Unless your home is equipped with a water softener or a similar device, the water that flows through your faucets may contain hard minerals like calcium and magnesium. While drinking hard water isn’t dangerous, you may notice that it has a dirty or flat taste.
This type of water can adversely impact everything from the effectiveness of your washing machine to the feel of your hair after you rinse it. Hard water also damages plumbing systems, which is why you should understand how it can affect your Twin Falls home.
Understanding Hard Water
Before water is sent to your home, it’s treated at a nearby municipal treatment facility. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) tasks cities with treating drinking water to keep contaminant levels to a minimum.
However, hard minerals like calcium and magnesium can still be present in the water since they aren’t dangerous to consume. The EPA hasn’t placed limits on calcium and magnesium, so the treatment facilities don’t need to remove them.
When hard water flows through plumbing fixtures and pipes, the minerals can stick to the surfaces. Eventually, scale buildup can occur. Scale is a hardened deposit that can grow and spread over time. Depending on the severity of the issue, scale buildup can cause clogs in smaller plumbing systems.
Testing for Hard Water
While there are numerous signs that your water might contain hard minerals, you can also test the water to gain a more accurate understanding of its quality. If you use a sensor, you can measure water hardness with the grains per gallon (gpg) metric.
The water is likely soft if the gpg reading is below 3.0. Any reading between 3.5-7.0 indicates that the water is neutral and acceptable. When the water reaches a gpg of 7.5 or higher, the concentration of hard minerals is too high. In this scenario, you may need a water softener.
You can also test hardness by using some dye and a color chart. This testing method involves placing a drop or two of dye in a small sample of water. The water will change color based on the presence of hardness minerals. In most situations, the water will be hard if it turns dark green, blue, or purple.
Signs of Hard Water
There are numerous signs that your home has hard water. You may discover that you’re using hard water if your hair isn’t as soft as you’d like after you take a shower. Minerals like calcium and magnesium make it more challenging for your shampoo to remove oil, dirt, hairspray, and other particles from your hair. Your shampoo may not lather as well when you use hard water.
Inspect your showerhead. Some of the small nozzles may be clogged, which can cause water to spray in different directions. These nozzles may also be surrounded by limescale buildup, which often has a yellow or orange appearance.
Even if your home is outfitted with a high-quality dishwasher, hard water can make it less effective. Depending on the concentration of hard minerals in your water, running the dishwasher might not remove all the residue from your dishes.
Impact on Plumbing Systems
From a lack of water flow to corrosion, hard water can impact the efficiency and effectiveness of any plumbing system.
Obstructed Water Flow
A common concern with hard water involves the obstructed flow of water through plumbing systems. As scale buildup occurs in a drain, the diameter of the pipe will narrow. Eventually, you’ll notice that water isn’t draining as quickly from your sinks or bathtub.
If the water flow in your home becomes too obstructed, a clog can occur. Scale deposits will continue to accumulate if they aren’t cleaned or removed. If a drain is fully clogged, the water might back up and start pooling in your shower or sink. One answer to this problem is a water softener.
A common household solution to slow-draining pipes involves pouring a liquid drain cleaner down the pipe system. However, drain cleaners use harsh chemicals that can damage your plumbing system and increase the likelihood of leaks. Keep in mind that a reduced flow of water can raise the pressure in your pipes, damaging the surrounding equipment.
Corrosion
Both magnesium and calcium are harmful to the types of metal that are used in plumbing systems. These minerals will slowly corrode your pipes, which could lead to issues like water discoloration and leaking. While corrosion mainly impacts pipe interiors, it can also damage any metallic surface that the water touches. Look at your drains and faucets for signs of corrosion, such as reddish-brown stains.
Faster Rate of Wear and Tear
Any system that uses water in your home can experience a faster rate of wear and tear when the water contains hard minerals. These issues are common in dishwashers and washing machines. High wear and tear might cause the system components to become damaged, which means that they’ll need to be repaired or replaced.
Damage to Water Heater
The quality of your water heater determines how effectively you can take a shower and clean your clothes. If your water heater is damaged, it might take longer for the temperature to rise. If the system needs to work harder to heat water, it may become less efficient. Keep in mind that installing a water softener in your home can reduce your monthly utility bill by anywhere from 15% to 30%. It will also protect your water heater from additional damage.
Potential Solutions
You can resolve hard water issues with a water softener, which is a type of system that takes hardness minerals out of the water that flows through your home. Softeners can be either manual or automatic. If you select a manual softener, you’ll need to start the regeneration cycle yourself. An automatic softener allows you to create a schedule for the unit to follow.
Ion-Exchange Softener
The main type of water softener that we work with is an ion-exchange system. When using this type of water softener, hard calcium and magnesium minerals are replaced with safe sodium or potassium ions. The water passes through resin beads that are stored in a mesh filter bag.
These beads are saturated with sodium ions. When hard water pushes through the beads, the hardness minerals stay behind and are replaced with sodium ions. Ion-exchange softeners occasionally need to go through the flushing cycle to restore the resin beads and maintain high system efficiency.
Do you want to improve the quality of water in your Twin Falls home? If you’ve noticed stains on your fixtures or soap scum on your dishes, you may benefit from installing a water softener. Our team at Magic Electric, Plumbing, Heating + Air delivers efficient installation for whole-house water softeners. We can explain the advantages of this system and help you select the right one. We also offer comprehensive plumbing, drain cleaning, HVAC, and electrical services.
Call Magic Electric, Plumbing, Heating + Air today to get answers to your questions about our water softener installation services.
