I Found The Problem!!!

[ShaversBane]

I've just picked up Str8 shaving, but I've always had problems making a good lather. Common problem I hear, but no matter what I tried the lather seemed weak, and was lacking any lubricating qualities. (got some burns to prove it)
I once read that some poor fellow had to shave with heated bottled water because his water was to hard. Well, if you had any idea how hard the water is here in oxford, you'd cry

My grandfather and I cut open a 5 year old, 120 gallon water heater because the tenant in unit 23 complained of no hot water. After many attempts to fix, we finally cut it open to find out what was wrong.
It was filled to the very top with Calcium deposit. (that's 120 gallons of Deposit!) if you boil a pot of water with the tap water here, the pot becomes pure white with calcium deposit.

Well, I got a couple gallons of distilled water, heated it in an electric boiler pot, and made the thickest, most beautiful lather I've ever seen! Needless to say, best shave ever.

only new problem, I foresee massive, collectively expensive $$$ bottled water bills...

Jonas

 

[bvilchez]

How about investing in a Calcium deposit remoer which attaches to your system? It'll cost you a pretty penny but you avoid the calcium deposits on your sower doors and car too if you wash that at home.

 

[Blaireau&Lame]

For a cheap solution, try mixing baking soda with hot tap water. I used distilled water as a baseline and found that baking soda is a decent alternative.

 

[Huxley]

Or you could leave a bucket outside to collect the rainwater then filter as much as you need to use, should work quite well seeing it's naturally deionised anyway.

 

[xgunterx]

Or you could leave a bucket outside to collect the rainwater then filter as much as you need to use, should work quite well seeing it's naturally deionised anyway.

That should work as well. But investing in a water softener is the best option. Soft water is not as drying for the hair and skin, you need less shampoo/soap/detergent, your douche head doesn't clog up, all the calcium sensitive machines are protected (laundry, coffeemaker, water heater, ...)

And using soaps that contain EDTA helps a lot as well.

 

[Moe]

I tried to get by without a water softener in this house and wound up with me and my son carrying an almost totally clogged 55 gallon water heater up out of the basement. Didn't cut it open, but looked at how much water drained out of it... less than 10 gallons. I can't imagine how bad the deposits in our pipes got. Probably not worth it if you're renting, but if you plan to own a home for an extended period where there's hard water, a water softener will pay for itself.

 

[sodajerk]

I'm getting by with my water, but long for my daughter's. She's in Indiana and had to install a softener system. Shave heaven!! ) Could not believe the difference! The only way I knew the razor was touching my face was by looking in the mirror to see the lather coming off my face! No exaggeration - it was something I'd never experienced before and haven't since.

I came back home and looked into the water hardness thing and ran across this US water hardness map which I always post when water hardness comes up here on B&B. No endorsement of the system - just thought the map was useful.

 

[Bertilak]

Interesting map.

If you get your water from a utility company you can contact them and they will likely be able to tell you what your water's hardness level is. My supplier has a web page with that information. (very hard water)

If you have a well, you can probably contact some county agency to find out or you can buy a testing kit. I bought some of those paper tabs that change color but found them hard to interpret as the resulting color didn't seem to match the printed examples very well. It was hard to match exactly. And it wasn't a matter of the actual color being between to examples, but not seeming to even be in the same continuum. Also the actual color continued to evolve in hue and intensity for some time until (hours later) it had faded away completely.

Maybe one of those kits where you count drops of some reactive agent into a measured amount of water would work better.

 

[Ru4scuba?]

Congrats! That must feel like a load off for sure! I can't imagine 120 lbs of calcium deposit...must have SUCKED cleaning/removing that thing!

 

[JPM]

That's crazy! Congrats on the good lather, though.