How can I tell hard from softened water?

[Walter R.]

I am replacing an ancient water softener which was removed from the pipes 15 years ago.

The house has two water heaters. Apparently there are also some soft water zones (showers) and hard water zones (kitchen and bar faucets). There are hot/cold and hard/soft water pipes going in all directions. The pipes are in the walls.

After I have installed a new softener, how can I determine which faucets have soft and which ones have hard water?

Thanks

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Will take a day or two for water tank is filled with softened water. Take a shower and feel(slippery) or do a load of cloth washing or dish washing.

[buffalobill]

have your plumber check unused pipes for damage. using helpers, try the various basement shutoffs, label everything which is there using magic marker, or a brite-mark paint marker, label all pipes and shutoffs, and arrows of direction of water flow from street toward each device. if this is a fancy installation, get a labelmaker. if no shutoffs are available or if you have water flow problems or useless shutoffs, you should add or replace them, consider compression fittings or whatever you use locally to speed this job along quickly. use large opening ball valves for flow. consider a chart posted where the main shutoff is if you insist on using abbreviations. at fixtures color code or label all pipes and shutoffs. -b

[dadiOH]

You can get inexpensive kits to check water hardness.

[Caesar Romano]

On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:02:56 -0700, "Walter R." wrote Re How can I tell hard from softened water?:

Use a water hardness test such as this

[trader4]

Geez, all you need to do is shut off the water to the water softener. Any faucets that still flow are untreated.

[h]

Get a test kit from the borg or other hardware store. It'll tell you all sorts of things about the water.

[Doug Miller]

There's a simple chemical test which will show the difference clearly. Fill a quart jar about half-way with distilled water, and dissolve about 1/4 cup of Epsom salts in it. Then add a cup of the water you want to test. Soft water will have no noticeable effect, but hard water will instantly turn the solution cloudy.

[greenpjs]

Turn the water off at the new softener and see which faucets stop working.

[David L. Martel]

Walt,

I'd bet that all of your hot water is softened but if you drain the water softener and then fill it you should be sure. For the other fixtures get some clean bottles, let the water run for a minute or so and collect about

1/2 a pint. Take these bottles to Sears and go to the dept. where they sell water softeners. They'll test your water for free for hardness and iron. Many other dealers of water softeners will do this too. There are labs that do this but that's probably overkill here.

Dave M.

[Phisherman]

One way is to add a very small amount of soap, in equal amounts, to a given volume of sample. The soft water will suds up, the hard much less. Also, the softer water will feel more slippery than the hard water. Take samples to a lab and get quantitative results.