Do you find that more often than not you have to deal with the consequences of hard water in your home? Well, I’m here to tell you about the easiest solutions to fix those issues.
What is hard water? Water is considered “hard” when high dissolved minerals are found within it. All in all, it can have some pretty detrimental effects on your home. It’s important to know how to prevent those effects from happening to better elongate the quality of your home.
Issues It Can Cause In Your Home
First and foremost, it damages your plumbing and appliances. This is because hard water leaves behind minerals and builds up in your pipes over time. This is also known as scale build-up. This restricts water flow and can also rust your pipes at a faster rate.
Rusting can be detrimental to your plumbing because this can lead to your pipes bursting which is a repair that you always want to take steps to avoid. After all, it is so expensive.
It can also leave a white residue on your dishes. If you’ve ever noticed that this is the case with your dishes, that’s how you know you have hard water. These white spots come from the combination of soap and mineral deposits.
Last but not least, it can fade, stain, and damage your clothes. If you have noticed any of these differences in your clothes, your hard water is taking a toll on your clothes. The minerals in it react to the chemicals that are in your laundry detergent, which tends to fade, stain, or damage your clothes.
Solutions You Can Use at Home
Use Vinegar
Vinegar can help dissolve calcium deposits found in your home’s fixtures. The best practice for this is to put the mixture into a bowl with hot vinegar. The vinegar reacts with things like calcium because calcium is highly reactive to acids like vinegar.
You can also use distilled vinegar for your dishes if they constantly have a white residue on them after drying. Not only does it kill mold and bacteria, but it helps clean them more thoroughly throughout the dishwashing cycle.
Lower Your Water Temperature
Running hot water through the water heater plays into mineral buildup and hard water stains. By turning down your water temperature, you are delaying the accumulation. Make sure you are also flushing your water heater regularly, otherwise sediment has a good chance of clogging it up.
Appliance Cleaners
Using appliance cleaners regularly can help prevent the buildup that hard water tends to cause. Cleaning your pipes and appliances regularly will keep you from having to replace them way too soon. These cleaners have acidic chemicals in them that help to remove buildup.
I think most of us can relate when we go to clean our coffee pots and run a vinegar-water mixture through them. This is because we want to help prevent buildup and keep our coffee tasting great while elongating the lifespan of your coffee pot. Just like your coffee pot, make sure you are taking the same preventative actions for those other appliances in your home.
Invest in a Water Softener
A water softener can change the water you have in every room of your home. Yes, getting the salt for it can be tedious, especially if your water usage in your home is typically higher than normal, but it’s worth it! Refilling the salt every 6-8 weeks will be well worth your time. You won’t have to deal with dry skin or hair anymore and the white residue on your dishes will be gone. You can wash your clothes without worrying about them getting ruined as well.
The benefits to not only you and your family but also your everyday appliances provide you with the reasons why investing in a water softener is the best decision for your home.
Final Thoughts
Overall, hard water can be very detrimental to your everyday life. It can ruin your pipes, appliances, clothes, dishes, and even your skin and hair! Taking action to prevent your water from damaging these things is a great step in the right direction. Don’t let hard water take over your home!