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Thread Number: 75900
/ Tag: Detergents and Additives
What Kind Of Water Do You People Have Out There? |
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Post# 997434 6/17/2018 at 11:39 (2,138 days old) by Launderess  (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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Anyway.
Know we in New York are blessed with wonderfully soft water, but still am gobsmacked at the state of things that have arrived. Steam boiler iron packed it in a month ago, so nabbed another professional one from up north (Canada). It arrived, was unpacked, and as per directions descaled (water and vinegar mix allowed to sit overnight), then emptied. First draining produced water that was chalky white with all sorts of grit, sand, and what looked like small bits of rock. *Three* descaling solutions later it took *four* rinsing out with clean water (on top of the several descaling fluids) before water was finally clear, and free of grit, chalk and *rocks*. Have never seen such a thing. Mind you other appliances or whatever that have arrived (such as eBay purchases) have been coated in chalk white residue that would chip teeth. Got a Nicro vacuum coffee pot off fleaPay that took a week of soaking and scrubbing with white vinegar to get the lower pot scale free. | ||
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Post# 997437 , Reply# 2 6/17/2018 at 12:33 (2,138 days old) by Tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD) |
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We are fortunate on this side of our metro area in that our water is taken out of the Patuxent River which is soft. Montgomery County takes their water from the Potomac which is quite full of minerals from the mountains and mines in them. I have used both and softer is better. | ||
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Post# 997439 , Reply# 4 6/17/2018 at 12:34 (2,138 days old) by appnut (TX) |
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Post# 997443 , Reply# 6 6/17/2018 at 13:40 (2,138 days old) by turquoisedude (.) |
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 Both houses are 'off the grid' as far as water supply goes. The well in Ogden is hard with a good iron content. No need to eat spinach at our house...LOL In St-Lib, the well water is not just hard, it's rich in sulfur. Running a tap would fill the room with the odor of rotten eggs; we got a water-treatment system PDQ needless to say. We also had a water softener installed in Ogden just months after moving in. I would have to say the water there is better than in St-Lib. | ||
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Post# 997444 , Reply# 7 6/17/2018 at 13:56 (2,138 days old) by bendix5 (Central Point, Oregon) |
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Vinegar is our best friend here in Oregon. We are on community wells and it pushes up very hard water. We descale every month or so, coffee pot, kettle and pots and pans that water boils in like a egg poacher. Looking in the washer we seldom see suds. We do use a britta. No automatic ice maker as it plugs up. We fill ice trays with britta water. My wife uses distilled water in her irons because she is a quilter and doesn't want chalky steam which can stain. Our towels are stiff all of the time. I put vinegar in the wash to help with that. We don't mind. It is just part of life and we maintain. The plus side is we live in Southern Oregon in a nice area surrounded with pines and madrone trees.
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Post# 997445 , Reply# 8 6/17/2018 at 14:18 (2,138 days old) by ea56 (Cotati, Calif.) |
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Here in Sonoma Co. we have very hard water. Our city uses community wells too, and there is a lot of calcium in the water. Just like Dan in the post above we us a Brita filter for our water, a faucet mount, which is very convenient.
Every time we use the stainless steel kitchen sink, we wipe off all the splashed water around the faucet and top ot the sink, otherwise it would always have hard water spots, same with the bathroom faucets. After we shower, we use a towel to wipe down all the tile, the faucet, shower caddy and overflow cover, to again prevent water spots. And just like Dan, we seldom see suds in the washer, and I always use the maximum amount of detergent in order to get things clean. I descale the coffeemaker at least once a month and always use filtered water when I make coffee, it really does make a positive difference in the taste of the coffee. Eddie | ||
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Post# 997452 , Reply# 10 6/17/2018 at 15:02 (2,138 days old) by Tomturbomatic (Beltsville, MD) |
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The other bad thing about iron-rich water is that you cannot use liquid chlorine bleach. I believe I heard that you get a bad reaction if you used LCB in sulfur-rich water, too. | ||
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Post# 997454 , Reply# 11 6/17/2018 at 15:41 (2,138 days old) by mrboilwash (Munich,Germany) |
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We have hard water in Munich which can be a nightmare sometimes.
But water quality is so much more than hardness alone. Pollution levels are very low, it is even recommended for the preparation of baby food, has a pleasant taste, isn`t treated or chlorinated at all unless in the rare occasion of a severe flood and it`s "ice cold" year around. Besides calcium and magnesium are supposed to be good for ones health and a little coating in the pipes doesn`t hurt either. Taking a shower with traditional bar soap in New York City is truly amazing, but when I ran out of bottled water I found drinking the chlorine a little off putting. Guess we can`t have it all. | ||
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Post# 997460 , Reply# 12 6/17/2018 at 17:37 (2,138 days old) by turquoisedude (.) |
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Bleach & sulfur-rich water | ||
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Post# 997468 , Reply# 13 6/17/2018 at 18:05 (2,138 days old) by DADoES (TX, U.S. of A.) |
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Post# 997481 , Reply# 14 6/17/2018 at 19:03 (2,138 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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Guess am spoiled for choice then....
Just cannot imagine having to deal with such hard water on a regular basis.
Yes, showering/bathing here in NYC is joy; tons of lather!..... Yay! Back when soap was queen of laundry day it was a boon to anyone that water here was soft. Lessened soap requirements, and or added extras like soda, phosphates, etc... | ||
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Post# 997482 , Reply# 15 6/17/2018 at 19:05 (2,138 days old) by abcomatic (Bradford, Illinois) |
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Hard water here but with the help of the water softener, it;s good. | ||
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Post# 997484 , Reply# 16 6/17/2018 at 19:16 (2,138 days old) by robbinsandmyers (Conn) |
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Post# 997487 , Reply# 17 6/17/2018 at 19:30 (2,138 days old) by jamiel (Detroit, Michigan and Palm Springs, CA) |
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We've got perfectly fine relatively soft water here from the Detroit system---Flint (45 miles north) got scre@@ed by the move away from the Detroit system onto a different system (Karengondi) with different base chemistry than the Detroit water. It could have been perfectly safe if they had treated it appropriately (to preserve the pipe coating), but they chintzed out, didn't treat the water appropriately so the protective pipe coating was breached and the lead leached. Thanks Governor Snyder. A funny story, though. I went over to our facility in England about 3 years ago. They'd recently moved into a new facility about 2-3 months before, so didn't have water treatment in place. They warned us to drink either bottled water or to traipse to the canteen to get filtered. The kettle they used was so filthy and encrusted (remember it was only 2 months old) I could hardly believe it---I'd been using a kettle at work for literally YEARS with no buildup of scale/minerals. I guess I'd never seen really hard water!
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Post# 997489 , Reply# 19 6/17/2018 at 19:40 (2,138 days old) by wayupnorth (On a lake between Bangor and Bar Harbor, Maine) |
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Post# 997493 , Reply# 21 6/17/2018 at 19:50 (2,138 days old) by Launderess (Quiet Please, There´s a Lady on Stage) |
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IIRC naturally soft water isn't an issue regarding sodiu
But mechanical or whatever other process is due to nature of how things are done.
www.mayoclinic.org/health... www.culliganmidmissouri.com/meth... Of course naturally soft water contains sodium and other minerals, just not usually to extent of unnatural versions. | ||
| Post# 997495 , Reply# 23 6/17/2018 at 20:16 (2,138 days old) by ken (NYS) | ||
Well Laundress  | ||
| Post# 997514 , Reply# 24 6/17/2018 at 22:48 (2,138 days old) by Johnb300m (Chicago) | ||
I'm just shy of the Lake Michigan watershed, so I'm on municipal well.
We have, like Gus said, 25 freakin' grains per gallon. I soften my water and it's much much better. Luckily no iron or sulfur. Our city wells are very clean, just very crunchy. The soft water is great. I use a fraction of detergents and fabric softener. When using liquid or powder cascade, the soap cup only has to be filled half way. Still have to use jet dry, ironically. Otherwise I get salt spots! However, salt spots wipe off very easily. And I've had periodic issues with glass etching. I drink the softened tap water, and I'm not worried about the trace salt amounts. If I had salt health issues though, I would certainly have to get drinking water delivered in. | ||
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Post# 997515 , Reply# 25 6/17/2018 at 22:53 (2,138 days old) by whirlykenmore78 (Prior Lake MN (GMT-0500 CDT.)) |
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It's a mixed bag in the Twin Cities:
If you live in Minneapolis or one of the suburbs supplied by Minneapolis Water works the water is from the Mississippi river and is softened before it gets to you. Minneapolis water tends to be of very good quality and softeners/filters are usually not needed. The water hardness is 4-4.5 grains per gallon
St. Paul water is mostly from the Mississippi with some well water introduced. It is also softened. Living in the range of ST Paul water additional treatment is usually not needed as the water is of good quality. Hardness is comparable to Minneapolis Water in the suburbs is hit or miss but unless purchased from MPLS or STP is not from the river but from deep wells (700-1200 feet) drilled into the Jordan or Mt. Simon/Hinckley aquafers. While a few cities do soften their water (Eden Prairie is around 4 grains as is Bloomington which also uses about 23% Minneapolis water and Richfield and White Bear are around 6) most water is between 18 and 30 grains so very hard. Some suburban cities have basic treatment plants(filtration only no lime softening) while others treat raw well water at the source with Chlorine and fluoride and it is sent into the distribution system. This is why, living in a hard water area, I went with an Ecowater EWS 3500 system. No hard water buildup, no iron build up, less than 1 grain hardness. Made in MN to last 20 plus years. WK78
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Post# 997533 , Reply# 27 6/18/2018 at 01:18 (2,138 days old) by askolover (South of Nash Vegas, TN) |
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 Our water comes from the Duck River and is moderately hard. When I bought my house the shower head was so caked it would barely spray! All the faucets had the crust on them. I eventually replaced every faucet and now have a water softener. No more crusties on the faucets and barely any detergent needed for washing clothes or dishes (can't even use packs in the dishwasher due to foaming). I used to have to use an acid based cleaner for the shower doors...not anymore. I used to work with a urologist here who says people in our location should never take a calcium supplement because our water is full of it! | ||
| Post# 997541 , Reply# 28 6/18/2018 at 02:20 (2,138 days old) by woollyaxolotl (Devon, United Kingdom) | ||
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| Post# 997560 , Reply# 29 6/18/2018 at 07:08 (2,137 days old) by Rolls_rapide (.) | ||
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I was ironing earlier today, and I noticed that the iron spat out a few grains of dark sand. I tried crushing them, and they seemed to be composed of brown powder. I'm thinking it must be iron, probably from the elderly mains supply pipes. | ||
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Post# 997569 , Reply# 30 6/18/2018 at 07:49 (2,137 days old) by DaveAMKrayoGuy (Oak Park, MI) |
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 What's said to be the best water in the world & what everyone leaving Detroit wishes they could get piped over to their whereabouts where they've moved to, just because they think they have a good everything else!
Heck, just pipe it (most easily, cheaply & realistically) over to a place like Flint...
On the contrary, the place where I seem to be going every year, Israel has, or just tastes the worst... And you NEED to drink water there!
I'm glad to have a water dispenser only fridge that actually, perfectly works! Just wish the filters did not go from a reasonably-priced $30-range to a very well-over $40, and not too many stores carry the kind form refrigerator, either...
What's more my daughter even says the water tastes a bit different, as in not GOOD, to the point of wanting me to replace the filter AGAIN, or even putting in a new reservoir (which is why my mom avoided those kinds of refrigerators with dispensers) neither of which, me insisting that the water & ice (the latter, which she is not as fussy about--and I wish the dispenser didn't get jammed) still tastes the same...
So it's bottled water (putting one occasional vessel of what we already can get better of in the fridge) or water from the sink, for her...
-- Dave | ||
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Post# 997611 , Reply# 31 6/18/2018 at 17:07 (2,137 days old) by Revvinkevin (Tinseltown - Shakey Town - La-La Land) |
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 I'm on city water that comes from deep groundwater wells in a "Central Groundwater Basin". Hardness in the area was moderate, but has increased in the last 5-8 years. I was just looking at my cities water quality report and it shows zero iron (undetectable) and hardness is listed at 98 parts per million. But I'm not exactly sure what that means. It seems really high from numbers I vaguely remember. Growing up my parents always a water softener in the house, so we were used to soft water. After living in a couple places without softened water, I installed a water softener myself after buying a house. It was really nice having soft water again. Time is not the softeners friend it would seem, a few years ago some little part in the bottom of the brine tank failed and my salt storage tank stayed full of water. Then last year the plastic manifold for the connections cracked and I had a leak. Fortunately when I made the plumbing connections for it, I included bypass valves. I want to replace my softener, as I've been noticing the "signs of hard water", but buying a new softener just isn't in the budget. | ||
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Post# 997643 , Reply# 32 6/19/2018 at 01:06 (2,137 days old) by askolover (South of Nash Vegas, TN) |
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Post# 997656 , Reply# 33 6/19/2018 at 05:29 (2,136 days old) by Mrsalvo (New Braunfels Texas) |
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Water is from Edwards Aquafer down here close to San Antonio Texas, very hard water. In 19 years I've gone through 2 refrigerators, 3 dishwashers, 2 washers, and numerous shower heads. Always use Glacer water from a vendor filling station for drinking and cooking. Barry | ||
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Post# 997664 , Reply# 34 6/19/2018 at 06:13 (2,136 days old) by Frigilux (The Minnesota Prairie) |
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Those of us in the village get water from municipal wells. The water is moderately hard, so many have softeners. Culligan changes a softener tank weekly, to the tune of $39 per month. I am currently the only apartment (of eight) that chooses to pay for tank exchange. The water isn't brutally hard, but hard enough to affect results in automatic dishwashing and laundry. I don't like the feel of hard water in the shower, either. Having said that, if that $39/month became critical to one's personal finances, I would have to adjust to hard water. Others have, obviously.
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| Post# 997688 , Reply# 36 6/19/2018 at 10:05 (2,136 days old) by beekeyknee (Columbia, MO) | ||
We here in Missouri and many other parts of the US are cursed with varying degrees of hard water because of porous limestone and sandstone that release calcium, magnesium and chalk. In mountainous parts of the country sometimes the water flows directly over some of these types of rocks and picks up the minerals along the way. Example-Grand Canyon.
On the other hand, there's the parts of the country with granite bedrock, like in the northeast. Water trickles down through organic material, hits granite, moves horizontally from the Adirondacks toward a low spots and makes a lake/reservoir, we connect them up and New York gets that lovely water. :) Municipalities soften water to a usable level if necessary. Really hard water won't clean anything. It's just grey. To make the water completely soft would be extremely expensive, so if home owners want completely soft water, they have to invest in a water softener themselves. They have improved in the last few years. Ours constantly monitors the softness of the water and only regenerates when it's call for, saving on salt and water. Ours is set at zero grains of hardness (no minerals). I love it. Clothes come out cleaner without so much laundry additives, it tastes better and it's nicer on skin. No tacky feeling. I found out the hard way a few years ago that softened water shortens the life of the anode rod in the water heater. water.usgs.gov/owq/hardness-alka... CLICK HERE TO GO TO beekeyknee's LINK | ||
| Post# 997690 , Reply# 37 6/19/2018 at 10:08 (2,136 days old) by beekeyknee (Columbia, MO) | ||
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Post# 997709 , Reply# 39 6/19/2018 at 12:26 (2,136 days old) by DaveAMKrayoGuy (Oak Park, MI) |
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Typos-: "Only", should read, "on my"... Also: "They ALL think they have a good everything else..." (Ex-Detroiters, Former Michiganders)
VACERATOR: Yes, I looked at the eBay postings on your recommendations, so it's nice to see the inflated listings at Walmart, Meijer and BestBuy, Lowe's and Home Depot, back to what I used to buy my 'Pur'-brand for, and see that there, as the one with the TWO LEADS which mine MUST have, there area plenty, however, I don't know how long a shelf-life is good for, so I'm not inclined to any buying-out & hoarding...
I'll be glad to get as needed, so thank you, then, MIKE...
And last, I believe the water line just runs from the general 'cold' pipe below on its way the kitchen sink, through the copper leading a still-relatively short distance to the fridge, so still deemed 'good enough, fresh enough'...
-- Dave | ||
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Post# 997903 , Reply# 42 6/21/2018 at 05:44 (2,134 days old) by polkanut (Wausau, WI ) |
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 Wausau’s water is moderately soft. Typical testing results: 80 to 100 mg/l or 4-1/2 to 6 grains/gallon.
Wausau’s drinking water comes from six municipal wells, all of which are located near the Wisconsin River. These wells range in depth of 95 feet to 160 feet and pump anywhere from 900 to 3000 gallons per minute. | ||
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Post# 997909 , Reply# 43 6/21/2018 at 06:36 (2,134 days old) by kimball455 (Cape May, NJ) |
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Cape May around 20 years ago had a major water crisis on the July 4 holiday. We were rapidly running out of high quality water. Cape May is surrounded by salt water and that salt water intruded into four of our five wells. A commission was formed by the city. I was a member of that commission. We looked at the problem and over 16 possible solutions to the water supply issues.
The end result is Cape May has the first desal plant in the North East. The capacity of the plant is around 2 million gallons a day. This meets our current summer (tourist season) demands. The feed for the plant is not sea water, it is brackish water from an aquifer know as the Atlantic City Sands. This reduces energy cost and gives a higher yield than sea water. The water from the desal (reverse osmosis) is excellent. The link is to an article about the plant and the quality of Cape May water. It is interesting to watch our visitors (AKA tourist) loading up with bottled water when better quality water comes right out of the tap. Harry CLICK HERE TO GO TO kimball455's LINK | ||
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Post# 998200 , Reply# 46 6/24/2018 at 00:18 (2,132 days old) by DaveAMKrayoGuy (Oak Park, MI) |
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| Post# 1059722 , Reply# 47 2/6/2020 at 04:44 (1,539 days old) by holmesstephanii (Small City, New York, USA) | ||
Fade of hard water!
I live in Cleveland Ohio area and in here you will find about 10 grains per gallon hardness in the water. MY family uses 500 gallons of water per day.
So, I need a system capable of providing a minimum 5,000 grains removal capacity per day. Just a rule of thumb, the typical 8" diameter home water softener will usually provided 1 cubic foot of softening resin, which gives you 30,000 grains removal capacity when regenerated with 15 lb. of salt per cubic ft. This means that the typical home, single tank system would need you to regenerate it once every 6 days. There are some systems, known as duplex, or twin alternating, which get away with using smaller tanks that just regenerate more often and flip back and forth automatically as you use water. The most efficient, green and reliable system on the market is manufactured by Kinetico, in Newbury Ohio. The patented control is the only self-regenerating, non-electric controller on the market. It is an engineering wonder. I hope this helps. Oh yea, as far as size of your softener, always remember this, you will lose some pressure across the softener, so always purchase a softener that has slightly larger connections than your household plumbing. As an example, if your home plumbing is 3/4 inch, purchase a 1# softening valve. CLICK HERE TO GO TO holmesstephanii's LINK | ||
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Post# 1059754 , Reply# 49 2/6/2020 at 10:16 (1,539 days old) by appnut (TX) |
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From our city's water treatment plant manager January 23 | ||
| Post# 1059757 , Reply# 50 2/6/2020 at 10:42 (1,539 days old) by Ultralux88 (Denver) | ||
OuchC that’s some harshly hard water!! Without calling and asking the most recent information I have is from a 2014 report, 3.3 gpg hard. Seems a little on the light side compared to what the water leaves on things, but I still feel we need a softener.
*UPDATE* Just found a more recent sampling that puts my part of town right in the 10-14gpg (173-242mg/L) range, which is where I'd have guessed based on the deposits we get on things. This post was last edited 02/06/2020 at 12:10 | ||
| Post# 1059798 , Reply# 52 2/6/2020 at 17:16 (1,539 days old) by iej (.... ) | ||
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I just checked ours with Irish Water's website and it comes up as having conductivity of 178 µS/cm which rates as pretty soft. | ||
| Post# 1059894 , Reply# 54 2/7/2020 at 17:14 (1,538 days old) by Ultralux88 (Denver) | ||
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