Many homeowners find out the hard way that the area that they live in has hard water. They find out when they are forced to pay for an expensive plumbing repair. While hard water is not bad for you to drink or cook with, there are other negatives effects to having hard water. Hard water is that the pipes run through your home, either behind the walls or under the floor. This means you usually only see the water when it comes out of the faucets.
What is Hard Water?
Let’s start with the basics about hard water and what it actually means to have it. Hard water is a term that is used to describe when there is an excessive amount of minerals in the water. Most residential homes and commercial buildings are connected to a municipal water supply that is administered by the city or town.
The water for the city or town normally comes from a local aquifer or multiple well sites depending on the size of the city. The amount of minerals that can be found in water comes from the ground where the water filters through many layers of material. If the soil in the area around the aquifer or well where the water is tapped from is high in magnesium and calcium, chances are very strong that all of the city or town water will be hard to some degree.
What Are the Indications of Hard Water in Your Home?
There are usually indications that you have hard water in your home, some of which are fairly pronounced while others normally take a while to notice. The most common thing that you will notice if you have hard water is that your soap will have a hard time forming bubbles. This is because of the high amount of calcium and magnesium in the water will interfere with the formation of the bubbles. You may also notice a film left on your drinking glasses after they have been washed. This is especially true of dishes when they are taken out of the dishwasher.
The other, much more costly indication occurs when the dissolved minerals deposits buildup inside the pipes in your home. They can also buildup in the fitting inside your boiler, dishwasher, clothes washer, and other household fixtures. These can lead to very expensive plumbing repair if they are not caught soon enough.
Are There Any Health Concerns About Hard Water?
While there are obvious problems that can be caused to your property, there are really are no known health concerns. According to everything that we can find, no health-related issues have ever been reported from hard water. In some cases, the elevated levels of calcium and or magnesium can actually act as a mineral supplement.
What Kind of Damage Can You Expect to Be Caused By Hard Water?
The damage caused by having hard water can vary depending on how long the condition has been left unchecked. If you notice it early enough and you are able to install a whole house softener system. However, if that is not the case and the hard water is left unchecked the buildup of calcium deposits in your pipes and fixtures will eventually have to be dealt with. This could easily result in an expensive plumbing repair bill.
The other concern will be the internal components of your dishwasher, clothes washer and boiler. The calcium in the water can cause major havoc to the inside of the boiler and fittings and water valves inside the washing machines.
What Can You Do to Remedy Hard Water in Your Home?
The best way to combat the hard water situation in your home is to have a water softener system installed. This type of system is placed where the water comes into the house just after the water meter. Depending on the type of softener system that is used all of the water is pushed through a filtering material that removes the excessive minerals (dissolved calcium and magnesium).
The most popular type of water softener system uses a process called Ion-exchange to eliminate the dissolved minerals and metals from the water in the house. This is accomplished in a number of ways depending on the system that is employed. The system includes a tank that contains resin beads made of polystyrene and has a positive charge. The second tank will contain a salt brine mixture that is used to help regenerate the positive charge of the resin beads. After the water leaves the tank containing the resin beads it is essentially soft and flows throughout the house.
Call Classic Handyman @ 847-651-5847 for more tips and help hard water has damaged your home!
