Coping With Water Problems

While ensuring quality drinking water in the home is a good start, that’s only the beginning. Water quality also affects your quality of life and devices that use water.

What Is Hard Water?

Results from the U.S. Geological Survey indicate that 85 percent of American homes are supplied with hard water. Hard water contains dissolved calcium and magnesium ions, commonly called “hardness minerals,” which can cause numerous problems and are usually contained in water from a well or a municipal water utility.

Water hardness is typically measured in “grains per gallon,” an indication of the quantity of dissolved calcium and magnesium. In amounts as small as one grain per gallon, water is classified as hard but most homes use considerably harder. Many families choose to soften their water with home water treatment equipment.

How to Recognize Hard Water

Probably the most recognizable symptoms of hard water are soap scum in the tub and shower, and hard-water spots on faucets and fixtures. That's because hardness minerals react with soaps and detergents to form an insoluble, sticky residue that's difficult to rinse from bathtubs, sinks, faucets, and fixtures. This soap residue is often left on hair, skin and clothing as well. Although not highly visible in these instances, the substance can cause drying and itching of skin, as well as premature fading and wearing of clothing.

Hard water causes other problems, as well. Over time, scale formed from continuous contact with dissolved minerals in water can cause damage by collecting inside plumbing and on the internal parts of appliances.

Hard water scale can also coat the inside of a water heater and drastically reduce its heating efficiency. According to a study commissioned by the Water Quality Research Council and conducted at New Mexico State University, water heaters work 22-30 percent less efficiently with hard water, driving up utility bills unnecessarily.

What Is Soft Water?

Soft water is essentially free of dissolved calcium or magnesium. Since calcium and magnesium are not present in soft water, no adverse reaction with soaps and detergents occurs. The result is the virtual elimination of soap scum and the corresponding reduction in time spent cleaning. Hair and skin can “breathe” more readily. And a study by the School of Consumer & Family Sciences at Purdue University found that that the life of clothing and household textiles was prolonged up to 15 percent when they were washed in conditioned water.