Hard water problems can have a big impact in and around the home. Here are some of the problems it can cause in different areas of the house.
Bathroom Shower heads and spray-nozzles can become blocked; they can even clog the small holes completely and reduce their efficiency. The bathtub and sink seem to be the places where there is a visible soap scum build up. Without proper treatment his build up is very difficult to remove and may require a lot of cleaners and many applications. Scale can clog pipes and can decrease the life of toilet flushing units.
Bathing Bathing with soap in hard water leaves a film of sticky soap curd on the skin. The film may prevent removal of soil and bacteria. Soap curd interferes with the return of skin to its normal, slightly acid condition, and may lead to irritation. Soap curd on hair may make it dull, lifeless and difficult to manage. Similarly, the insoluble salts that get left behind from using regular shampoo in hard water tend to leave hair rougher and harder to detangle.
Laundering Clothes washed in hard water often look dingy and feel harsh and scratchy. The hardness minerals combine with some soils to form insoluble salts, making them difficult to remove. Soil on clothes can introduce even more hardness minerals into the wash water. Continuous laundering in hard water can damage fibers and shorten the life of clothes by up to 40 percent.
Dishwashers When washing dishes, especially in a dishwasher, hard water may cause spotting and filming on your crockery. The minerals from hard water are released faster when it comes into contact with heat, causing an increase in the amount of spotting and filming that occurs. This problem is not a health risk, but it can be a nuisance to clean and reduce the quality of your crockery.
Problems in Water Boiler Systems and Pipework Hard water also contributes to inefficient and costly operation of water-using appliances. Heated hard water forms a scale of calcium and magnesium minerals (limescale deposits) that can contribute to the inefficient operation or failure of water-using appliances. Pipes can become clogged with scale that reduces water flow and ultimately requires pipe replacement. Limescale has been known to increase energy bills by up to 25%
Limescale in Solar Heating Systems Solar heating, often used for heating swimming pools is prone to limescale buildup, which can reduce the efficiency of the electronic pump and therefore the overall systems performance will deteriorate. There are low cost solutions to this problem which prevents limescale build up and over time will remove existing deposits completely.