Hard water / lime
The affects of hard water and water that contains a lot of lime in the water can be seen around the home. White lime deposits on sinks, on porcelain, coffee makers and tea pots. Lime deposits, often called limescale, usually occur most when water is heated and therefore large scale deposits occur in boilers and water heaters.
So what is hard water?
The hardness of the water is determined by two elements: these are magnesium and calcium. If the water contains high levels of these two elements, it is called hard water. The hardness of the water can be measured in German hardness (° dh), where the limit is 15 ° dh.
Is hard water dangerous?
Hard water is not dangerous to drink, however, it can cause problems and reduce the life of household products, such as coffee makers, dishwashers, washing machines, textiles, boilers, water heaters and more. This is because as the water gets heated, limescale precipitation occurs, thus forming coatings inside and outside pipes.
Skin irratation
When you shower in hard water, with sensitive skin you can notice these limescale deposits in some cases. The water lime deposits can penetrate the pores o the skin and these clog up, which in turn can lead to itching and reddening skin.
This can often lead to dry skin and skin conditions like dermatitis.
The hard water coffee test
With soft water, less amounts of coffee beans, laundry detergents, soap, shampoo, etc. are needed. You will notice how the soap will lather more easily instead of clotting together. Your hair and your skin will feel soft and your coffee tastes better.
The benefits of a Water Softener provide positive results at removing the mineral deposits and our simple coffee test proves it.
We tested how long the brewing time was and the amount of coffee powder required. The result showed that with filtering out the minerals takes about half of the amount of coffee powder, and a increases the brewing time of the coffee. This means that the soft water flows slower through the coffee powder and thus dissolves the evaporated coffee in the powder more completely resulting in a better cup of coffee.