Making sense of water hardness

My water turns to limescale as I fill the kettle!

AI says It falls within the range of 100 to 200 mg of calcium carbonate per liter.

Harvey Water Softeners says 324.20 parts per million (doesn't define parts of what).

Fountain Filters says You've got HARD WATER!

Wessex Water say they don't supply my are which is odd as I pay my bill to them.

Bournemouth Waters says Most of our water supply can be classified as ‘moderately hard’ (on a scale of one to ten this would be seven).

How do I compare these results with each other and your "dH" figure?

Severn Trent gives multiple hardness ratings for my "zone"

Analysis Typical Value UK/EU Limit Units Hardness Level Hard No standard applies Hardness Clark 14.57 No standard applies Degrees Clark Hardness French 20.81 No standard applies French Degrees Hardness German 11.66 No standard applies German Degrees

the "German" reading is apparently °dH, and the Clarke reading is "English" °e

wikip gives conversions

Eh, "don't bother"?

As far as I can tell, there is dissolved hardness due to carbonic acid dissolving rock. Carbonic acid is formed when water absorbs carbon dioxide, and I think this is one prime kettle scaler: heat the water, CO2 leaves, and the with the acid gone the dissolved rock precipitates. And it can be calcium or magnesium carbonate. Might be sulphate in there, too.

I have found that mechanical scrubbing gets a lot of the limescale out of the kettle, scrub with a brush, rinse -- 16 °dH here.

Thomas Prufer

The hardness classification seems country-dependent:

Thomas Prufer

We're in Brum fed by the Elan valley, and our water is as soft as possible.

Bottom of our 13 year old kettle is still as metal as when we bought it.

We can boil a pan of water dry and be left with nothing.

Leicester is fed from the Derwent/Ladybower reservoirs, gravity-fed all the way.

You lucky people!

We are in east Yorkshire and the water is as hard as nails because it comes from underground aquifers rather than from reservoirs as in west/north Yorkshire, the Peak District, Brum etc. We have to soak our shower heads in limescale descaler every few months when they clog up, and my coffee maker insists on being descaled about every fortnight.

Our window cleaner carries a tub of softened water in his van which his hosepipe is attached to, to avoid leaving limescale streaks on people's windows.

You also would have to use far more soap & detergent to get the same results as us (soft water area). You really should either get a rebate, or be supplied with better quality water.

Or, as we do, have a water softener. Not for drinking water, though.

Ah, but on the other hand hard water is better for your heart if I remember right.

Its perfectly drinkable

But you also need more water to get the soap off! I've always lived in hard water areas, and when I've been on holiday in soft water areas always forget that I need hardly any soap for a good lather. Then I have to spend a lot longer trying to get rid of it as there's no calcium or magnesium in the water to remove the lauryl sulphate in the soap.

Limescale from hard water causes another problem. The rough surface it leaves is ideal for black mould to grip onto. It's remarkable how the tiles and grout in the shower soon start showing spots of black mould.

Wait till you have chipped 2" of it off someone elses s*it embedded toilet

So you are taking steps to correct the 'contaminated' water which is supplied to you - at your own expense?

(Not really)

And supplies valuable calcium and other minerals to your body, among other things keeping your bones healthy. Also protects the iron pipes and keeps the threads sealed.

If anyone has any information to the contrary, please keep it to yourself. I need to go out to descale a toilet cistern later, limescale buildup is causing a trickle, this needs an upside. Cold feed, lid on, 16 - 20 °dH.

Thomas Prufer

I didn't say soft water was better, I just said it was drinkable OK Plenty of calcium in milk.

I have zero regrets installing a water softener (ion exchange type) for all but one kitchen and one outside tap.

AS far as descaling a citern goes simply washi the affected parts down with a reasonable descaler

How much s*it is there in our rivers now ?

It's an interesting idea that living in a hard water area is actually a bit more expensive than a soft water area.

I wonder if it's reflected in property values ?

Was staying with a friend a few years ago, in Devizes. Early Sunday morning SWMBO woke me because she heard a faint beeping. Enough to annoy but not enough to make a fuss over.

Mentioned it next morning and it turned out my friend had a water softener that had just run out of salt. It was buried deep in a cupboard (so very muffled).

Our local launderette had a special tap for "soft water". I remember drinking from it when I was little and being amazed at the difference in taste.