If you get all of your fresh water from the city in which you live, then your water goes through extensive treatment before being piped into your home. This treatment is to remove harmful materials from your water, and while thorough it is not perfect. Every so often a few things slip through the treatment process and into your home. One of those things is hard water. Let’s take a look at how hard water affects your home, and some of the signs that you need to call for water treatment.
Hard Water
Hard water is water with a higher than normal mineral content. While more or less harmless to humans, this mineral content can wreak havoc on plumbing pipes. Long term exposure to hard water causes the formation of lime scale, which is a mineral deposit that can grow large enough to block the flow of water through a pipe.
Signs of Hard Water
While you cannot really see inside your plumbing pipes, you can keep an eye out for the signs of hard water exposure elsewhere in your home. Check around the faucets in your home, and in your shower. If you notice a white, chalky substance in any of these areas, it’s very likely that you need a water softener installed. Those calcium deposits are a sure sign of hard water.
Drops in water pressure are another sign that you might have hard water. As lime scale gets larger, it restricts the flow of water through the pipe. That restriction will be reflected in your faucet’s water output. If you notice this happening, call a plumber to examine your pipes right away.
If you need a water softener installed in your home, call The Sunny Plumber. We serve the entire Tucson, AZ area.
