Did you know that approximately 85 percent of the USA has hard water? If you are in the States, you’re likely to live with hard water at a high level. Hard water is hard on your skin, hard on your appliances, and hard to remove from glassware. It can also be hard to detect! This blog post will help you understand what hard water is, how to tell if you have hard water in your home, as well as what to do with it.
What is Hard Water?
Hard water is made up of a mixture of calcium and magnesium from the ground. Hard water is often found in underground deposits, where it slowly builds up over time. The more significant the amount, the harder your water will be, which can play a role in the longevity of your pipes as well as impact other parts of your home.
How Do You Know If You Have Hard Water?
There are many ways to tell if hard water is in your home. The most obvious sign that you have hard water is the build-up on faucets, showerheads, and glasses. It will look like a layer of white or yellow scum which can be challenging to remove from dishes or glassware after hand washing. The hard water may also produce a gritty feeling on your skin when you shower and leave hard soap scum in the bottom of the tub after bathing.
Symptoms of Hard Water May Include:
– Build upon your appliances and bathroom
– Low flow in your water faucets
– Hard to remove build-up
– Higher energy bills
– Smelly laundry
– Dull or dry skin or hair
How to Test If You Have Hard Water?
If you’ve identified any symptoms we’ve listed above, it might be time to have your water checked out. If you suspect hard water is in your home and want to be sure about it, then there are a few ways that may help:
- Get A Water Quality Report – If you use city water, you can contact your water provider for a copy of the water quality report. They are legally required to provide this information to you, which should help you determine if your water is hard.
- At-Home Method – An easy, at-home way to test if you have hard water is to use a water bottle and dish soap. First, fill the water 1/3 of the way up. Next, you’ll want to pour a few drops of your dish soap into the water bottle and shake the bottle for a few seconds. If your bottle is cloudy with a thin layer of bubbles, you have hard water. If you have soft water, it should be filled 2/3 with bubbles and 1/3 with water.
- Test Kit – If you’re looking for the most accurate way to test for hard water, you’ll want to get a test kit and confirm that you have hard water. While this is the most expensive of the three options, it’s the most accurate since it will give you instant results and the level of hardness of your water.
What Should I Do If I Have Hard Water?
First of all, there’s no need to panic. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has not set a legal limit for hardness in water due to the fact that the calcium and magnesium ions that contribute to the hardness are not toxic or cause adverse health impacts. Hard water has even received some speculation that drinking it can have cardiovascular benefits. However, there is no conclusive evidence to back up that claim.
While it’s not necessarily any health impact, hard water can still hit your pipes and impact the water system in your home. If you want to alleviate the stress, there are plenty of useful ways, such as boiling your hard water, using washing soda on laundry, or removing hard stains with vinegar. A water softener with salt is also a way to deal with hard water. But it will add salt back to your water. Therefore, if your diet is salt restrictive, you will want to install a Reverse Osmosis (RO) system to remove the salt.
Having a combination of an RO system and anti-scale would be the perfect match to reduce your bills, protect your pipes, appliances as well as your skin and hair. Plus, since they are not water softeners, you won’t have to worry about the risk of potential health impacts such as high blood pressure, heart disease, or stroke because there’s no additional salt in the water.