The Easy Hard Water Solution
So you have just discovered you have hard water, and you are looking for a soft approach. Your garden is suffering from excess salts and looks miserable and your shampoo and soaps won’t sud, we know exactly how you feel, or close to it.
You have googled to find the solution to hard water and even googled to find the soft water solution, and every company under the sun has the perfect solution from fifty bucks to fifty thousand bucks and your hair is falling out not from the water but from the sales speels and the pseudo science – take a chill pill and allow us to take you on a journey to maybe discover the easy path to the hard water solution and soft and suds full bath!
The cover map provided and the link at the bottom of this article is a reminder that ground water and hard water issues in particular are complex in Australia.
To arrive at a solution in keeping with your budget and the constraints of the locality and the quality of the water sources requires one simple thing or three!
Local knowledge
Trusted research and facts
Reputable commercial solutions and obvious DIY quick wins.
This is a quick though hopefully helpful dive into the complex though actually simple world of hard water, and how to grock the basic tech lingo for long enough to arrive at a sane solution..fingers crossed!
Enjoy!
Before you get too chilled take an assessment of the situation.
Is this my property, what are the neighbours doing or why did they suddenly leave?…lol..just kidding..
But seriously, have you had the water tested or tested it yourself and what good advice have you received so far to add to the mix.
You live in Australia and you live regionally or rurally and maybe you have not managed a bore pump or a dam, so the water issue is manifold regarding matters that need to be addressed.
Before launching into more research and a potential PHD in chemistry and physics, firstly consult the most local commercial irrigation supplier or professional outfits such as Reece Plumbing that have dedicated irrigation experts and plumbers that know how to quickly sort the wheat from the chaff and end your misery via a moderate shopping spree and a serious irrigation and water treatment program, how exciting, off you go!
Still here I noticed? Too busy right now and you really just need someone to hold your hand before you take the plunge, or you’re simply H2O curious and love to learn? No worries, welcome back.
What is hard water and why does it matter?
Wiki makes some good points but also makes some sweeping generalisations about the potential health benefits of hard water without a caveat. That being that no assumptions can be made about the potential safety or otherwise of water without testing or resort to local and stored knowledge.
The key useful parts are included at the end of this post. What Wiki does not report is the rural hard water situation in Australia. This map provides a good overview but is in no way complete or even comprehensive, hence local old timer or irrigation supplier knowledge is the best go.
On google we know enough to know the top ads are paid for so first page is not necessarily going to be best dressed, dig a little deeper and divine the ultimate water treatment solution for you.
Most often the best solution is a hybrid solution and no single supplier will have the goods or the expertise, so become a basic expert before you spend the big bucks!
Some basic technical starters from the web.
Hard water is water that has high mineral content (in contrast with “soft water”). Hard water is formed when water percolates through deposits of limestone, chalk or gypsum[1] which are largely made up of calcium and magnesium carbonates, bicarbonates and sulfates.
Hard drinking water may have moderate health benefits. It can pose critical problems in industrial settings, where water hardness is monitored to avoid costly breakdowns in boilers, cooling towers, and other equipment that handles water. In domestic settings, hard water is often indicated by a lack of foam formation when soap is agitated in water, and by the formation of limescale in kettles and water heaters.[2] Wherever water hardness is a concern, water softening is commonly used to reduce hard water’s adverse effects.
But otherwise Wiki gives a broad definition and a useful technical brief of testing parameters and definitions useful if you have some water test results from the area or your property.
The effects of hard water
With hard water, soap solutions form a white precipitate (soap scum) instead of producing lather, because the 2+ ions destroy the surfactant properties of the soap by forming a solid precipitate (the soap scum). A major component of such scum is calcium stearate, which arises from sodium stearate, the main component of soap:
2 C17H35COO− (aq) + Ca2+ (aq) → (C17H35COO)2Ca (s)
Hardness can thus be defined as the soap-consuming capacity of a water sample, or the capacity of precipitation of soap as a characteristic property of water that prevents the lathering of soap. Synthetic detergents do not form such scums.
Because soft water has few calcium ions, there is no inhibition of the lathering action of soaps and no soap scum is formed in normal washing. Similarly, soft water produces no calcium deposits in water heating systems.
Hard water also forms deposits that clog plumbing. These deposits, called “scale“, are composed mainly of calcium carbonate (CaCO3), magnesium hydroxide (Mg(OH)2), and calcium sulfate (CaSO4).[3] Calcium and magnesium carbonates tend to be deposited as off-white solids on the inside surfaces of pipes and heat exchangers. This precipitation (formation of an insoluble solid) is principally caused by thermal decomposition of bicarbonate ions but also happens in cases where the carbonate ion is at saturation concentration.[9] The resulting build-up of scale restricts the flow of water in pipes. In boilers, the deposits impair the flow of heat into water, reducing the heating efficiency and allowing the metal boiler components to overheat. In a pressurized system, this overheating can lead to failure of the boiler.[10] The damage caused by calcium carbonate deposits varies on the crystalline form, for example, calcite or aragonite.[11]
The presence of ions in an electrolyte, in this case, hard water, can also lead to galvanic corrosion, in which one metal will preferentially corrode when in contact with another type of metal, when both are in contact with an electrolyte. The softening of hard water by ion exchange does not increase its corrosivity per se. Similarly, where lead plumbing is in use, softened water does not substantially increase plumbo-solvency.[12]
In swimming pools, hard water is manifested by a turbid, or cloudy (milky), appearance to the water. Calcium and magnesium hydroxides are both soluble in water. The solubility of the hydroxides of the alkaline-earth metals to which calcium and magnesium belong (group 2 of the periodic table) increases moving down the column. Aqueous solutions of these metal hydroxides absorb carbon dioxide from the air, forming the insoluble carbonates, giving rise to the turbidity. This often results from the pH being excessively high (pH > 7.6). Hence, a common solution to the problem is, while maintaining the chlorine concentration at the proper level, to lower the pH by the addition of hydrochloric acid, the optimum value being in the range of 7.2 to 7.6.
Softening water
It is often desirable to soften hard water. Most detergents contain ingredients that counteract the effects of hard water on the surfactants. For this reason, water softening is often unnecessary. Where softening is practised, it is often recommended to soften only the water sent to domestic hot water systems so as to prevent or delay inefficiencies and damage due to scale formation in water heaters. A common method for water softening involves the use of ion-exchange resins, which replace ions like Ca2+ by twice the number of mono cations such as sodium or potassium ions.
Washing soda (sodium carbonate, Na2CO3) is easily obtained and has long been used as a water softener for domestic laundry, in conjunction with the usual soap or detergent.
Water that has been treated by a water softening may be termed softened water. In these cases the water may also contain elevated levels of sodium or potassium and bicarbonate or chloride ions.
Conclusion
There is useful information to guide your water treatment plan, however discernment is required as sweeping generalisations abound on the web, so common sense can often reveal a site for citing the plain stupid.
Commonly for example, sites will make great assumptions about the quality of the water supplied by utilities but the Drinking Water Guidelines Australia, hold the supplier responsible for ‘quality’ up to the meter, so there is no value making firm assumptions until you become a moderate expert yourself.
Residual chlorine is not safe to drink and chlorine can be removed naturally via sunlight and simple evaporative treatment, so be wary of sites that make safety claims without reference to expertise, independence of opinion, and factual checking of the claimed assertion.
The images presented are from two sites which are opportunities for further research on ground water, hard water issues and solutions in Australia.
Groundwater resources Australia 2016
Residents in Perth’s north concerned about cloudy drinking water
We hope this short hard water journey has been fruitful or at least leap frogs you in a good direction.
Grow well, be well…always
