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Many homes in the USA are supplied by wells or municipal water that has many dissolved minerals in it.
These dissolved minerals, if found to be high enough, can lead to a tap water condition known as hard water.
Water softeners, as you can guess from the name, are one of the preferred ways to eliminate the dissolved minerals that cause hardness in household water.
So if you have a moderate to severe hard water condition, you will want to seriously consider purchasing a water softener.
In my many years working in the swimming pool industry, I have experienced many of the problems hard water causes. Hard water is definitely not something that you want coming into your home.
In this article, I will go over the signs of hard water, how to test for it, and how to interpret those test results. Once you have this information, you will be able to easily answer the question “do I need a water softener?”.
Also Check Out: Top Rated Water Softeners and Buyers Guide
Unfortunately, hard water will leave many telltale signs of its presence around your home. These include:
If you are noticing several of the signs of hard water mentioned above, you will want to confirm its presence by testing. This will also help you to determine the extent of your hard water problem.
There are two main ways to go about doing this.
These are DIY hard water test kits that you can purchase and then do the testing yourself at home. They are fairly inexpensive and their accuracy has improved greatly over the years.
DIY water hardness test kits can be made to use either test strips or drops.
These are as easy to use as just dipping them in a sample of your tap water and then comparing them to a color chart on the container that they come in.
The SJ Wave Store Water Hardness Test Strips are a reliable water hardness test kit that uses strips.
Water hardness test kits that use drops take a little more time to use than test strips but their readout is more accurate if done right.
The Hach 145300 Total Hardness Test Kit, Model 5-B is an example of a quality water hardness test kit that uses drops.
If you do not trust determining the hardness of your tap water by testing it yourself, then you may want to consider taking a water sample to a local testing place or order a test kit that you can send in by mail to get the results. Local stores that sell aquarium or pool and spa supplies usually offer very accurate water testing.
Once you have an accurate number as to the level of hardness in your tap water, you simply have to compare that number to the chart below.
This will give you one of 5 water hardness ratings for your tap water. You will use the column on the right for comparison because the tests we mentioned give results in either PPM or mg/L.
Once you have analyzed the results of your hard water testing, you will be able to easily determine ‘do I need a water softener’ in the following ways:
If any of your hard water testing results fall in the range where it’s recommended that you purchase a water softener, do yourself a favor and take this advice seriously.
Water softeners are fairly inexpensive and don’t require a lot of maintenance. They most likely will pay for themselves over time too. This is because of all of the money you will save on cleaning chemicals, showerheads, electric water heater elements, and plumbing repairs that are eliminated by having a water softener.
You will also spend less time getting your kitchen and bathroom fixtures to shine up nicely and keeping these same areas from becoming dull looking.
Hard water is something that you simply don’t want to deal with under any conditions.
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