If you’ve found that soap or shampoo doesn’t lather as well as it should or that there are mysterious stains on your glassware that won’t go away, you may have hard water in your home. Hard water is water that contains a high amount of minerals such as calcium and magnesium. It doesn’t present a health concern, but it can still make life difficult in your home and is one of the most common complaints that homeowners have about their water quality. Hard water has a hard time creating a lather, which makes washing more difficult and forces you to use more soap and shampoo when you bathe. Hard water can also leave harmless yet unsightly stains on dishes and glassware, and it can leave mineral deposits on the insides of your pipes. All of this can be a nuisance, which is why it helps to test your home for hard water and find a way to soften it.
The best way to determine if you have hard water in your home is to have it tested by professionals. We at Benjamin Franklin Plumbing can test your home for hard water and install a water softener that will solve your problems, but there are things that you can do on your own to test your water. Let’s go over some of them.
Calling Your Local Water Supplier
If your home relies on city water, you can contact your local water supplier to get an idea of water hardness levels in your area. You should be able to find this contact information on your supplier’s website. You might also be able to find an annual report online that shows the general water hardness level in your area.
A phone call and online research are good places to start, but they aren’t perfect. First of all, an annual report may not be entirely accurate, especially if water hardness levels have changed since the most recent report was published. Second of all, you’ll only learn about the general water hardness levels in your area; you won’t get any concrete information about water hardness in your home. Finally, contacting your local water supplier only applies if you’re using city water. It won’t help you if you use well water.
The Soapsuds Test
The most basic hard water test that you can do at home is the soapsuds test. First, find a glass or plastic bottle with a tight-fitting lid and fill it 1/3 full with water from your sink. Next, add 10 drops of dish soap. Cover the bottle with the lid, shake it for 10 seconds, and observe the results. If the soapy water foams up quickly and the water under the suds layer is clear, you have soft water. If you only have a shallow layer of suds and the water underneath it is cloudy, you likely have hard water.
Hard Water Testing Kits
The most accurate hard water testing is done in laboratories using a sample of water from your home. Since this is time-consuming and often inconvenient, many people opt for a home testing kit. These kits are found in most hardware stores and online retailers, so you shouldn’t have much trouble finding one near you. Make sure that any kit you buy is from a reputable dealer and is designed to test for hard water. Many kits are only designed to test for specific contaminants or overall water quality and safety.
To use a home testing kit, fill a clean container with a sample of water from your faucet. Next, immerse a test strip from the kit into the water according to the kit’s instructions (it’s usually a few seconds). The strip will react to the minerals in the water and change color. Your kit should have a colored chart that should tell you how hard or soft your water is.
What to Do if You Have Hard Water
As we’ve said before, hard water isn’t hazardous to your health. You can drink as much of it as you want and be perfectly okay, although extremely hard water may have a bitter or salty taste. However, it can make cleaning difficult, and it may damage your plumbing over time by leaving mineral deposits inside your pipes. Fortunately, there are solutions available if you don’t want hard water in your home. The best by far is to install a water softener in your home. This will remove most of the minerals from your home’s water, softening it and making it much more manageable. Benjamin Franklin Plumbing can install a water softener for your home as well as test your water to see how hard it is if you don’t want to test it yourself.
For more information about testing your home for hard water or if you’re interested in a water softener, contact Benjamin Franklin Plumbing in Pompano Beach today.