Water Hardness

"Detergent" is not soap and comes in many forms so the sudsing effect can be extremely variable whether the water is hard or soft. If I recall, there used to be some crude tests to categorize water as hard or soft using simple soap. Don't remember the details or if you could find a "simple" soap nowadays.

I check my water softener occasionally with a simple hardness test kit. Easy to use. They should be available at pet stores with an aquarium department. You want the one that tests for general hardness, GH, which is a measure of the calcium and magnesium. There is another that tests for total dissolved solids that you won't want. I recently bought one on-line. It cost about $8 plus $5 for S&H.

SJF

Please, is there any way to determine hardness of tap water with household ingredients ? I know a soap will not produce as much suds in hard water as it will foam in soft water, but the trouble is I can't compare, I don't know how much soap foam I should expect in soft/hard water.

I don't need extremely precise results, I just need to know is water soft or hard, or something in-between regarding amount of calcium and magnesium it contains. Thank you very much.

If you just want to test how a particular soap or detergent reacts with your water vs pure water, you can buy a gallon of DISTILLED WATER at Walmart for 58 cents (where I live). Be sure it says DISTILLED and not nursery, drinking or spring water on the label.

You could boil away a gallon of water in a glass container, then see how much residue is left. =Tock

Good luck cleaning the glass dish afterwards. I have a nasty habit of putting water on for tea and then forgetting about it, so I've got more than one pan with a nasty coat of whatever was in the water. On a metal pan, that stuff is damn near impossible to clean off. I tried dish soap, lemon juice (it contais an organic acid, so it should eat away a thin layer of metal, in theory) , elbow grease, and finally stainless steel polish, and I still have a layer of something in that pan. I also did the same thing with a non-stick pan, and that pan had to go into the trash.

- Logan

Just dont boil it away, let it evaporate when 99% has been boiled away.

In article , Logan Shaw wrote: [ ... ]

Use something a bit stronger--LimeAway or C-L-R will get the residue off.

Gary

I feel sure you must know about the commercial products like "Lime Away" which are made for dissolving hard water deposits. I used to have to use it to clean my coffee maker periodically, until I got wise and began using distilled water. All of the commercial products work best when warm/warmed.

A water softener is out of the question for me.

There are kits that will allow you to estimate the hardness. Look for swimming pool supplies.

Or wait until it's thick enough and smack the bottom of the kettle smartly. The mineral deposit will crack into small pieces which can be rinsed away. It doesn't work perfectly, but who looks inside a tea kettle anyway? When it stops whistling and cleaning the whistle mechanism doesn't work any more, recycle it and get a new one. This is another thing that people sell cheap but nearly-new at yard sales...

If it's city water, contact the water utility and ask them.

Bob

Cameo stainless steel cleaner might work (sold in supermarkets)

J.

The Montana number is even close to correct.. this map is suspect!

Many state have monitoring wells all over and publish analysis of samples on a state website.

Your water dept is a good place to contact.

"Bob" skrev i melding news:frmdnUSrY snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com...

Hope this page will help you with your info search.

Love from Norway