Water is everything. Our brains consist mostly of water, and so are our bodies. Even the world we live in is made up almost entirely of water. We drink it, use it for cooking, bathing, and we even use it for enjoyment. With so much water present in our daily lives, the quality of the water we use is vital. Our tap water often contains minerals that alter its composition. Depending on the chemicals in your water, it can be harmful to drink and even cause damage to your appliances and plumbing. This might be a sign you have hard water.
The most common water problem found in the average home tap water hard water. Hard water results from high levels of calcium, magnesium, iron, and other pesky minerals dissolving in your local water supply. This can affect city water and well water evenly, and more than 85% of American homes have hard water flowing through their plumbing.
While hard water is safe to drink, it can be a real nuisance for your home. Without a hard water treatment system, those extra unwanted minerals make your appliances and plumbing work harder. This often results in more frequent replacing of expensive pieces of household equipment like your water heater. Such repairs can cost you thousands! And if you don’t remedy your hard water troubles, it can have long-lasting impacts, including ruin your clothes and leading to you buying more cleaning materials.
But how do you know if you have hard water and need to fix it? Use these tips to teach you how to spot hard water in your home to avoid any unnecessary expenses in the future.
You Have Low Water Pressure
One of the most common signs that you have hard water is low water pressure in the shower. Nobody wants to get into their shower and have the water trickle out. A proper hot shower leaves us feeling refreshed like we just had a little massage, but hard water will prevent you from enjoying your daily shower.
Over time the minerals that get deposited in your plumbing cause blockages. Large deposits found in hard water will clog up your pipes as well as your shower head. This prevents a steady stream of water from flowing out. You’ll even notice low water pressure in your kitchen and bathroom sinks as well.
Your Tap Water Tastes Terrible
Does your water have a metallic taste to it? Even worse, does your water smell bad? That’s right; it might be a sign you have hard water. Different chemicals and minerals can change the way your water tastes or smells. That metallic taste? That’s the result of too much iron in your H2O. That rotten egg smell? That is the presence of sulfur. Hard water also often causes scale buildup in your pipes, leaving drinking water with a moldy aftertaste. Yuck!
You Have Rust Looking Stains on Your Porcelain
Soap-scum and filmy residue on all your glass and porcelain surfaces are typical problems associated with hard water. So are rust-colored stains caused by high iron levels, another common sign that you have hard water problems. If you notice reddish stains in your toilets and porcelain fixtures like sinks and bathtubs, it’s likely the minerals in your water are to blame.
Your Plumbing is Constantly Getting Clogged
While clogged showerheads lead to low water pressure, showerheads are far from the only victims of mineral buildup. Having excess minerals in your water can cause serious plumbing issues, or worse, shorten the lifespan of expensive appliances. If you are having continuous backups in your household plumbing, you can bet it’s the water’s fault too. This is generally more common with steel pipes. Newer materials like PVC and copper are less likely to have long-term scale buildup.
Your Towels are like Sandpaper
Hard water can even impact the luxurious feel of a towel or bathrobe after a bath. That is because the calcium and magnesium found in your hard water keep your detergent from doing its job correctly. Soap doesn’t get along with minerals like magnesium and calcium, and when they mix, the detergent can’t remove the minerals.
It can take twice as long to wash your items when you have hard water because it doesn’t clean as efficiently. This is a key sign of hard water. Notice that your whites are becoming yellow? It is a sign that you have too much iron in your water. Deposits present in your tap water will cause whites to yellow faster and clothes to become dingy and damaged.
You Keep Replacing Appliances
Another sign you have hard water is that your appliances degrade quickly. You may find you have to replace your water line in your refrigerator more often or that your dishwasher no longer really cleans. Washing machines are affected the most. The wear and tear of washing clothing with hard water deposits shorten the lifespan of your washing machine by as much as 30%. If you’ve been replacing appliances quicker than you thought or have been forced to replace even more expensive equipment, this is a costly sign you may have a hard water problem.
Your Skin and Hair Are Dull
You can replace clothes and appliances but our hair and skin not so easily. Hard water often causes skin irritation because soap is harder to clean off with hard water. Like with your laundry and dish items, when soap mixes with hard water, it reacts, leaving a film we love to call soap scum on the surface.
The only difference here is that hard water also strips our skin of its natural moisture and the oils from moisture-rich products. This leads to us feeling dry and itchy. Is your hair dull and your scalp dry and itchy? The culprit isn’t your shampoo. Mineral deposits can end up in your hair, causing it to appear dull and unwashed and lead to that dry and itchy feeling.
How the Science of Water Can Help You
Water is an essential part of our everyday lives. It affects the overall quality of how we live in so many ways, making high-quality clean water a necessity for your home. If you are plagued by hard water build-up, installing a whole house water filtration might be the perfect solution for your home. Our whole house water treatment systems include a built-in conditioner that reduces iron, turbidity, and the overall hardness of your water, among other things, and that’s just one of its many benefits.
The Science of Water is a certified Puronics installer with more than 35 years in the water business. Take the first step in providing your family with pure, clean, great-tasting water by requesting a free water test to help us select the best water filtration system for your budget and needs.
If you are ready to get started or want to learn more about our services, contact our team at (352) 745-7070 or (904) 580-0000.
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