Hard water can pose a number of problems for you in your home in Northern NJ. You may notice it in your plumbing, on your shower walls, and even in the quality of drinking water. Some areas have bigger problems with hard water than others, so it’s important to know what you can do about it.

First, you need to know about some of the most common problems:

  • White residue on dishes
  • Scale accumulation in plumbing
  • Mineral deposits
  • Poor quality drinking water

As you deal with all of these things you may find that hard water will drastically reduce the life of your plumbing systems. It can damage your hot water heater over time, damage dishes and glassware, and lead to drinking a ton of bottled water because you can’t rely on what comes out of the faucet.

The good news is that there are a few things that you can do in order to take care of the problems that hard water leaves behind.

Use Vinegar for Cleaning

Vinegar is highly reactive with calcium, which is what most of the buildup is from the hard water. When you find that faucets and other fixture have a lot of mineral buildup on them, you can use vinegar as a way of dissolving the calcium away. 1 part apple cider vinegar mixed with 3 parts of filtered water can also be used to get rid of soap scum that hard water leaves behind.

Clean with vinegar

While you can use the vinegar to clean things up, it’s not going to do anything to prevent the buildup from coming back.

Adjust the Temperature of Your Hot Water

Hot water is more likely to lead to hard water stains and mineral buildup than cold water. The reason is due to the mineral precipitation process that occurs in the hotter parts of the plumbing. Your hot water heater is going to accumulate a lot of scale over time if it is connected to a hard water source. If you reduce the temperature on your hot water tank, you can delay the inevitable for a little while, though you’ll also have to deal with not having the hottest water that you might like.

Appliance Cleaners

A variety of appliance cleaners can be purchased to help you with the buildup. You have to be particularly careful of the calcified buildup as it can be difficult to remove. As it continues to buildup, it can take a toll on the overall performance of the appliance. This includes everything from dishwashers to washing machines.

The cleaning solutions are highly acidic and abrasive so that they can break down the hard mineral buildup left behind by the hard water. By running the cleaners through periodically, however, you can lengthen the life of the appliance.

Advanced Water Softening

You can also focus on a variety of water system options that will help to soften the water and provide you with clean, healthy water that you can drink. From chlorification systems to reverse osmosis, there are a number of ways to soften the water once and for all so that you don’t have to deal with the downfalls of hard water ever again. This means that you won’t have to make adjustments to your hot water heater, break out the vinegar to clean away buildup, or spend money on various appliance cleaners. You can enjoy the benefits of mineral-free, soft water flowing out of every faucet in your home by reaching out to us at Advanced Water Softening.

Call us today to schedule a water test and learn about the various solutions available for your home.