Home Hard Water Treatment

[Eric]

Since moving into our current home we've noticed the water is hard, leaving a sediment of calcium behind anywhere it sits and then dries up. We're also assuming this is the case inside our fridge, dishwasher and pipes.

Not really a big deal but it concerns my wife and some of our neighbors have installed filtration systems on their house, but they don't appear to work as I have been doing some testing of my own.

In this test I put half a teaspoon of water in each tray and then let them dry overnight, leaving behind the residue. In order from left to right:
No home filtration system installed
1. Our tap
2. Water from our fridge (that has a built in charcoal filter)

Neighbor's home with filtration system system installd (not the kind that softens water)
3. Their tap
4. Their water from fridge (that has a built in charcoal filter)

I did this to make the argument to my wife that getting one of those installed in our home will do no good, and they're not cheap. According to plumber feedback I've researched, the only real way to get rid of minerals is through water softening.

 

[rdrr]

Since moving into our current home we've noticed the water is hard, leaving a sediment of calcium behind anywhere it sits and then dries up. We're also assuming this is the case inside our fridge, dishwasher and pipes.

Not really a big deal but it concerns my wife and some of our neighbors have installed filtration systems on their house, but they don't appear to work as I have been doing some testing of my own.

In this test I put half a teaspoon of water in each tray and then let them dry overnight, leaving behind the residue. In order from left to right:
No home filtration system installed
1. Our tap
2. Water from our fridge (that has a built in charcoal filter)

Neighbor's home with filtration system system installd (not the kind that softens water)
3. Their tap
4. Their water from fridge (that has a built in charcoal filter)

View attachment 30939

I did this to make the argument to my wife that getting one of those installed in our home will do no good, and they're not cheap. According to plumber feedback I've researched, the only real way to get rid of minerals is through water softening.

Is there a water testing lab in your area? Also the age of the home and how old the pipes are will also vary from resident to resident.

 

[Eric]

Is there a water testing lab in your area? Also the age of the home and how old the pipes are will also vary from resident to resident.

Right, I want to make sure everything has the best control possible. These homes were all built within a couple of months of each other in a brand new development, so we know all the piping and age is essentially the same. We're more concerned about the calcium residue hosing up our appliances than anything.

 

[Herdfan]

Even a softener won't remove all the minerals, you need an RO system to do that.

We have a softener on the main line, but an RO system feeds a tap on the sink and the fridge. Dishwasher is on its own as the RO can't provide enough water for that.

With the softener on the main line, we still have to clean out the shower heads and sink aerators every few months or so.

 

[Eric]

Even a softener won't remove all the minerals, you need an RO system to do that.

We have a softener on the main line, but an RO system feeds a tap on the sink and the fridge. Dishwasher is on its own as the RO can't provide enough water for that.

With the softener on the main line, we still have to clean out the shower heads and sink aerators every few months or so.

Interesting, okay so do you find the RO to change the water pressure? Starting to sound like there really aren't any options to rid ourselves from this completely.

 

[Nycturne]

Interesting, okay so do you find the RO to change the water pressure? Starting to sound like there really aren't any options to rid ourselves from this completely.

Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but I feel like the goal should not be this. Since RO systems commonly have a remineralizer, you are probably going to have some minerals in the water which will deposit no matter what you do, just a matter of degrees. I'd probably look at how bad it is first, and then decide how aggressive you want to be about it. I don't have RO (our water sources are pretty soft to begin with in Seattle), but my understanding is that it needs to be in good working order (and appropriately sized) in order to avoid constrictions that can hurt flow rates in the house.

If you are in a newer house, I'd expect that a lot of the interior pipework is PEX? If that's the case, that's going to give you some resistance to mineral deposition (outside the fixtures themselves). Even in my mid-century house, all the pipework done since we've moved in is PEX, including the new main that we had to install because the original installed when the house was built finally gave out and was leaking underneath the driveway.

 

[Herdfan]

Interesting, okay so do you find the RO to change the water pressure? Starting to sound like there really aren't any options to rid ourselves from this completely.

It is a small RO like you can find online. So no remineralizer. It has a 2 gallon pressure/bladder tank in the utility closet that stores some water. But as @Nycturne noted, flow restrictions are real. I rarely use the RO tap at the sink, but it will slow down noticeably if you fill more than 2 glasses of water.

 

[Eric]

Maybe I'm reading too much into this, but I feel like the goal should not be this. Since RO systems commonly have a remineralizer, you are probably going to have some minerals in the water which will deposit no matter what you do, just a matter of degrees. I'd probably look at how bad it is first, and then decide how aggressive you want to be about it. I don't have RO (our water sources are pretty soft to begin with in Seattle), but my understanding is that it needs to be in good working order (and appropriately sized) in order to avoid constrictions that can hurt flow rates in the house.

If you are in a newer house, I'd expect that a lot of the interior pipework is PEX? If that's the case, that's going to give you some resistance to mineral deposition (outside the fixtures themselves). Even in my mid-century house, all the pipework done since we've moved in is PEX, including the new main that we had to install because the original installed when the house was built finally gave out and was leaking underneath the driveway.

Yeah TBH I'm really not concerned with it at all, in fact I grew up drinking a lot of straight well water which made your entire sink areas look like rust from all the iron and minerals. But my wife is concerned and wants to try and address it, I'm just trying to make the case that spending thousands on a full home filtration system won't necessarily fix it, albeit through my pseudo Mythbusters testing technique.

@Herdfan she's considering what you said in certain areas only and it sounds like a cheaper alternative.

 

[Hrafn]

Our water is also hard. We lived in a much older home, and had a softener, since it was there when we bought it. We used potassium instead of sodium. In our current home, we had to replace our pipes, so we had them add a filter. It's once a year for the filter, I didn't want to mess with monthly crystals. In the long term, most appliances don't last anymore anyway.

 

[Herdfan]

In the long term, most appliances don't last anymore anyway.

Sadly this is very true.