Hard water disrupts your everyday life in more ways than you know. If you have to deal with lime scale spots and stains on your faucets, fixtures, surfaces, and glasses, you already are in trouble. Dubbed the “silent killer of appliances,” hard water makes your everyday life even harder.
What is Hard Water?
In most states across America, people have to deal with hard water. According to statistics, over 80% of American homes’ water contains calcium, magnesium, and other minerals. They are the substances giving your water its hardness levels. While water hardness varies from city to city, its effects are visible with the naked eye. As we said above, if your tap water leaves behind a chalk-like pellicle behind on all surfaces and even clothes, then hard water is an issue. Generally, hard water is that water whose calcium/magnesium levels go over 7 parts per millions (ppm).
Signs You Have Hard Water in Your Home
As we said, you can easily figure out if you have hard water in your home.
- Lime scale is the calcium carbonate deposit left behind by hard water.
- It looks like a chalky film that requires you to use particular cleaning products, as it is difficult to remove.
- The visible lime scale gathers on your surfaces, faucets, fixtures, glasses, etc.
- The invisible lime scale, however, sticks to the inside of your pipes, plumbing, heating elements, inside appliances, and more.
Wherever there is hard water, its ugly progeny lime scale, follows, lowering the life and efficiency of all your devices.
How Does Lime Scale Disrupt Your Everyday Life?
In time, if you do not treat your hard water correctly, lime scale will take its toll. Let’s see how!
1. Appliances Malfunction or Break
Say you invested in new, smart, and efficient appliances for your home. The ones using water – fridge, washing machine, dishwasher, etc. – will soon become less and less competent in the presence of hard water. These appliances eventually start consuming more energy to work at the same capacity, adding burdens to your electricity and even water bill.
In case lime scale deposits around such appliances’ elements, you will soon notice your kettle or coffee maker to work worse. You may also see white chalky deposits in your coffee and tea – making your favorite beverages undrinkable.
Of course, you will have to fix or downright replace such devices. And we all know buying a new fridge or washing machine does not come cheap. Hard water has a direct and negative impact upon your appliances’ lifespan.
2. Pipes, Plumbing, and Fixtures’ Problems
Hard water can have a negative impact upon PVC pipes as well, so you should consider treating the hard water in your home no matter what. The lime scale building inside your pipes can have the following consequences:
- Reduces your home water flow;
- Disrupts the functioning of your boiler or heating system; in turn, this leads to higher heating and electricity bills but inefficient heating;
- If you allow lime scale to adhere to the inside of your pipes and fixtures, it might block them completely, forcing you to make hefty investments in repairs and replacements;
- Hard water and lime scale also ruins your cooling devices as well, leading them to work poorly; in turn, you might have to spend even more money out of your pocket fix, upgrade, or replace these appliances.
- Besides disrupting your pipes’ efficiency and lifespan, reducing water flow, and rendering some of your devices close to useless, lime scale forces you to spend more money to receive the same level of efficiency.
3. Hard Water Lowers Your Level of Everyday Comfort
Did you notice you spend a lot of money on self-care products, cleaning agents, and skincare? Hard water does not allow soaps and shampoos to lather well. It also leaves spots on dark clothes (which you need to wash and rinse again, at extra costs). Hard water may also taste odd. You may need extra cosmetic products to manage your dry skin, frizzy hair, or brittle nails.
While there are still debates on the safety of drinking hard water, people with sensitive skin and those who care for small children or particular pets know hard water is bad for their skin and health in general.
What Can You Do Against Hard Water?
Hard water and lime scale can take a serious toll on your home or business. A few years ago, the counter to this problem was water softening. However, the bans, restrictions, and regulations of traditional water softeners, together with their dangers, make people focus on better solutions.
In our hi-tech world, electronic water treatment systems represent the affordable and efficient answer to conventional salt-based water softening. Electronic descalers keep the water soft, eliminating all the problems mentioned above, but without any of the salt-based devices’ dangers and limitations. Proven to prolong the lifespan of your pipes and appliances, these devices are relatively new on the market, but their popularity rises exponentially.
Do You Have Hard Water in Your Home?
To learn how hard your home water is, you should first test it. You have plenty of means to learn your current ppm and act appropriately. If you want to solve the issue, save money, time, and effort – while protecting your pipes and appliances – check out electronic water softening systems and make sure you get one in the right size to treat the water in your home or your business.
Are you upset about lime scale in your home? What solutions did you implement so far?