Most people would prefer using hard water to soft. But, do you know how costly it can be in your home? We understand that water is a life source. Can you imagine life without it? People would cease to survive, right? It’s used for various purposes and in different places, including household, commercial, and personal sanitation. Water isn’t the same.
Actually, it collects from the local supply system to your home, and before reaching you, it would have combined with numerous things. For instance, dissolved mineral salts in pipes convey it making it be termed as ‘hard.’ This article looks at the ways hard water is costing you at home. Let’s keep reading to understand.
How Hard Water Increases Expenses
- Equipment replacement
Hard water comes with disadvantages, including pipe clogging. Its minerals greatly impact on the plumbing system leading to clogged pipes. You may never realize the effect during the earlier days of mineral build-up.
However, after some time, you’ll notice unusually limited water flow through the faucets. The problem may even worsen if not checked in good time, consequently bringing a complete blockage that can’t allow any significant water amounts to flow. Failing to function entirely implies replacing the equipment. Another option may be unclogging or washing out the scaled pipes. You’ll have to drain more water for rinsing after use of chemicals, and labor. It’s pretty costly, don’t you think?
- Higher electricity bills
Think about hard water and home electrical appliances such as heaters, boilers, and others. Do you see limescale build-up after some period of continuous usage? Yes, it’s the effect caused by hard water, which heavily influences energy use and maintenance expenses.
Without care and maintenance, don’t expect any traces of profitability or peak performance. The dissolved rocks and minerals accumulation in the hard water resulting from scaling collection definitely impairs the equipment’s functioning. As a result, the appliance consumes more electrical power than it used to.
From a study about power consumption and the limescale, it showed that an 11% increase. In energy use on a 1/20 inch of scale accumulation. The findings further suggested a 29% increase in heating unsoftened water.
- Skin irritation
The same way hard water clogs the plumbing system and appliances, it happens to your skin pores. It occurs due to a lack of compatibility between the water and soap in use. The clogged skin is caused by soap scum residue development in their combination. After washing using hard water, you’ll notice your skin being itchy and dried up.
The minerals in it absorb moisture from your body through the skin, causing a drying effect and irritation. The most common condition, especially among small children, is eczema. Studies have indicated that bathing your kid in hard water, could worsen the eczema symptoms.
Additionally, another study stated that letting your child get in contact with hard water may lead to eczema development. Who wants to risk costs through medical treatment in search of better health when you can avoid it?
- Too much energy on laundry
Are your clothes getting clean after washing? If not, then blame it on hard water. It has a negative result on the laundry. The chorus remains the same- mineral constituents, the relationship between magnesium or calcium, and detergent or soap.
Do you know why your clothes appear dull and wear out faster than you still needed to wear? What about the rough towel that scratches your body when wiping yourself dry? It all happens due to an increase in soil build-up caused by the interaction between water and the minerals.
It reduces its relevance of washing away dirt and grime. Doing laundry in hard water is costly. You may be forced to buy a formulated detergent that reduces its effects-one to soften. Otherwise, you’ll be forced to use more soap or maybe hot water to make your laundry work better. But see, it’s still expensive because the amount can be four times as much to serve the cleaning perfectly. Another thing is the iron in water, which may stain your clothes.
If you’ve ever seen premature yellowish stains on your clothes after washing – it’s precisely what we mean, leave alone the one on the armpits. It comes by combining hard water and bleach that oxidizes the iron in it to form rust.
- Drinking water odor
Can you drink smelly water? Please forget about drought and other tougher situations that may expose you to such. We mean the drinking water in your household. Noticing a strange and unpleasant water odor is very irritating. It should alert you about a water problem in the house.
Certainly, it’s a hard water signal or infestation by bacteria. Do you know how dangerous bacteria risk your health? Not just you alone, but your family’s too.
Take an example of drinking water testing like a metal- meaning, it has a lot of iron. You may argue that iron is essential to the body, fine. But, can you stand the taste? For how long? Another challenge is realizing a smell of rotten eggs, which means there’s a possibility of hydrogen sulfide gas.
Or maybe some bacteria are reacting with water minerals to yield sulfates. Most individuals won’t like the funky odor or water flavor. You’ll, therefore, have to start finding ways of cleaning the pipes to get cleaner water. You may need to hire a plumber, and you understand what that insinuates.
The Bottom Line
Could hard water be draining your financial plans? It’s sad how most people don’t understand how hard water gives them losses in various ways. While it may have benefits, its negative impacts are very costly, like nobody can relate to or imagine.
For instance, hardening and drying your skin, making laundry harder, malfunctioning water pipes and home appliances, and affecting drinking water taste. All these affect your pocket in one way or another.
It’d be best to keep checking all water application areas in your home to ensure some effects get sorted as early as possible. You may also opt converting the hard water into soft to reduce the impacts.