It may come to a surprise to you but yes, there is such a thing as hard water. No, it’s not ice. “Hard” water is when the water that we all know and love contains a lot of minerals such as calcium and magnesium, this usually happens when groundwater dissolves these minerals from soil and rocks which they pass through. The solution to hard water is well… to put it simply, a water softener.
Hard water makes things hard in the household
Ever wonder why no matter how hard you try and wash the dishes or do the laundry, it’s never entirely clean? It’s because of hard water. Hard water inhibits the effectiveness of soaps or detergents since the soap particles stick to the minerals creating some sort of soapy lump which won’t dissolve. Less dissolved soap means less cleaning.
It doesn’t get better when it comes to laundry as well. Because of the soapy lump, the dirt gets trapped inside the weaves and fibres of the clothing which might make the cloth stiff.
When there’s hard, there’s soft.
The solution to hard water is by softening it. Water softeners can be integrated into your household water supply. It basically works by swapping the minerals in the water to sodium (usually). The process of doing so is called ion exchange.
Removing the minerals accumulated in the water makes them softer and therefore more smoother resulting in a more useable form.
Not only can hard water cause problems in the kitchen or during laundry, it can cause havoc to your pipelines as well. As the hard water passes through the pipes, the particles contained in the water build up in the pipes resulting in clogged pipes. Making sure the water supplied in your household is of the soft kind is important and can save you a lot of money in repairs as well as making sure that all the dishes are squeaky clean.