How damaging is hard water?

The high cost of hard water

Hard water has a tremendous impact on heating systems, sanitary ware, and appliances. Here are some other ways that hard water could be costing you money.

In a hard water area like ours, limescale builds up at a rate of roughly 1mm per year. Over a 5-year period, 5mm (¼ inch) of scale will typically build up around the pipework in your home, hot water cylinders and boiler heat exchangers.

It may surprise you, but even 1mm of scale on a water heater can reduce its heat efficiency transfer by 7-8%.

If scale forms, it can harbour harmful bacteria, like Legionella pneumophilia.

Did you know?

A water softener will gradually dissolve all the scale from pipework, heat exchangers, and hot water cylinders. It's harder to say how quickly this will happen in a commercial business, but in a domestic home, the boiler will be clear of scale within 6 months, and the whole hot water circuit within 2 years, if not sooner.

Hard water causes premature appliance replacement

Hard water costs hard money. Everything breaks down sooner.

On average, your washing machine will last 8 years instead of 12 and your kettle will last 3 years instead of 6. Your boiler will last 8 years instead of 12, and your bathroom suite 10 years instead of 15.

Did you know?

Frequently, the replacement of expensive capital equipment is not within the household or business budget, and all too often, their failure comes at the least convenient time.

If you can keep your appliances operating efficiently for longer, you'll keep your business profitability up and your savings capital intact for longer.

Hard water is damaging to clothes, bedding and towels

Hard water changes the feel of our fabrics, making our clothes, towels, and sheets feel hard to the touch and scratchy too. Laundry becomes discoloured as hard water creates a dullness that impacts bright colours, sometimes referred to as a yellowing of the fabric.

Did you know?

Soap and detergents don't work as well in hard water. Chalk insulates the soap within detergents, locking it away from the clothing, creating a clean that is less than satisfactory. The result of the insulation this creates is that soap scum gets left behind, and this gets left behind as a 'detergent curd' which can be a harbour for bacteria and mould in your machines.

It takes so much more time to clean away hard water staining

Soap scum sticks to sinks, baths & shower trays, including coating bathroom tiles, shower hoses, taps and shower screens with a milky residue. It discolours once pristine sanitary ware.

Hard water stains glasses, crockery & cutlery with evaporation staining. Cleaning away the hard water ring in toilets requires a lot of scrubbing!

Did you know?

Considering its many benefits, it is easy to see why water softeners will typically pay for themselves within 3–5 years. You'll reclaim so much time, too, that you can use it better to read a book, have coffee with friends, spend time pottering in the garden, or explore the beautiful Kent and Sussex countryside around us.