As we enter the late summer, many homeowners will start to experience an increase in limescale buildup on their plumbing fixtures. This tends to happen because water usage increases during late summer, going into fall and winter. Below, we’ll address what hard water is, how to spot it if you have it at your home, and what kinds of water treatment solutions and other steps can solve the issue.
Understanding Hard Water
All water has a hardness rating depending on the presence of certain minerals. When water has a high amount of magnesium and calcium, it’s considered to be hard water. When levels of these minerals are lower, it’s soft water. Soft water is much better for your plumbing system than hard water.
Top Signs You Have Hard Water
One sign that you have hard water at your home is that limescale will build up on your plumbing fixtures. This is a white, film-like solution that is left behind once the water from your fixtures dries. You’ll notice a filmy residue on your bathtubs, tiles, and even glass. You may notice white spots or cloudiness on your clean dishes and glassware.
Hard water will easily dry out your skin by stripping it of its natural oils. This leads to dry skin and dull hair that becomes overly frizzy. You’ll need to use more soap, shampoo, and detergent when washing at home compared to other locations that have softer water. In some cases of extremely hard water, you may notice a slight metallic, salty, or chalky taste in your water.
How Does Hard Water Affect Your Home?
Hard water affects your home and your body. It’s best to understand this impact so you can see how adding a water softener system to your home can help get rid of hard water.
Shortened Appliance Lifespan
Hard water can have a significant toll on your household appliances. Limescale buildup that accumulates within the water lines and inside your appliances can drastically shorten their lifespan. While there are some helpful cleaners you can use to reduce limescale buildup in your appliances, undoubtedly, all appliances that use hard water will have a shorter lifespan than those that use soft water.
Decreased Water Heater Efficiency
Another way that harmful water can affect your appliances is through your water heater. Hard water takes more energy to heat than soft water. If you’re constantly supplying hard water to your water heater, you’re decreasing its operating efficiency. Even worse, you’re shortening its lifespan because those excessive minerals will prematurely deteriorate the inside of your water heater tank.
More Frequent Plumbing Problems
Because minerals prematurely deteriorate metal piping, you’re likely to experience more frequent plumbing issues with hard water. These issues include faulty valves, decreased water pressure due to internal corrosion, and so much more. Ultimately, your plumbing system will have a shorter lifespan when you have hard water than if you don’t.
Clogged Fixtures
Another disadvantage of having hard water on your property is that the mineral deposits can clog your showerheads and faucets. This will require more frequent cleaning of the aerators and even the O-rings in your fixtures. Additionally, hard water can shorten their lifespan because of the limescale buildup on their internal components.
Constant Cleaning
One of the more frustrating issues with having hard water at your home is the constant cleaning that it requires. If you don’t keep up with constantly removing the limescale buildup from your sinks and plumbing fixtures, it can cause permanent staining. Many times, getting rid of that limescale buildup requires specialized cleaning solutions and hard work.
What Is a Water Softener System?
One of the best ways to combat hard water at your home is to invest in a water softener system. This type of system works to remove excess minerals, like magnesium and calcium, from your home’s water supply. By placing your water softener near your main water supply valve, you can effectively treat all the water that enters your home before it ever reaches your water-using appliances and plumbing fixtures.
How Does It Work?
Water softener systems work based on the ion exchange process. They have a brine tank that’s filled with specialized resin beads that are pre-charged with sodium ions. Whenever water flows into the tank from your home’s main water supply line, it flows through the resin beads. The hard minerals are naturally attracted to the oppositely charged resin beads.
This causes the minerals to bind to the actual bead, releasing the sodium in the process. This will remove hard water minerals like magnesium and calcium that are in your water supply and release a small amount of sodium. Every so often, your water softener system will do a rejuvenation cycle.
This is where it will flush all the hard minerals attached to the resin beads down your drain. Then, it will recharge each one of those resin beads with a new sodium ion. This process occurs ever so often to refresh the entire brine tank and get it ready to absorb more hard minerals from your home’s water supply.
Maintenance Requirements
Just like any other appliance in your household, a water softener system needs routine maintenance to stay in good working condition. We recommend scheduling an annual inspection with one of our plumbing professionals, who will perform a thorough system cleaning and repair any potential problems it may have.
In addition, you will need to add salt to the water softener every six to eight weeks. The specific time frame for your house will vary depending on numerous factors, like how often you use your water. It’s essential to note that water softener systems use a specialized salt that’s different from traditional table salt.
Apart from adding salt to the tank every month to a month and a half, you also want to check and remove any salt bridges that may develop in the salt tank. You can easily bust these up with your hand and throw them in the trash. You want to avoid having these in your water softener system, as they can make it harder for it to work efficiently.
Lifespan
The lifespan of your water softener depends on numerous factors. Some of those factors include the amount of water you use, the hardness level of your water supply, maintenance, the quality of salt you use, and others. In general, all salt-based water softeners have a usable lifespan of approximately 10 to 15 years.
Reliable Water Softener Installation Service
DeWolfe Plumbing, Heating & Cooling offers reliable water softener installation service for the Yarmouth, MA area. Our friendly plumbing service delivers the skills and training to solve all your hard water issues. We can also help with all your water softener repair, replacement, and maintenance needs. Call our office staff today to schedule your next service appointment and receive assistance with installing a water softener in your home.
