Many people notice a whitish coating on their taps or feel tightness on their skin after washing their face, but rarely connect this with the quality of the water. Hard water – this is not just an aesthetic problem with stains on dishes, but a serious factor affecting everyday life and health. A high concentration of calcium and magnesium salts turns ordinary water into an aggressive environment for everything it comes into contact with.
Impact on household appliances
The most obvious damage that hard water causes is to heating appliances. When boiling, dissolved salts precipitate, forming a hard crust – scale. It has low thermal conductivity, which is why the heating element has to work at its limit. As a result washing machinesboilers and electric kettles fail much earlier than expected. Repairing such equipment is often more expensive than installing a filtration system.
Harm to skin and hair
Contact with hard water disrupts the natural protective barrier of the epidermis. The salts react with detergents to form an insoluble “soap slag” that settles on the body. This causes drynesspeeling and itching, and can also provoke an exacerbation of dermatitis. After washing in such water, hair becomes hard, brittle and dull, since the cuticle scales cannot close tightly.
Extra expenses
In hard water, any detergent foams much worse. To properly wash your clothes or wash your hair, you have to spend one and a half to two times more powder and shampoo. This leads to constant overuse of household chemicalswhich imperceptibly but significantly impacts the family budget in the long term. In addition, fabrics washed in such conditions wear out faster and lose color brightness.
Effect on the taste of food
The quality of water directly changes the taste of prepared foods and drinks. Tea or coffee brewed with hard water often has an unpleasant aftertaste and a cloudy film on the surface. High mineralization prevents the full development of the aroma of beans or tea leaves. When cooked in such an environment, vegetables may remain hard longer than usual, losing some of their beneficial substances.
Solving the problem begins with analyzing the water and selecting the right filter, which allows you to preserve your equipment and health.
About the Author
