The Best Ways to Combat Hard Water (and Why You Need To)

Chances are you don’t think too hard about the water in your life. It’s easy to take it for granted, and when it comes to water quality, most people will run out and get a water filter of some kind and call it a day. As a result, many people are surprised to learn that the water coming into our homes can vary significantly, especially in terms of its mineral content. Water that’s high in stuff like calcium, lime, or magnesium is called “hard water,” and there are several clues that your home has it.

If you see a chalky residue on your faucets, spots on your clean dishes, or a rust-colored build-up around plumbing, congratulations: You have hard water. While it’s perfectly safe to drink, you shouldn’t ignore hard water. Aside from those unsightly deposits (caused when water evaporates and leaves behind the minerals dissolved in it), hard water is slowly destroying your house.

What kind of damage does hard water do?

If you’re not sure whether you’re dealing with hard water, you can test for it pretty easily. You can either buy a DIY test kit, or conduct a “soap suds” test: Fill a plastic bottle about a third of the way with water, add some dish soap, and shake. If you get a lot of bubbles, your water is pretty soft. If you get very few bubbles, your water’s pretty hard. You can run a comparison with some bottled water if you’re uncertain.

If you confirm you have hard water, you’ll need to do something about it, because hard water can do a lot of damage. It takes a long time, so there’s no need to panic, but if left untreated hard water can:

• Shorten the lifespan of water heaters, dishwashers, and boilers.
• Permanently stain tubs, toilets, and sinks.
• Choke your pipes with mineral deposits, reducing water pressure and eventually destroying the pipes.
• Discolor your home’s exterior (if you have sprinklers or other water usage outside).
• Stain tile and grout.

It can also make washing up more of a challenge because it’s harder to lather soap, and makes washing your clothes more challenging (and it is harder on your clothes, wearing them out faster).

Left untreated, hard water will wind up costing you a fair amount in avoidable repairs and appliance replacement, not to mention the aesthetic damage to the interior and exterior of the house.

How to treat hard water

The good news is that hard water is pretty easy to treat. You have a couple of options to consider, and the right one for your home will depend on how bad your hard water problem is, your budget, and environmental factors.

Cleaning. If your water is moderately hard or you’re not in a position to consider a pricey solution, you might settle for a robust cleaning regimen to remove mineral stains (white vinegar works wonders) and add a rinse aid treatment to your dishwasher. This won’t stop scaling inside your pipes or other damage, but if your hard water problem is minor, you won’t see significant problems for a long time, so dealing with the more superficial effects might be all you need to do.

Water treatments. If you have a more serious hard water problem, you might consider a whole-house water softener solution. These are systems that are installed at the point where water enters your house, removing the minerals that make your water hard. There are three options here:

• Sodium exchange systems. These use salt to exchange the calcium and other minerals in your water with sodium. The result is softer water that will have a slight salt content, but will require that you recharge the system with salt on a periodic basis, so there’s an ongoing cost. There’s also a relatively minor but noticeable water waste in these systems, which is something to keep in mind as it will impact your water bill—and the environment. These systems can cost anywhere from $400 to $2,500, plus the cost of recharging with fresh salt.
• Salt-free conditioners. These systems use various processes to either bind the minerals in your water into crystals that don’t stick to surfaces using a process called template-assisted crystallization (TAC) or nucleation-assisted crystallization (NAC), thus preventing them from damaging your pipes or appliances. Another option removes the minerals entirely by binding the minerals to citric acid. These systems don’t add sodium to your water or require salt recharging, although the TAC/NAC systems do leave the minerals in your water (which some people don’t mind, as it adds a flavor to the water), and the acid-based systems can be difficult to calibrate, as you need a precise level of acid to be effective without making your water, well, acidic. These can cost as much as $3,000 to install.
• Magnet systems. Yes, magnets. These are pretty affordable systems that use magnetism to alter the structure of mineral ions so they don’t clump up and scale. Do they actually work? The science is inconclusive, actually, but you can throw one of these into your house for less than $500, so it might be worth taking a flyer on one.

Even if the stains and deposits that result from hard water don’t bother you, you need to deal with hard water because of the potential damage to your home. While water softening systems can be pricey, the money you’ll save in the long haul makes them a good—and necessary—investment.

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