So, What is Hard Water?
Hard water is water that has a significant amount of minerals (in contrast with “soft water”). When water passes through limestone, chalk, or gypsum deposits, which are mostly composed of calcium and magnesium carbonates, bicarbonates, and sulphates, hard water is created.
The majority of these chemical compounds are calcium and magnesium, while other substances like iron can also dissolve. As the water seeps through the earth’s rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. It begins to accumulate minerals, After entering our water system, it finally makes its way through our home’s plumbing and is used for drinking, cooking, washing, and heating.
How Hard Water affects your hair?
Because of the mentioned minerals in hard water, it can be problematic to get a good rinse, which can lead to buildup in your hair and residue. You might assume that washing your hair numerous times a day will solve the issue, but each time you step out of the shower, the predicament will remain the same. Your water is the source of the issue, not your rinse, lather, repeat technique. Watch out for these warning indications that your hair is being affected by hard water:
- Hair that is less flexible, feels filmy, dull, and straw-like.
- Quickly fading coloured hair that needs more frequent colour treatments and greater hair damage.
- Thinning hair and breakage caused by hard water.
- Hair loss
How does it affect your skin?
Dryness is the most typical side effect of hard water on your skin. Similar to how hard water makes it difficult to rinse the soap from your hair, hard water also causes your skin to become dry and sometimes inflamed. Additionally, hard water might exacerbate existing conditions if you have sensitive skin, psoriasis, or eczema by further drying out your skin.
What can I do to limit the effects of Hard Water on your body?
The key in this situation is to rehydrate and restore balance by using a toner that can dissolve any residue and a moisturiser that will suitably moisturize your skin. You could switch to a waterless, rinse-free cleanser if you want to completely eliminate the risk.
What can Hard Water do to your home?
The modern home suffers greatly from hard water. Your pipes become clogged and lose water pressure as a result of scale buildup. Dishwashers, coffee makers, and ice makers all experience much shorter lifespans due to scale. Hot water appliances are ruined by hard water. More calcium and magnesium will solidify and harden inside your hot water heater into solid deposits as the water temperature rises. Your water heater may sound like it is popping popcorn if you reside in a region with hard water. This is a result of scale building up on the heating element. The calcified rock deposits that have formed a crust over the heating elements start to break and stretch as the heater’s temperature rises and the tank expands. The cause of that popcorn is scale brought on by hard water.
The laundry needs extra detergent to keep it from looking dirty if there is no water softener. Your dishwasher will produce damaged and streaked dishes. Your shower curtains accumulate filmy grime, which prevents soap and shampoo from lathering. Your skin becomes dry and irritated after taking a bath in hard water, and your hair becomes limp and greasy. Cleaning up the negative side effects of hard water requires an absurd amount of time, effort, and money. The answer to the problem of water hardness is a whole-house water softening system.
What does a Water Softener actually do?
On the market are a myriad of water filter systems. Here at Shires Water we believe a small, good quality, Water Softeners work by utilising Ion exchange, a process that eliminates calcium and magnesium from water. The mineral tank’s hard water enters the tank through a bed of spherical resin beads. These sodium-ion-charged plastic beads are typically constructed of polystyrene. The resin beads are negatively charged since they have been negatively charged with ions. The minerals calcium and magnesium are ionic bonds because they have a positive charge. Due to the law of attraction between opposite charges, the positive charge of the resin beads is drawn to the negative charge of the minerals. The resin beads catch the mineral ions as the hard water flows through them and removes them from the water. The sodium ion is released as soon as the bead attracts the mineral ion.
How long will a Water Softener last?
Water Softeners go through a process called the “water softener regeneration cycle”, The hardness minerals are washed off and drained out of the system during water softener regeneration cycles, which submerge the resin beads in a highly concentrated brine solution. The resin beads are primed and recharged in order to get rid of the hardness minerals once again. For twenty years or more, resin beads can effectively soften your water because of their exceptional durability. Co-current regeneration and counter-current regeneration are the two ways that water softeners regenerate.
