How Hard Water Affects Your Home (And Your Appliances)
The United States Geographical Survey (USGS) has established patterns of water hardness across different states of the country, as per testing results of samples collected. The distribution can be studied in this map.
A close look at the distribution map identifies the state of Florida as a hard water region, meaning, that the water being supplied to the residents of Florida is hard in nature.
What is Hard Water?
Following from the above discussion, you might ask:
What is hard water?
Hard water is water that has high mineral content, in particular calcium and magnesium salts. You might remember a reference – your elementary Chemistry classes, where you were told hard water does not readily forms lather with soap. It’s the same hard water which is being discussed here.
The mineral content concentration of ground water in Florida has been measured between 121 and 180 milligrams per liter of water.
What Causes Florida Water to Be Hard?
This begs the question:
What makes Florida’s ground water, hard water?
The answer lies in the location of our Sunshine State. Florida’s ground contains large amounts of limestone. When rain falls, rainwater gets soaked into the ground. As it filters down through the layers of rock and sand, it dissolves the limestone. Since limestone is one of the several types of carbonate rocks, it makes absorbed rainwater hard.
Why Should You Care?
Now comes the most important question:
Why should anyone care if the supplied water is hard in nature?
The answer is simple, because hardwater negatively affects your home and most importantly the health of your family.
Hard Water and Your Home
To start with, hard water shortens the lifespan of your clothes. It damages the fibers, making them weak and susceptible to wear and tear.
Moving on to your home appliances, hardwater can cause scaling in your home appliances. This can lead to reduced efficiency and service life. Water heaters and dishwashers are the most affected home appliances by hard water.
And finally, it also affects your domestic plumbing system. Hard water can clog and corrode domestic plumbing systems resulting in leaks, cracks and pipe bursts. Those ugly brown stains found in your toilet bowl – they too are the result of a reaction caused by hard water.
Hard Water and Your Family
It all starts with that very first shower. Bathing with hard water causes your hair to become dry and damaged and shed quickly — you might have noticed it. Plus, it also makes your skin dry.
And if you drink hard water, the health implications could be even more severe.
Kidney stones, cardiovascular diseases, diarrhea and infertility are some health problems caused by drinking hard water.
What’s the Solution?
To combat your hard woes, experts recommend installing a water softener system at your home. These systems help filter out carbonate and magnesium salts from hard water, and ensure you get clean and healthy water supply.
If you have any additional questions about the effects of hard water, experiencing a plumbing problem caused by hard water or want to have a water softener system installed in your home, feel free to reach out. Our plumbers in Deerfield Beach FL will