Know Why Hard and Soft Water Are Different

Difference Between Hard Water and Soft Water

In order to tell the difference between hard and soft water and which applies to your system, you must first understand the terminology.

Water that can be described as “hard” is simply high in mineral content, whereas “soft water” has little to no extra particulates. If you are drawing your water from a well or have ever needed to remove lime or calcium from a shower-head, you may have hard water.

What Makes Hard Water Hard?

Essentially, water can become hard because of beds of limestone at its source or because it has percolated through deposits of such sediment, causing calcium and magnesium to dissolve into it and increase its mineral content.

The higher the concentration of these substances, the harder and grittier the water can become.

How Hard Water Affects Plumbing

The most obvious ways that hard water can affect a Mobile homeowner is through poor drinking water or lime and calcium buildup on faucets, shower-heads and other fixtures.

However, many fail to realize that hard water can have adverse effects on a home’s Mobile plumbing system. The high mineral content in hard water can make water heaters, boilers and other plumbing components work inefficiently or break down altogether.

How to Eliminate Hard Water

There are a couple of types of hard water: temporary and permanent. Temporary hard water is used to describe a situation in which the minerals are able to be dissolved by boiling.

In cases such as this, a simple solution is through lime softening, where lime is added to the water to counteract the high mineral content. Permanent hardness indicates that boiling has no effect on the hardness, so more drastic action may be necessary to achieve softer water.

A water softening system can be added to cut down on the magnesium, calcium and other minerals that could be harming the overall functionality of your plumbing.

The most common ways these devices achieve soft water is through reverse osmosis or ion-exchange polymers. A plumbing company can easily guide you in the right direction as to what is best for your particular plumbing situation and the options that are available to you.

Knowing the differences between hard & soft water in your Mobile, AL home is important. For more info, call Drain Busters Plumbing & Rooter at (251) 665-9898 today!

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