You hear a lot of people in Perth complaining about the hard water and how it affects the taste or their laundry or their pipes, but what actually is Hard Water?

Hard water, as opposed to soft water has a high mineral content. Hard water is formed when water percolates through deposits of calcium and magnesium-containing minerals such as limestone, chalk and dolomite.

Is the water in Perth Hard?

It depends very much on where you are and where your water comes from. Perth relies heavily on groundwater which has a far higher calcium chloride levels that are picked up from the soil in Western Australia. Calcium Chloride levels in areas with high levels of groundwater can been as high as 236mg/l, 40% higher than any other city in Australia, whereas in other areas of Perth readings can be as low as 24mg/l. The truth is that it varies greatly from area to area and even from season to season due to a huge amount of variation in the water supply.

Is hard water bad for your health?

Absolutely not. Hard water is high in minerals like calcium and magnesium that are good for your bones, teeth and heart. The only negative side-effect to drinking hard water is the taste.

What is the problem with hard water?

Hard water causes serious problems in every other aspect of your water supply. A few examples are:

Hard Water Affects Your Kettle

Using hard water in kettles produces calcium carbonate scale or fur. In metal kettles this sticks to the side and in plastic kettles, which have smoother sides, it appears as a film on top of the water, this scale can have an insulating effect on the heating unit in your kettle but not always.

Hard Water makes baths, showers, sinks and toilets filthy

Thin films of scale can form on the smooth surfaces of baths, basins, WC pans, allowing dirt to adhere.

Hard Water Blocks Heating systems

Heat cause the calcium carbonate to crystallise, blocking your pipes putting your heating system under far more strain and making it far less efficient to run in winter.

Hard Works Against Your Cleaning Products

Hard water prevents your soaps and detergents from lathering properly, making them far less effective at cleaning your floors, walls, dishes and everything else

Hard Water Ruins Your Laundry

As well as preventing your detergents from properly cleaning your laundry, cleaning with hard water causes your laundry to dry with hard crust over it, not only make it less comfortable to wear but also forcing you to replace your clothes more often.

Hard Water Breaks Your Appliances

Studies have shown that scale build up from hard water can reduce the service life of your plumbed appliances by up to 30 times.

How do I remove hard water?

There are two solutions to removing hard water, one is using a water softener, or a scale reduction system.

Water Softener

A traditional softener removes all the hardness causing minerals from your water by using an ion exchange system where the calcium and magnesium are replaced with salt which is then filtered out before returning to your pipes.

You can install a water softener at the sink for what is called ‘point of use’ water softening, or onto your mains for what is called ‘point of entry’ water softening.

We have options here at Aqua L’eau as are shown below. Click on the image to see more information on the specific product.

Scale Reduction

A scale reduction system, simply renders the hardening chemicals useless in causing scale build up, but does not remove them. The benefit of this system, is that you preserve the health benefits of the minerals in your drinking water, without the scale build up adversely affecting everything else. These systems are also, generally, smaller, do not use electricity and do not require a regeneration on rejuvenation.

There is only one proven scale reduction system currently on the market and that is the OneFlow Scale Reduction System as shown. Click on the Image for more information.