Solving the Problem of Hard Water

If you have hard water, it can take a toll on your appliances, your dishes, your skin, and more. You don’t have to live with these problems! At Rosenthal Plumbing, we know how to evaluate your system for hard water and help you buy and install the best water conditioning systems to banish hard water forever. 

Signs You Have Hard Water

Having hard water sounds awful, but it just means that certain minerals are more concentrated in your water than they are in other places. Install the proper water conditioner to remove these minerals, and your water will be soft again. You may have hard water if you are experiencing the following problems:

• Dry skin. If you have dry skin year round — even when it’s not dry outside — you may have hard water. Some people are sensitive either to the minerals in the water itself or to the detergent that hard water struggles to completely wash off the body. Either way, the result can be skin that itches and flakes even when moisture levels in the surrounding air are high.
• Soap scum. If you feel like you have to scrub your tub or your shower several times a week just to keep the soap scum at bay, it’s probably time to test for hard water. Minerals in your water can mix with chemicals in your soap, which causes scum in the first place. You can clean it as often as you want, but the scum won’t disappear until you solve the problem at its source.
• Buildup around fixtures. If you notice a white or gray mineral buildup around the mouths of your faucets, you probably have hard water. The buildup happens when layers of water dry over time, leaving their mineral deposits behind. These can, ultimately, restrict the water flow in your faucet and shorten the life of your appliances. 
• New clothing that looks old. Hard water can be hard on your clothes. If you notice that your colors seem to fade too fast, your clothing is scratchy, or it just doesn’t look as new as it should, hard water may be the culprit. It can combine with your detergent in ways that make the detergent less effective. 
• Spots on your dishes. Do you feel like your dishes are never clean because, no matter what you do, they dry with white or gray spots on them? Hard water is probably your problem. The spots are similar to soap scum, caused by the combination of hard water and your detergent. These minerals will dry on your dishes every time you wash them until you get a water conditioner to solve your hard water problem. 

Get Water Quality Help

If you have one or more of these problems, we will happily test your home for hard water. When we get the results, we’ll let you know and we’ll recommend the best water filtration or purification systems to solve your problem. We’ll oversee the installation of these units, too, so you can be sure that you are getting quality craftsmanship and the best savings around. Give us at Rosenthal Plumbing a call to schedule your water quality testing or water filtration installation in Santa Cruz.