When browsing through information regarding water purifiers, you’ll often see the term “Hard Water” being thrown around. What is hard water, exactly? Does it affect people that drink it? Do water purifiers prevent harmful effects caused by drinking hard water from happening? Does hard water affect these purifiers in other ways? Well, if any of these questions intrigue you, my post will have all the answers. Let’s get started.
What Is Hard Water?
Hard water is a natural phenomenon. When soft rainwater falls to the ground and passes through waterways, it picks up calcium, magnesium and other minerals. Water that contains a large amount of such minerals is referred to as “hard water”. It isn’t created through any tampering by humans. This kind of water is present just about everywhere, though the amount may vary based on the soil in a specific region.
How Is It Different From Soft Water?
The minerals that are found in hard water make it different from soft water. Soft water contains very few minerals and is often considered “pure”. Hard water, on the other hand, has higher mineral content.
Recommended Reading: Different Types Of Water: Everything You Need To Know
What Are The Effects Of Hard Water?
Now, the effects of this kind of water varies on how it’s used. Is hard water safe for drinking? Yes, it is. It might taste a little different from bottled water, but there is no adverse effect on the body.
Although, hard water does cause issues when you bathe with it. You may notice some significant side effects. Your skin may feel dry and itchy after bathing. Hard water can also make your hair feel brittle.
If things get that bad, you might need to consider hard water an issue. You might have to consider doing something to the whole plumbing system across your house, as water being that hard isn’t only bad for your body. Hard water can also have an effect on the things in your home; it creates even more issues than what it does to your body.
With hard water going through your home, you have to deal with these issues;
- Buildup of scales on your plumbing and even some of your appliances, like your dishwasher.
- Your clothes, bed mattress and other fabrics will start feeling rough and lose colour quicker.
- The mineral residue will start leaving stains on your sinks and showerheads; these stains will come back quickly even after you clean them.
- Your plumbing pipes will start to corrode and cause problems to the water flow in your house.
- Your house will waste more water; with its pipes being damaged, there will likely be a significant number of leaks all across the plumbing network. That means more bills to pay for the water.
- After washing your dishes and utensils with this kind of water, you’ll notice that they start having unpleasant white marks on them.
Recommended Reading: Effects of Heavy Metals Contamination in Drinking Water
How To Check If Your Water Is Hard?
As you can see, hard water can become a huge inconvenience. This kind of water is common across urban and rural areas, so it’s in your best interest to check whether your water is hard and start looking into ways to treat it.
There are a few ways to check the hardness of the water. One easy and effective method is the suds test. Here’s how to do it:
- Fill a transparent bottle up with water, but make sure not to fill the bottle fully, just a little past halfway.
- Get some liquid soap and pour it into the bottle; about 10 drops will be enough. Make sure it’s a pure liquid soap, though, to get the clearest result.
- Seal the bottle with the cap and give it a good few shakes.
- After 10 seconds or so, a good amount of suds should start to appear at the top. If it does, you’ve got soft water. If it doesn’t, and the water looks cloudy, then you’ve got hard water.
There, now you’ll know if you have hard water. If the water is hard, you can even continue adding soap. The more soap it takes to get a good amount of suds, the harder your water is.
Recommended Reading: How to check TDS of water
How To Turn Hard Water Into Soft Water
There are two good ways you can fix issues with hard water. The best way is to install a Water Softener; it’ll turn the water going through the entire house into soft water. Combining that with the second solution, which is getting an RO Water Purifier, will be better for you. Water Softeners can’t get rid of contaminants, so they can still get through and cause you significant health problems. RO Water Purifiers can remove those contaminants, purifying the water for you. They can even go a step further and add minerals that actually are good for your health.
Recommended Reading: Safe Drinking Water Guidelines in India
Final Word
What is hard water? Now you know the answer to that and much more. Living with hard water can be a real pain. Not only does it have negative effects on your body, but also on all the appliances in your home. If you tested your water and it turned out to be hard, go through the treatments I suggested. Once you do that as well, you’ll be sure to notice a far better quality of life in your house. That’s all for now; I hope the post helped you out. Stay safe and stay healthy. See you next time!
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