Hard water

[KeepsItClean]

I've heard people complain about hard water. I'm in my early twenties so I don't really know what hard water is or how it reacts with soap...let alone why.

I'm hoping there's a Mr. Wizard out there that can shed some light on this topic for me.


Thanks

 

[Sailorman]

Well, since Mr. Wizard didn't respond, I'll give you the practical implications. Hard water contains high levels of dissolved minerals. Mostly things like lime, or calcium, or sulphur, or god forbid iron, at least where I live. This screws up your pipes, hot water heater, coffee pot, and other appliances that are exposed to it long term as these minerals build up and trun back into the rocks they are. Left to it's own devices, it leaves mineral deposits on everything from windows, to dishware to your car. It also messes with the PH of the water, raising it from near neutral as it should be. That interferes with other things you want to mix in the water, like soaps, shampoos. Things don't dissolve as well in hard water since it already contains so much other dissolves stuff. So you need more soap or detergent. It's harder to get a good lather with hard water. That also applies to regular bath soap, but it's particularly noticeable, IMO, with shaving soaps. I'll leave it to Mr. Wizard to explain the chemical details, but suffice it to say that my next door neighbor with a water softener needs about 1/2 the amount of laundry detergent per load as I do. Strangely, some people, including me, don't like to shower with "soft" water. It makes you feel slimy like the soap never really gets rinsed off. But for anything else, hard water is a PITA. I use a reverse osmosis water filter for any drinking water and usually to make shaving lather. That takes out 99.9% of everything and brings the PH to 7.0. The rest, I just live with.

 

[texbilly]

Well, since Mr. Wizard didn't respond, I'll give you the practical implications. Hard water contains high levels of dissolved minerals. Mostly things like lime, or calcium, or sulphur, or god forbid iron, at least where I live. This screws up your pipes, hot water heater, coffee pot, and other appliances that are exposed to it long term as these minerals build up and trun back into the rocks they are. Left to it's own devices, it leaves mineral deposits on everything from windows, to dishware to your car. It also messes with the PH of the water, raising it from near neutral as it should be. That interferes with other things you want to mix in the water, like soaps, shampoos. Things don't dissolve as well in hard water since it already contains so much other dissolves stuff. So you need more soap or detergent. It's harder to get a good lather with hard water. That also applies to regular bath soap, but it's particularly noticeable, IMO, with shaving soaps. I'll leave it to Mr. Wizard to explain the chemical details, but suffice it to say that my next door neighbor with a water softener needs about 1/2 the amount of laundry detergent per load as I do. Strangely, some people, including me, don't like to shower with "soft" water. It makes you feel slimy like the soap never really gets rinsed off. But for anything else, hard water is a PITA. I use a reverse osmosis water filter for any drinking water and usually to make shaving lather. That takes out 99.9% of everything and brings the PH to 7.0. The rest, I just live with.

Nice summary.

The water in my area is hard and water softeners are common. When my softener runs low on its charging pellets, it's easily evident as soaps, shampoos and especially dish and dishwasher performance drops. As for lathering, I have definitely aligned these hard water periods with poor lather.