When you’ve been dealing with hard water for a long time, little signs and symptoms often go unnoticed – because you’re used to them!
If spots on glassware, laundry that needs to go through the wash twice to get clean, and scale buildup on faucets are part of your daily life, it might be time to think about investing in a water softener for your home! Here are some signs that the hard water in your home is becoming a problem.
Scale Buildup on Faucets and Appliances
If you have scale buildup on your faucets and appliances, you have hard water.
Mineral deposits, or scale, develop when hard water gets heated up and the liquid evaporates. The hard, almost chalky, substance left behind is all the minerals that were dissolved in your water and running through the pipes in your home. Cleaning the buildup off of your faucet is definitely a pain, but it actually signals bigger issues than just being unpleasant to look at. Think of how often you scrape scale off your faucets. Now, imagine the buildup in places that you can’t clean, like your pipes and inside of your appliances – gross!
Clothes are Grey, Stiff, and Faded
Dingy clothes, stiff towels, and worn-down sheets are all common signs of hard water in your home.
When you wash your laundry in hard water, the excess minerals dissolved in the water rub against the clothes, towels, and sheets that are in the washing machine, which causes the colors to fade faster and fibers to get worn down quickly. Another surefire sign of hard water in your home is consistently finding white or grey streaks on colored fabrics coming out of the wash. Hard water makes your laundry detergent less effective – the minerals interfere with the soap’s ability to clean – so dirt, sweat, and even soap scum get left behind.
Difficult Dishes
Do you open your dishwasher to unload all the clean dishes and find that they look cloudy, spotty, and, well, dirty? It’s not the dish soap you’re using, it’s your water.
Hard water causes a couple of things to happen inside your dishwasher. First, it doesn’t react well with the detergent so no matter how much you use, it still doesn’t really get your dishes super clean and can leave behind soap scum. Hard water also causes chalky spots to form on your glassware and sometimes even on the inside of your dishwasher, which can eventually cause rust to form and pieces to break.
Stains on Sinks and Bathtubs
Dingy-looking faucets and fixtures in your bathroom are definite signs of hard water in your home.
Stains around the drains in your sinks and bathtubs are created when the tap water evaporates, leaving behind the minerals that were dissolved in the water. They can form anywhere water typically collects and sits stagnant – and make your faucets and fixtures look dingy, not to mention hindering your bathroom fixtures from working properly.
Leaky Pipes & High Water Bill
More frequent plumbing maintenance and high water bills point to a bigger problem in your home.
Steel pipes really struggle with hard water because they’re easily damaged from scale buildup and subsequently start to leak. Plus, as more minerals build up in the pipes, water flow gets restricted, water pressure decreases, and scale buildup will actually happen at a faster rate and require expensive repairs! And, as a bonus to expensive repairs, hard water also often means higher bills! If you notice your bills skyrocketing, it’s likely because scale has built up in your pipes, which means that your heating system has to work harder to push water around your home.
Sound familiar? Let’s tackle the problem at the source.
Our water softeners are made to the highest industry standard, so you know they will work and last. Plus, investing in a water softener for your home will actually save you money on plumbing and appliance repair, soap and detergent, and on your gas and electricity bills.
Pura Soft
A simple, reliable, and economic solution for softening the water in your home.
Pura Refiner
Softens the water used throughout your home and improves the taste and smell of your tap water.
Pura Refiner Max
Softens and refines the water in your home, like Pura Refine, but with a higher flow rate to keep up with your family.
Need a little more help choosing the right water softener for you?
Read our blog post.
