Hard water is mains water that has a high content of dissolved minerals in it. Water is a good solvent, picking up impurities easily but when (rain) water reacts with carbon dioxide from the air to form very weak carbonic acid, it becomes an even better solvent. Water seeps down through soil and rock, dissolving very small amounts of minerals, holding them in solution throughout all the treatment processes that turn it into our drinking water supply. Calcium and magnesium dissolved in water are the two main components that make water "hard". As the concentration of these minerals increases in water, the degree of "hardness" also increases.
Does hard water effect our health and well-being?
Hard water is certainly not a health risk but it can exacerbate some skin conditions (or maybe its all that extra soap and detergent required to make a good lather to clean us and our clothes). There is evidence that dry skin and even eczema and psoriasis can be alleviated to some degree by bathing (and also washing clothes) in softened water. You may even leave those "bad hair" days behind forever as hair can be properly cleaned and rinsed in softened water, leaving it easier to manage.
In the past all that calcium in our hard water was regarded as "better for our teeth", but it is a huge misconception that we obtain the minerals we need from our drinking water - we would have to drink a bathful of water a day to meet the recommended daily amounts for minerals! In reality, we obtain our minerals mostly from food stuffs and what we mix with our drinking water.
What effect does hard water have around the home?
The most obvious is visible to the naked eye: unappetising scum on the surface of liquids (especially hot drinks); an unsightly build-up of stains in kitchen sinks and bathroom suites that is difficult to remove; and poor soap/detergent performance when bathing and washing clothes or dishes. Increased use of expensive soap, detergent and household cleaning agent adds unnecessary pressue to the household finances.
Unfortunately, the worst effects are often invisible until it's too late: mineral build-up in water pipes and household appliances leads to their early demise and costly replacements. The hotter the water output from an appliance, the more limescale is deposited. Boilers, radiators (even underfloor heating systems), washing machines and dishwashers, as well as shower heads and heating elements, can all become clogged with limescale and will under-perform increasing energy costs before they fail completely. In addition to all that cost, we need to consider the adverse effect on the environment with the disposal of broken appliances and high use of powerful cleaning products.
What is the answer to hard water?
Move to a soft water area is one radical answer, but not very practical for us all. Better alternatives combat the hardness of water itself:
- convert the water from hard to soft with a water softener, or
- prevent the minerals from aggregating to cause limescale with a water conditioner
These work by altering the crystallisation behaviour of calcium and magnesium ions so that they loose their ability to aggregate as limescale in household pipes and appliances. There is scepticism about how effective water conditioners are, but manufacturers do claim that clients have found them to be very successful. The most effective are electromagnetic systems that fit around the mains water pipe like a jacket as the pipe enters the property (the pipe is not penetrated) and create a magnetic field around the pipe to alter the ions and prevent aggregation into limescale.
What is a water softener?
These appliances are plumbed into the mains water pipe as it enters the house, intercepting the water so that it must pass through an ion-exchange system (a resin bed coated with sodium salt). The ion-exchange works by swapping the "hard" calcium and magnesium minerals in the water with the sodium from the resin so that the hard minerals are left on the resin and the "softened" water can pass into the house giving soft silky water that is a pleasure to live with! When all the sodium on the resin has been exchanged, the resin is regenerated by washing with a highly concentrated salt solution: the excess sodium in the wash swaps the hard minerals back off the resin and that is all sent off directly down the waste pipe. The salt must be periodically replaced when the machine's display indicates (the salt comes as large blocks or smaller tablets/pellets that are added to the machine by the user). Importantly, in modern water softeners, only a tiny fraction of the salt that a water softener uses actually enters the softened water (most is used during the resin regeneration) so that the softened water is safe to drink and legislation has recently been changed to reflect this. From May 2008, all household water can be softened without the need for a bypass of unsoftened water to a single drinking water tap.
Fitting a water softener will prevent any more limescale accumulating and will even slowly improve existing scale from household pipes and appliances. The softened water gradually dissolves the limescale throughout the house, improving the flow of water and restore the efficiency of appliances, reducing energy-consumption and prolonging their lifespan. However, it is impossible to give a timescale on the reserval process as it depends on the degree of scale and how long it has been accumulating.
What happens to the waste salt wash from the softener? It is run off into the household waste either into the mains sewage system or into a septic tank. This can be problematic for septic tanks as its concentration will kill off the bacteria in the tank that treat the sewage. Older septic tanks are basically huge boxes with an inlet pipes, an overflow and a manhole access for maintenace/emptying. Although the brine affects the bacteria at the inlet, it is mixed quickly enough and diluted with the rest of the tank's contents so bacteria easily recolonise the area around the inlet within a few hours. Modern septic tanks are designed differently as a series of interconnected chambers with a small separate colony chamber at the inlet that gets flooded with the brine killing off virtually all the bacteria there, rendering the septic tank ineffective for up to 2 months whilst the decimated bacterial population regenerates. It's best to see what kind of septic tank you have and then check directly with the manufacturer about its ability to tolerate water softener waste.
What to choose?
Water conditioners are a maintenance-free, single-purchase, relatively low-cost choice that may still not prevent hard water problems and there is no evidence to suggest they can reverse existing limescale.
In contrast, water softeners are proven to soften in ALL hard water situations and help wash away pre-existing limescale over time. Water softeners are long-lived machines (10-20 year lifespans are common) with little/no maintenace, low running costs and salt can be bulk purchased to reduce costs. These low on-going costs are by far exceeded by the mounting cost of tough household cleaning agents with which we combat hard water, not to mention the huge financial impact of the broken household appliances that we find essential in today's world.
Visit www.justwaternow.com to view water softeners and other products available from Just Water Now Ltd.
