What Is the Difference Between Hard Water and Soft Water?

85 percent of Americans have hard water in their homes. That’s a pretty staggering statistic for a little-understood phenomenon. After all, how can water, of all things, be ‘hard’ at all? Isn’t that just ice?

Well, not quite. The ‘hardness’ of water refers to the mineral content of the water that comes out of your tap. Generally speaking, the harder the water, the more it can play havoc with the pipes and plumbing of your home.

So should you be worried about hard water? And if so, what can you do to deal with it? Are 85 percent of Americans doomed to a life of clogged pipes?

Find the answers to all these questions and more below.

What Is Hard Water?

Like we said earlier, water’s hardness is determined by its mineral content. Specifically, it refers to the amount of calcium and magnesium present in the water (measured in teeny tiny mg) as it gushes through the pipes.

Where does that calcium and magnesium come from? The water that comes out of your home’s taps is often naturally filtered through all sorts of layers of rock and soil before it gets there. As it passes through those materials, it gathers more and more calcium and magnesium deposits.

Interestingly, that can actually have health benefits. Calcium is good for you, after all, but it also leaves hard white deposits known as ‘limescale’ on taps, pipes, kettles and anything else that you put water through on a regular basis.

It’s for that reason that lots of people in hard water areas use a water filter for hard water, like water filters for sinks and water filter pitchers.

What Problems Does Hard Water Cause?

Apart from limescale, hard water can cause all sorts of minor problems throughout your home. If you’re not using a water filter system on your washing machine, for example, invisible deposits of calcium can build up between the fibers of your clothes and eventually wear them out.

It can also make washing up more of a chore. Soap does not like hard water one bit. When soap mixes with hard water, it turns into gross, greasy soap scum. Many people buy water filters for sinks that can be attached straight to faucets in order to get their soap to lather up rather than turn to scum.

As you can see, hard water can cause problems in pretty much every area of your household life, even parts where you wouldn’t expect it. It can be difficult, time-consuming, and expensive to deal with, which is why so many people get water filters for homes.

Hard Water, Hard Life

These are a few of the issues that can occur around a hard water home. As you can see, there’s no end to the potential problems of working with unsoftened water. Luckily, there are tools out there that can help you eliminate this problem entirely.

After all, soft water sounds nicer.

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