Discovering whether your home water supply contains hard water minerals is vitally important if you are looking to remove or reduce these minerals for cleaner, purer water from your faucets. There are some excellent hard water testing kits available these days that will tell you exactly what your water contains, however, some methods are better than others...
As a guide, 60% of the UK and 85% of the US population live in a hard water area. This is a big problem, as dealing with hard water costs homeowners hundreds of dollars in expensive heating bills, as well as the headache of dealing with water deposits, and scale that forms around heating elements in kettles, dishwashers, boilers and in pipework.
CONSUMER REPORTS WATER SOFTENERS
The most common way to test is by using a hard water test strip, which is basically a small piece of specially treated paper that is dipped into the water to be tested, which then changes colour. This colour change is compared against a chart, where the hardness of water is related to the corresponding colour which is affected by the mineral concentration in the water.
A more accurate way is to use a use a hard water test kit which is usually a small bottle with specially formulated tablets. The idea is to take a sample of your water with the bottle, and then add the tablets to dissolve into the water. Again, there will be a colour change, this time of the water itself, which is compared against a chart indicating how hard the water is.
Probably the most accurate way, however, is to use a test kit which uses liquid drops which are added to the water sample. These have been proved to be most accurate when testing for hard water, and work time and again to reveal the true mineral content in a water supply.
If all of the above does not work, or you prefer to have someone do it for you, most water companies will be able to test your home water supply for you. Give them a call and see what they can do for you. Once you've tested your water supply, the hardness of your water will be reported in grains per gallon, milligrams per liter (mg/l) or parts per million (ppm). One grain of hardness equals 17.1 mg/l or ppm of hardness.
So, if you wish to determine the mineral content of your water there are plenty of easy ways to accomplish it these days. Once, this has been done you'll be in a better position to deal with hard water deposit removal and scale formation that could be costing you significant amount of money in unnecessary heating bills for your home.
Hard Water - Top Tips to Test Your Home Water Supply CONSUMER REPORTS WATER SOFTENERS
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