You probably know the frustration of seeing stains inside your toilet or spots on your clean dishes. These hard water spots come from the type of water that you have supplying your home. In fact, the majority of homes across the country, including in Southern California, have hard water. So, what can you do about it? You can react or be proactive in handling hard water and the spots caused by it.
What Are Hard Water Spots?
First, you must understand hard water before exploring why it causes spotting. Hard water, found in 85% of homes across the United States, happens when local minerals dissolve naturally into the water supply. These minerals tend to be calcium and magnesium from limestone and similar rocks. However, the exact composition depends on your local geology. Regardless of the specific minerals in the water, all hard water can cause spots and has the same treatment.
Spots come from minerals left behind on the surface of dishes and water fixtures when the rest of the water evaporates. The spots you see on your dishes, though, indicate another issue inside your plumbing that you cannot see.
For example, inside the water heater, the minerals build-up to create hardened layers inside the unit, covering the heating elements of an electric water heater or the lining of a gas model. These buildups reduce the heating capacity of the appliance, shortening its life. You have two options for addressing hard water spots, cleaning them off, or preventing them.
How to Clean Off Hard Spots and Stains
Cleaning hard water spots requires elbow grease and a paste of baking soda and vinegar. You need to scrub off the spots with this mixture using a toothbrush for small areas or a cleaning brush for larger spaces. After deeply cleaning off hard water stains from toilets, faucets, showerheads, and dishes, you should take steps to prevent these spots.
How to Prevent Hard Spots
One way to prevent hard water deposits on fixtures is to wipe them dry. Therefore, after turning off a water faucet or shower, you should dry the fixture with a towel. However, this does not help to prevent hard water buildup inside the plumbing or on your dishes.
The most thorough way to prevent hard water stains is by investing in a whole-home water softener. These systems use sodium or potassium salts to counter the minerals in the water. In fact, with our Oceanus whole-home water filter and softener, hard water minerals reduce to less than one grain per gallon. After installing a water softener you will save money by reducing the cleaning products you use, less time to remove hard water spots, and eliminating the replacement of plumbing appliances with mineral buildup.
Contact Best Home Water Treatment Systems to Soften Your Home’s Water
Find out more about how to get a whole-home water softener today to eliminate hard water spots from your life. Contact us at Best Home Water Treatment Systems at 951.737.1500.
