You just moved into a new place and you notice something is not quite right. There’s something going on, and you have a sneaking suspicion it might have to do with the tap water.

Hard water problems can be a real hassle, especially for new homeowners who may be unfamiliar with the issues it causes. Solving those problems can vastly improve your family’s quality of life and get things back to normal again.

So What is Hard Water?

We all learned in school that water is H2O – two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom make up a water molecule, right? What many of us don’t realize is that extra stuff can get into the water we drink. Some of it is perfectly safe to consume, while other water contaminants could negatively impact your family’s health. But tap water is certainly not 100% pure H20.

Hard water is basically water containing a high mineral count. Groundwater often percolates through limestone where it picks up calcium and magnesium deposits.

Drinking water can also contain trace minerals like iron, which gets picked up from the soil, lakes and rivers – even older, corroded plumbing. In some regions, hard water may also contain manganese or aluminum.

Of course, things like calcium, magnesium and iron aren’t necessarily bad for you. In fact, they’re actually beneficial nutrients.

If your home gets water from a well, you most likely have hard water. But it’s not just a rural issue. The U.S. Geological Survey says 85% of homes in the nation have hard water.

Here are eight potential problems hard water causes. Do any of them sound familiar?

1. Your Water Tastes or Smells Funny

A strange odor or taste to drinking water is often one of the first clues you have a water conditioning problem. It’s a sure-sign there is hard water or some sort of bacterial contaminant.

For instance, if your water has an unpleasant metallic taste. That’s probably too much iron.

If your water smells like rotten eggs, that could be naturally occurring hydrogen sulfide gas or certain bacteria reacting with magnesium to form sulfates.

Some people say their water tastes like dirt.

That could be sediment (actual dirt), old pipes or algae. Algal blooms can also give tap water a moldy aftertaste.

No one likes to drink water with a funky smell or flavor. But that’s just the beginning of your problems.

2. You’re Getting Strange Stains

Ugly brown or reddish stains on the porcelain are a big embarrassment.

You can blame hard water for that too – specifically iron.

It’s no coincidence those stains look a lot like rust spots. The iron in your water could be coming from rusty pipes.

You’ll have to use a lot of elbow grease to get rid of those stains.

Some people suggest using vinegar to help clean and remove them. Unfortunately, the stains will keep reappearing until you fix your hard water problem.

3. You’re Constantly Cleaning Up Soap Scum

Another unsightly issue is the appearance of those white, hard water spots.

That’s what you get when water evaporates and leaves calcium deposits behind.

When you have hard water, you’ll notice nasty soap scum seems to accumulate all over the place. That’s because soap and the minerals in hard water just don’t play nicely together.

If your dishes are always spotty, it may not be your dishwasher, it’s probably your water. What’s worse – soap scum left on shower curtains can lead to the development of a microbial biofilm that might contain disease-spreading bacteria.

With hard water, you may find yourself cleaning the bathroom and kitchen more often and using more cleaning product to get the job done. Who wants to do that?

4. Your Showering Experience Suffers

Showering is your time to escape the world for ten minutes to wash the dirt and worries away. But when you have hard water, shower time can be ruined.

As we’ve mentioned, minerals cause hard water to react ineffectively with soap.

This makes it harder to get a good lather when you bathe. It also makes it more difficult to wash all the soap off your body, leaving a film of soapy residue on your skin.

Deposits from hard water can clog up your shower head too. That means weaker water pressure.

With hard water, you may not be getting as clean and you may notice your hair is hard to manage. Yes, hard water could even be responsible for your bad hair days.

5. Your Pipes Keep Getting Clogged

Shower heads aren’t the only things that can get clogged up thanks to hard water.

It can cause major plumbing issues as well.

Scale deposits build up inside your pipes, like plaque inside an artery, constricting the flow of water, eventually leading to backups and the need to call a plumber for help.

If you have PVC or copper pipes, this probably is not an issue. It’s most-common with older, steel pipes.

6. Your Clothes Aren’t Getting Clean

Hard water can have a negative impact on laundry – and once again – it’s all due to the rocky relationship minerals like calcium and magnesium have with soap and detergent.

Soap is used to wash away dirt and grime, but when soap doesn’t get rinsed off, it can actually increase soil build up on your clothes.

Clothes washed in hard water often appear dingy and wear out faster. It can even make your towels scratchy and rough.

When you have hard water, you may have to buy detergent formulated to soften the water for you.  However, you’ll likely have to use more laundry detergent (and hotter water) to get your clothes clean. It’s even advised that people with hard water use four times as much detergent.

Plus, just as iron stains your bathroom fixtures, it can stain your clothes. Premature yellowing of your whites could be caused by iron content in the water. When combined with bleach, iron oxidizes, and iron oxide is just another name for rust.

7. Your Family Has Skin Irritation Issues

Because washing in hard water will leave soap behind, it causes people’s skin to get dried out and itchy.

Mineral deposits left on the body can also suck moisture right out of your skin.

The skin condition eczema is fairly common, especially among younger children.

There is research indicating that bathing in hard water could cause eczema symptoms to worsen.

Another study concluded exposure to hard water could increase the risk of developing eczema in elementary-school-age children.

Your Appliances Are Wearing Out Quickly

This might be the most expensive hard water problem of all. Those scale deposits can wreak havoc on many appliances in your home, from the dishwasher to the hot water heater.

A build up of sediment in your water heater can make it far less efficient. The same goes for other appliances. Poor efficiency means bigger utility bills.

The icemaker in your fridge can stop working as scale deposits clog up valves. The American Water Works Association says hard water can cause a washing machine to wear out 30% faster than normal.

1. It’s not difficult to see how hard water can cost you money in the long run. In fact, it’s estimated hard water expenses could cost you $800 or more every year.

How Water Conditioning Could Help

There are different solutions to different problems, but there’s only one perfect answer to all your hard water issues. That would be installing a water softener in your home.

Water softeners remove things like calcium, magnesium and iron from your water as it comes in from the source. It’s an investment that could save you headaches as well as money.

There are also other types of water conditioning products, like a reverse osmosis system, which can help eliminate potentially harmful contaminants.

If you’re ready to look into the possibility of a water softener in your home, or if you simply have questions about the options available, see our all of our quality product lines below to find a water conditioning expert near you.

1. You’re Wasting Your Money

Bottled water is a huge global industry. That’s why there’s a trade association called the International Bottled Water Association, which works to improve the industry’s image and lobbies world governments on bottled water’s behalf.

Experts now say bottled water is poised to pass up carbonated soft drinks in the packaged beverage market as the number one product in the United States. The soda giants like Pepsi and Coke aren’t bothered by this news because they sell their own brands of bottled water.

North America is by far the largest consumer of bottled water. Mexico uses the most per capita, but people in the United States are spending a ton of money on it, topping $15 billion in 2015 according to research by Mintel. Other estimates say Americans spend around $100 per person on bottled water each year.

Numbers comparing how much more expensive bottled water can be cover a wide range. Depending on what you purchase, drinking bottled water could be anywhere from 300x to 2,000x more expensive than getting it from your home faucet.

2. Many Brands Are Selling You Tap Water

The quality of the bottled water you buy is going to vary quite a bit. Much of it is nothing more than municipal water that goes through some filtration at the bottling plant. The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) estimates around 25% comes straight from the tap, and some of it isn’t even further treated. Manufacturers of bottled water are good at marketing. They use the right words to make you think their product is the purest, most refreshing water imaginable.

Remember, water filtration is something you can do in your own home if you choose.

Do you ever drink Aquafina bottled water? PepsiCo recently admitted that its brand of bottled water is nothing more than filtered tap water, and the company was forced to change the labeling on Aquafina. Consumer groups are now targeting Coca-Cola’s Dasani brand of bottled water too.

Check the labeling on your favorite bottled water. If it says “Public Water Source,” you are drinking packaged tap water.

3. Bottled Water Can be Contaminated

We’re not trying to scare you. Most bottled water is likely safe. However, the bottled water industry does not have a perfect track record.

An article from CBS.com states there have been more than 100 recalls of bottled water. The article lists common water contaminants like algae, types of bacteria, and chlorine. But it also mentions things like glass particles, mold, and even crickets were found in Texas bottled water back in 1994. More recently, a North Carolina woman claimed she found larvae in her Dasani bottled water. Coca-Cola disputed the claim.

Keep in mind, while the FDA does have some standard for water bottlers, it cannot regulate water that’s bottled and sold within the same state. You have to look carefully to find the truth. In many ways, regular city water is more regulated than bottled water.

4. Buying Bottled Water Hurts the Environment

Drinking bottled water creates unnecessary waste. You might think that shouldn’t be a problem because water bottles can be recycled. Unfortunately, that’s not what is happening. The majority of those bottles end up in a landfill.

In 2015, The Association of Plastic Recyclers reported that the recycling rate for plastic bottles reached 31.8% – a 1% increase year over year. However, that still means more than two-thirds of plastic bottles do not get recycled. Two-thirds of 50 billion bottles a year is a lot! Americans are using 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour, and bottled water makes up a sizable chunk.

The waste created by plastic bottles isn’t even the worst of the environmental impact. It’s the production and transportation that is truly hurting the planet.

Peter Gleick is an environmentalist who authored the book Bottled and Sold, which criticizes the bottled water industry. He conducted a study estimating bottled water requires 2,000 times as much energy cost as tap water.

5. Plastic Bottles Could be Harmful to Your Health

A big reason for the rise in bottled water is that many people are trying to be healthier. That’s great! Water is essential to a healthy body and mind, but plastic bottles could be an issue.

The biggest problem is BPA or bisphenol-A. According to the Mayo Clinic’s website:

You’ll find a few bottled waters being marketed as BPA-free. However, some researchers are calling foul. They say the chemicals used to replace BPA may be just as dangerous. Read more about that in an article on The Huffington Post.

The recyclable PET plastic bottles may come with their own health risks. Chemicals known as phthalates have the potential to leach from the plastic into the water. Phthalates are known endocrine disruptors, which means they have the potential to mess up your hormones.

This is more likely if you let your water sit in a plastic bottle for a long time and allow it to be exposed to heat or sunlight. This increases the risk of plastic breaking down and getting into the water.

The NRDC tested more than 1,000 bottles of water and concluded, “There is no assurance that just because water comes out of a bottle it is any cleaner or safer than water from the tap.”

6. Bottled Water May Not Even Taste Better

With all the money we spend on bottled water, you would think there is some sort of benefit. Even if it’s not healthier for you, it has to taste better, right? If it does, it’s probably the placebo effect.

Time after time, blind taste tests show most people can’t really tell the difference between bottled water and tap water, much less specific brands of water.

One of the most interesting taste tests involved Fiji bottled water. It launched a marketing campaign that made fun of Cleveland’s water. The campaign stated, “The label says Fiji because it’s not bottled in Cleveland.”

Cleveland took offense to that and had Fiji water tested. Turned out, it contained 6.31 micrograms of arsenic. Then Cleveland held a taste test pitting Fiji’s water against the city’s. We bet you can guess who won.

There’s a Smarter Way to Get Better Drinking Water

Household water can be quite different in terms of quality and taste depending on where you live, the plumbing in your home, and your personal preference. It’s certainly possible that your tap water isn’t the best to be drinking.

The 2015 Water Quality Association report on consumer opinions found 77% of survey respondents use bottled water. At 41%, the top reason cited in the survey for choosing bottled water was their tap water didn’t taste good. Another 37% said they had concerns about contaminants in the water.

Bottled water is certainly not the only solution!

If you’ve read all these points and feel a little bit duped by bottled water marketing, it’s not too late to make a change to your water drinking habits.

In-home filtration can transform your tap water, making it safe and enjoyable to drink. Products like reverse osmosis systems provide you with the purest, most-refreshing water right at your tap.

If you’re interested in learning more,

There’s a Smarter Way to Get Better Drinking Water

Household water can be quite different in terms of quality and taste depending on where you live, the plumbing in your home, and your personal preference. It’s certainly possible that your tap water isn’t the best to be drinking.

The 2015 Water Quality Association report on consumer opinions found 77% of survey respondents use bottled water. At 41%, the top reason cited in the survey for choosing bottled water was their tap water didn’t taste good. Another 37% said they had concerns about contaminants in the water.

Bottled water is certainly not the only solution!

If you’ve read all these points and feel a little bit duped by bottled water marketing, it’s not too late to make a change to your water drinking habits.

In-home filtration can transform your tap water, making it safe and enjoyable to drink. Products like reverse osmosis systems provide you with the purest, most-refreshing water right at your tap.

If you’re interested in learning more, Contact Clear Choice Water Treatment for a consultation.

.