Problem Waters

What is hard water?
Water described as "hard" is high in dissolved minerals, specifically calcium and magnesium. Hard water is not a health risk, but a nuisance because of mineral buildup on fixtures and poor soap and/or detergent performance.

Water is a good solvent and picks up impurities easily. Pure water -- tasteless, colorless, and odorless -- is often called the universal solvent. When water is combined with carbon dioxide to form very weak carbonic acid, an even better solvent results.

As water moves through soil and rock, it dissolves very small amounts of minerals and holds them in solution. Calcium and magnesium dissolved in water are the two most common minerals that make water "hard." The degree of hardness becomes greater as the calcium and magnesium content increases.

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Hard Water Problems

Laundering
Clothes washed in hard water often look dingy and feel harsh and scratchy. The hardness minerals combine with some soils to form insoluble salts, making them difficult to remove. Soil on clothes can introduce even more hardness minerals into the wash water. Continuous laundering in hard water can damage fibers and shorten the life of clothes by up to 40 percent.

Bathing
Bathing with soap in hard water leaves a film of sticky soap curd on the skin. The film may prevent removal of soil and bacteria. Soap curd interferes with the return of skin to its normal, slightly acid condition, and may lead to irritation. Soap curd on hair may make it dull, lifeless and difficult to manage.

Dishwashers
When washing dishes, especially in a dishwasher, hard water may cause spotting and filming on your crockery. The minerals from hard water are released faster when it comes into contact with heat, causing an increase in the amount of spotting and filming that occurs. This problem is not a health risk, but it can be a nuisance to clean and reduce the quality of your crockery.

Problems in Water Boiler Systems and Pipework
Hard water also contributes to inefficient and costly operation of water-using appliances. Heated hard water forms a scale of calcium and magnesium minerals (limescale deposits) that can contribute to the inefficient operation or failure of water-using appliances. Pipes can become clogged with scale that reduces water flow and ultimately requires pipe replacement. Limescale has been known to increase energy bills by up to 25%

Limescale in Solar Heating Systems
Solar heating, often used for heating swimming pools is prone to limescale buildup, which can reduce the efficiency of the electronic pump and therefore the overall systems performance will deteriorate. A low cost solution to this problem is to install a magnetic water conditioner before the pump, this will prevent limescale buildup and, over time, it will remove existing limescale.

Hard Water Benefits
Hard water is not a health hazard. In fact, the National Research Council (National Academy of Sciences) states that hard drinking water generally contributes a small amount toward total calcium and magnesium human dietary needs. They further state that in some instances, where dissolved calcium and magnesium are very high, water could be a major contributor of calcium and magnesium to the diet.

Iron & Rust - The Stainers

Iron and Manganese
The telltale rust and black colored stains on sinks, toilets and showers, strong metallic taste and impossible laundry are clear signs that you have iron or manganese in your household's water. Iron and manganese sometimes occur in water together and are sometimes accompanied by their very unwelcome friend, the rotten egg of the water world, hydrogen sulfide gas.
These culprits take on different forms and must be properly identified in order to choose the proper system for effective removal.

Iron
Iron in water typically takes on, commonly, three basic forms: ferrous iron, ferric iron and iron bacteria.

Ferrous Iron
Water that is clear when drawn but changes to a yellow or rusty color upon standing is known as ferrous or clear water iron. This iron has not yet been exposed to oxygen and therefore has not "rusted" or oxidized. This iron is totally dissolved in water. This clear iron can easily pass through standard home store sediment filters, thwarting the best efforts of homeowners, then later change to a staining color on the surface of sinks, toilets or showers where air oxidizes it.

No amount of sediment filters or even carbon filters can stop this type of iron. The clear iron simply passes right through the filter. After time, the water remaining in the filter does itself oxidize, clogging the filter, dramatically reducing the water flow rate, forcing the homeowner to continuously replace the filter inserts.

The secret to removing this type of iron is to get it to oxidize completely so it can be filtered effectively before it reaches the house.

Ferric Iron
Ferric iron is sometimes known as red water iron because of its rusty red appearance when drawn. It is actually clear water iron, which has been oxidized, usually from dissolved oxygen or other factors in the water. This type of iron is not dissolved in the water but rather is suspended in solution
Ferric iron can also be formed from ferrous iron simply by letting it stand for a while. This sometimes can be witnessed in toilet bowls. Homeowners are sometimes surprised to find that upon returning from vacation, the water in their toilets has turned color. This somewhat unpleasant example shows a transformation from ferrous to ferric iron due the addition of oxygen from the air.

The same transformation can be witnessed at sinks or bathtubs with drippy faucets. Clear water drips from the faucets, but after remaining a while on the surface of the sink or tub the water turns red or yellow indicating the presence of iron. Once again, ferrous iron has changed to ferric iron by the addition of oxygen from the air.

Even though particles of ferric iron are suspended in the water, there is still a big problem when trying to remove them with simple filtration. The iron particles will rapidly clog filters causing low flow rates and making frequent filter changes necessary. Additionally, ferric iron is almost always accompanied by ferrous iron, which will simply slip through the filter causing staining when it is finally exposed to oxygen from the air.

The secret to removing ferric iron is to use a large capacity, automatically backwashing filter.

Iron Bacteria
Iron Bacteria are actually living organisms, which feed on iron in water, iron pipes and fittings. They pose no health risk but can be very damaging to the plumbing system. These bacteria form a reddish-brown slime, which may clog pipes and fixtures. Occasionally this slime breaks loose causing spurts of extremely discolored water. Iron bacteria can be identified by reddish-brown or sometimes yellow, gelatinous formations on the surface of the water in toilet flush tanks or by slimy clumps of iron oozing form pipe leaks or corrosion. They can cause bad tastes and odors in the water supply.
Iron bacteria can not be treated by most common water filtration methods and can cause fouling in water treatment equipment. In extreme cases it can actually clog and destroy well pumps.
To treat this problem you must first kill the bacteria by chlorination or some other oxidizing-disinfecting method and then filter it out of the water.The well and all the piping must first be treated with heavy amounts of chlorine for an extended period of time, using a process known as "shock chlorination."

Manganese
Manganese is very similar to iron in its properties. In fact, they both often occur together with manganese composing a small part of the combination. Manganese can occur in a clear water state, latter turning to a colored water state. It can come from the well already oxidized due to dissolved oxygen in the water. There are also manganese bacteria which are similar to iron bacteria. . Manganese staining does often appear to be darker than iron staining (sometimes black)
The distinction between iron and manganese is usually not that important because most methods which successfully treat iron will also treat manganese. However, when a larger amount of manganese is present, modifications and additions to iron removal equipment may become necessary.

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