About Hard Water Spots

Hard water spots can be a nuisance in your shower stall, on your drinking glasses or even in your laundry, most often showing up as grayish whites. If you know what causes water spots and what they are, you will have a better understanding of how to get rid of or prevent them.

Features

If you look at your glass shower door and see a film that has accumulated and does not wash off easily with cleaners, you probably have hard water. If your white clothing seems to get a little duller and grayer with each washing, you have hard water. If you run your dishwasher even after handwashing the glasses and they still come out cloudy, the culprit is most likely hard water.

Identification

Hard water is a chemical problem. It means that your water has dissolved calcium and magnesium in it. It is very common, although the degrees of hardness vary from area to area. Almost 89 percent of the U.S. population has hard water. The hardness is measured by how many grains per gallon (gpr) of water of dissolved minerals. Moderate hard water has about 3.5 gpg and very hard water has over 10.5 gpg. This is not a health concern as people need calcium and magnesium in their diet. The amount dissolved in water is almost negligible, but it can provide a small percentage of your daily requirement. The hard water problem you are dealing with is mostly in cleaning, but also in water fittings.

Prevention/Solution

There are ways to get rid of stubborn hard water spots. A simple remedy for automatic dishwashers is to use a rinse aid that will remove the buildup of calcium, or simply add white vinegar to the rinse. Another alternative is to find cleaners that include chemical water softeners like citric acid in their ingredients. For laundry, a detergent (synthetic) based cleaner usually works better than a soap (natural) cleaner. For the shower, unfortunately, the only way to stop the formation of the cloudy film, is to treat the whole house water supply with a water softening unit. Otherwise, you can simply clean it on a regular basis with a citric acid-based cleaner.

Expert Insight

If your water is hard enough to cause the buildup of scale in your pipes, then you will probably have to call in a professional water treating company to install a whole house ionic water softener. The way this works is by an ion transfer of calcium and magnesium to a salt, leaving you with soft water. Your pipes will not corrode as fast, your dishes will be cleaner and your glass shower doors will stay clear. However, there are a couple of drawbacks that you should realize. The process will leave a small percentage of sodium in your water that might not be advisable if you are reducing your sodium intake. This treated water is not good for plants or fishtanks, either. Finally, the discharge created when the unit is backflushed is very high in saline and might be regulated in your area.

Theories/Speculation

Although detergents will work better in the presence of hard water, they also contribute phosphates to the environment. Anything that makes soap foam is usually a surfactant, which means it will cause water to lose it surface tension. It is this tension in nature that is so important for so many different forms of life, from fish to plants and bugs. Researchers are working hard at finding alternatives to harsh detergents and ineffective soaps. Some states are even considering banning phosphate containing detergents from entering the water supply in their current legislation. Over the next few years, there should be more and more healthy ways of cleaning without damaging our environment.

Resources

• Treatment systems for household water supplies

[thesquirrelymom]

on 11/25/2008 My shower door gets this film, and it is hard to get off.