If you have hard water and don’t want to invest in a water softener, you are setting yourself up for many long-term hardships.
Hard water is known to cause trouble on so many different fronts. Problems with high mineral content can range from the way your dishes always seem a bit cloudy to the dryness of your skin. Water softeners do their work quietly, so it is difficult to measure their impact.
Investing in a water softener for your home and workspace can help you resolve many long-term problems.
What is Hard Water?
Hard water is the blanket term given to water with high minerals traces.
The two most prominent minerals found in water are calcium and magnesium. These minerals are effectually harmless; they won’t cause any life-threatening problems if consumed. Conversely, calcium and magnesium are necessary for regular bodily functions.
The problems with hard water don’t have anything to do with consumption. The most significant issues come from using it for washing, flushing, showering, etc.
When hard water dries, it leaves a layer of minerals behind. In small quantities, they are relatively harmless. If they are allowed to build, These minerals can cause unsightly stains, hard and crusty surfaces, and even interrupt the natural water flow.
Hard Water Stains and Visibility
You can find the most noticeable effects of hard water in your kitchen and bathroom. Homes with more minerals in their water supplies can find minerals wherever water has dried in the house.
You may have noticed this residue before. Have your glass cups ever come out of the dishwasher with what looks like dried water droplets? Is there white crust around the water sources in your bathroom? These are signs that ward water has been hard at work.
Hard water also reacts poorly to soap. The minerals in hard water make it difficult for soap to foam. Soapy particles begin to cling to the sides of your sink and tub, forming what is commercially known as soap scum.
A single layer of minerals on your glasses or in your bathtub isn’t hinder any function or harm anyone. Again, the problems are primarily the result of long-term neglect.
Appliance Care: Successful Subversion
What happens when you don’t address hard water? Minerals will coat your bathtub and sinks, your pipes may start to buildup scale, and your appliances may malfunction.
Hard water can decrease water pressure in all your water outlets. Minerals can build up in shower heads and faucets, which can look like you’re running low on water pressure. In reality, you wouldn’t be having pressure problems if you didn’t have an excessive amount of minerals in your water.
Hard water can wreak havoc on your appliances as well. Appliances like coffee makers, fridge water dispensers, washing machines, ice machines, dishwashers, water heaters, fish tanks, etc., are all subject to harm caused by mineral buildups left by hard water.
Cleaning these appliances can be done with chemicals, but the mineral buildup is tough. It may feel like you are trying to scrape rocks off your appliances; in a way, you are doing precisely that. Minerals are, in essence, tiny rock particles.
Hard Water Skincare
Mineral baths sound luxurious, but the natural minerals found in springs are not the same as those coming out of your pipes. The minerals found in hot springs that are famed to be so therapeutic are silica and sulfur. Both are trace minerals that your skin can absorb to become firmer and more elastic.
Hard water doesn’t usually contain these minerals.
Instead of being good for you, hard water can damage your skin. Minerals common in hard water break down collagen, a protein that keeps your skin firm. Years of washing with hard water can manifest in your face. Collagen shortages will prematurely age you. You will start to notice saggy skin and wrinkles at a much younger age than if you had been washing in better water.
The way that hard water interacts with soap can make it harder to wash off your skin after application. It’s almost ironic that washing with soap and hard water can do as much to help clog your pores as they do clean them.
Washing with hard water takes longer than doing so with soft water. If your wash isn’t vigorous enough, minerals and soap will cling to your hair and skin. These aren’t the outcomes anyone is looking for when trying to stay on top of their personal hygiene.
Cleaning Your Rock Garden
Trying to clean hard water can be difficult, but it is possible if highly inconvenient.
You can break up hard water deposits with chemicals and chemical cleaners. Vinegar is a crowd favorite for cleaning out coffee makers and other home appliances. You can clean tougher buildups with the help of steel wool and other tough scrubbing tools.
Chemical cleaners containing bleach are great for cleaning bathrooms and kitchen sinks. The bleach will help whiten surfaces that may have become discolored due to calcium buildups.
Water Softeners: The Easiest Solution
If you ask 100 people to give you their best answer for how to clean hard water deposits, you will get 100 different answers. It’s an issue many have been dealing with for a lifetime. In most cases, hard water is a minor—if persistent—inconvenience.
You can resolve your daily troubles with hard water with some hard work and a small arsenal of cleaning chemicals. But, if you ever want to avoid making small talk about your most recent home experiments about hard water stains, just install a water softener.
Adding up all the expenses from hard water, including an increased lifespan for your appliances and one less trip to the doctor because you couldn’t quite get the stains to wash out of your bathtub, get a water softener installed.
At Quick Quality Plumbing, we pride ourselves on our fast and efficient work. We’ve collectively banked thousands of hours practicing our craft. If you need a water softener installed, we have the expertise to help.
Do yourself a favor and look into getting a water softener now!
