How does hard water affect our daily lives?

The water that has a high mineral content is known as hardwater. Water that contains mineral ions that has a charge of +2 can be termed as “Hard water”.Hard water is made when water penetrates through deposits of calcium and magnesium. Calcium and magnesium has minerals like limestone, chalk and dolomite.

Hardness of water is due to these minerals that are dissolved in water like calcium and magnesium. These are the most common minerals that cause water hardness. When heated these minerals create many problems like it clogs pipes, which decreases water flow, and it can cause settlement of film and scale on bath and kitchen fixtures, thus decreasing the life of clothing. Thus water softening methods are adopted to reduce hard waters adverse effects.

Hard water is softened which means removal of minerals, by treating it with lime or by passing it through an ion exchange resin. Water is deionized by making use of a resin which replaces cations with hydrogen and anions with hydroxide.

What are the negative effects of hard water in our daily lives? You can also say it is my story or personal experience with hard water.

1. Skin drying and hair drying.

2. Plumbing repairs on frequent basis.

3. Faded fabrics and clothes.

4. Rise in general water bills.

1-Skin drying and hair drying:

So let me ask a question that do you witness dry hair more often and the hair is not silky the way you want and your skin is itchy and dry? So all this is happening because of hard water. Many as times to prevent drying of hair and skin, I use conditioners and lotions and that is what everyone else do. The skin and hair drying is because of limescale.

2-Plumbing repairs on frequent basis:

The war of soft water vs. hard water does not stop at the health, and beauty of one’s body. It also effects equipment’s and plumbing appliances. The hard water has minerals such as calcium and magnesium that causes “scaling”. Scaling can happen in dishwashers, coffee makers etc. This results in loss in efficiency and eventually to breakdown or deterioration of appliances.

3-Faded fabrics and clothes:

Have you ever witnessed that colors tend to fade when you wash and dry your clothes, also does the fabric seems to get torn and worn out? Because that is what I hate the most and is the worst negative effect for me after the skin and hair drying one. Hard water may be a contributing factor. The same molecules that affect negatively our plumbing equipment’sand appliances get washed into your clothing that is bad for the clothes. By using soft water, colors and materials tend to last longer and brighter.

4-Rise in water bills:

Eventually we are going to use more water than needed which in turn is going to increase our water bills and hence causing the damage in that case also. This increases in overall cost can cause economic crunch.

Everyone is facing the same story, especially in a city like Delhi NCR. It is better to install water softeners for domestic as well as industrial purposes once and for all to avoid and eliminate hard water issues.

Consult Netsol Water Solutions for more information!