questions, then it sounds like your hard water is having a bad effect on your home!
You’re certainly not alone. Research shows that about 85% of American households deal with some level of hard water – and many of those don’t treat their water with a water softener or water conditioner, simply because they don’t know what kind of treatment would work best for their particular household.
We know there are numerous products on the market today that claim to soften water, and trying to choose the right one can seem like an overwhelming task. But with a little bit more information, we can help you select which water treatment options would work best for your household’s water demands and for your individual family’s needs.
Hard Water Classifications
For starters – what actually determines a water’s hardness and what levels you should pay extra attention to?
According to the USGS, calcium and magnesium dissolved in water are the two most common minerals that make water “hard.” The degree of hardness becomes greater as the calcium and magnesium content increases and is related to the concentration of multivalent cations dissolved in the water. To determine the classification of your water refer to the following chart.
Hard water minerals are not going to impact human health, however they are going to impact your home in many ways. From your own bathing and washing practices, to your pipes and appliances, hard water is … well HARD on a home and you!
Benefits of a Water Softener
One of the biggest benefits of installing a home water softener tends to be the decrease in time and effort spent on household chores and the amount of detergents and soaps that you’ll have to buy. Another important benefit of softening your home’s water is that you’ll reduce the risk of clogged pipes and appliances – a benefit we will get into more as you continue reading.
It is expensive to have to deal with hard water issues. From the money spent on extra soaps and detergents to replacing inefficient or failing appliances, you’ll be spending a fortune living in a home that is plagued by hard water. Your pipes can become clogged with scale that reduces water flow and ultimately requires pipe replacement – and this is not just household pipes. It includes scale and buildup in smaller appliances that will reduce their lifespan as well.
So now that you know what it is and what effect it has, let’s think about interpreting your results. The hardness of your water will be reported in grains per gallon, milligrams per liter mg/l or parts per million ppm. One grain of hardness equals 17.1 mg/l or ppm of hardness. You can refer back to the amounts listed above to see where your household water falls.
Much of this information comes from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) which establishes the standards for our drinking water in this country. There are primary and secondary standards. Primary standards are based on the necessary health considerations of the tap water you consume and secondary standards are based on classifications such as taste, odor, color, corrosiveness, foaming, and staining properties of water. There is no Primary or Secondary standard for water hardness.
So we know it is a serious nuisance and we know it isn’t necessarily dangerous to our health; yet we still need to consider the removal of hard water minerals to reduce the time and tasks in our daily routine as well as to save money on replacing appliances and the extra cost of energy it takes to utilize those appliances. It has been proven that softened water allows for less energy, thus costing you less money on your energy bill.
Hard Water Solution
So how exactly can we remove these minerals and what do water softeners do?
Our water softening products use an ion exchange process in which the hard minerals are traded out for sodium. During the process, beads with a negative charge are in the resin. Calcium and magnesium in water both carry positive charges. This means that these minerals will cling to the beads as the hard water passes through the mineral tank.
The sodium collects on the beads, replacing the calcium and magnesium, which go down the drain. Once this phase is over, the mineral tank is flushed of excess brine and the brine tank is refilled. There is of course, more technical aspects to this process, but this gives you a general idea of what is happening inside the water softener.
The water softeners we sell here at Pacific Coast Water Systems of Fullerton are not only exceptionally efficient, but also extremely durable. They also come with a great warranty so you won’t have to worry that your product is going to fail leaving you in a bind.
Living with hard water can be difficult but it doesn’t have to be. We can help you replace your hard water with soft water that will not only be more enjoyable for you, but will save you time, money and effort in the long run!
