Difference Between Hard Water and Soft Water

Water quality affects the quality of your life. Although the hardness or softness of your water probably does not directly impact your health, it affects your Naperville daily routine and household tasks.

Your water affects almost every important part of your life, so you should take the time to understand the difference between hard and soft water.

Understanding Hard Water

Hard water contains concentrations of elements such as magnesium and calcium. When your water supply comes in contact with rocks and soil, it carries minerals with it all the way to your Naperville home.

Most people in the United States have varying degrees of hard water.

Understanding Soft Water

Soft water contains relatively few extra elements, such as magnesium and calcium. Soft water naturally occurs in limited amounts in the U.S., but soft water often comes from water treatment plants and home-based water treatment devices.

How Hard or Soft Water Affects You

When you realize that hard water contains rocks, you will understand that it can cost you a lot in terms of time and money. The additional components of hard water make it more difficult to heat, so it reduces the efficiency of your water heater. Studies show that hard water can increase the cost of hot water by as much as eight percent.

Hard water also affects cleaning. In the shower, hard water reduces the effectiveness of soap, reduces lather and leaves mineral buildup on shower walls. Usually, cleaning a shower in a home that has hard water requires more chemicals and more effort.

In the dishwasher, clothes washer, and other areas of the house, hard water makes detergent and other cleaners less efficient in removing dirt and stains. In the washing machine, soft water requires as little as half as much detergent as hard water, for the same amount of clothes.

Additionally, cold soft water works just as well on stains as hard hot water. Often, kitchens that use hard water have dishes and cooking utensils with hard-to-remove deposits left behind from cooking.

You can buy home-based hard water solutions that use chemical softeners, sodium or reverse osmosis to soften water. When shopping for a water softener, look for one that complies with national standards, to make sure you get a safe and efficient solution.

Knowing the differences between hard & soft water in your Naperville, IL home is important. For more info, call Jim Wagner Plumbing at (630) 577-9341 today!