Hard water is water that has high mineral content. Hardwater is formed when water percolates through deposits of limestone or chalk that are mostly made up of calcium and magnesium carbonates, bicarbonates, and sulfates. Hard water can happen with well water and even city water. Hardwater is safe to drink and wash with, but over time it can lead to inconvenient, ugly and costly problems.
Hardwater causes a variety of problems in the home. Stains are probably the most noticeable result of hard water scale. Stains appear in toilets, sinks, and showers. Some hardwater scale are less noticeable, such as scale build up in pipes and in appliances which can cause costly repairs or the need to replace appliances.
Other scale problems include clothes not getting clean and fading. Hardwater is tough on clothes. The calcium and magnesium content of hard water can cause clothes to turn gray or yellow. A high mineral content can also inhibit the water from mixing with laundry detergents so clothes don’t clean as well. Hard water greatly reduces the bubble-forming cleaning effects when washing clothes. Fewer bubbles means clothes are cleaned less. Germs and dirt get trapped in bubbles and are washed away. Smaller bubbles, mean less cleaning and more germs. Plus, issues are compounded with the washing machine is not operating at peak performance due to limescale buildup.
Scalesweeper is an electronic hard water descaler that is not only effective in reducing hardwater scale, it can also remove hardwater scale and prevents new scale from forming.
This is an important factor when considering a water conditioning system for your home. Stains will keep coming back until hard water problems are resolved and pipe scale removal is complete.
Hard water scale often builds up inside faucets, shower heads, hot water heaters and boilers, and pipework, especially pipes and appliances that use hot water. Hard water scale is a hard chalky deposit.