What Is Hardness Scale & How Do I Remove It?

Have you ever noticed a white, chalky buildup around your faucets or drains? It might be hardness scale, a mineral deposit caused by hard water. Unaddressed scale can cause a number of issues that pose serious, long-term consequences in your home which is why it’s so essential to remove dissolved minerals from your water supply. Here’s what you need to know about hardness scale causes, effects, removal and prevention.

What Is Hardness Scale?

If you have hard water, which is water containing dissolved minerals, hardness scale deposits are very likely to form. This chalky substance will build up around areas where water is being used like toilets, sinks, showers, dishwashers, water heaters and washing machines. This buildup will cause unsightly staining that is difficult to clean, damage to water using appliances and serious issues with inefficiency in dishwashers and water heaters.

What Causes Hardness Scale?

Water often contains a variety of naturally occurring dissolved minerals like calcium and magnesium. These minerals come from the surrounding rock in an underground aquifer, hence the term “hardness”.

Water that is hard will leave behind the deposits of these minerals wherever it is used. It is important to note that it takes very little of these minerals in your water to cause problems, which is why it is so important to address quickly.

Hardness Scale Measurement

Your water’s hardness is determined by the levels in milligrams per litre (mg/L) or grains per gallon (gpg) of calcium carbonate — a compound of calcium, magnesium and other trace metals/minerals. According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), hard water classifications are as follows:

• Soft Water: 0 to 60 mg/L of calcium carbonate
• Moderately Hard Water: 61 to 120 mg/L
• Hard Water: 121 to 180 mg/L
• Very Hard: Over 180 mg/L

In simple terms, the harder your water, the more likely you are to experience scale buildup in your home’s plumbing system and appliances.

Signs and Locations of Hardness Scale in Your Home

You will typically notice hardness scale around faucets, shower heads, coffee pots, dishwashers, water heaters, washing machines, outdoor hose spigots, glass shower doors, tub drains and leaky pipes. Most often, these deposits look like a white, chalky buildup but they may also appear rust-colored or brown.

While hardness scale is unsightly, it is even more problematic in areas that cannot be seen like the inside of plumbing pipes, buildup around water heater coils and inside the components of your dishwasher and washing machine.

Impacts of Hardness Scale in the Home

Scale can be very unattractive and give your appliances an unkempt appearance. Scale deposits actually damage the finish on many faucet types. But it is the effects of hard water that can’t be seen that are much more detrimental to the appliances in your home. If these mineral deposits grow unchecked, they may begin to cause problems like:

• Clogged pipes and disrupted water flows.
• Scale enhances corrosion in some cases, leading to leaks.
• Stains or other damage on clothes, dishes and other household items.
• Foul-tasting or bad-smelling tap water.
• Higher energy bills caused by added strain on water-using appliances.
• Shortened appliance lifespans due to accelerated wear and tear.

In addition, significant scale deposits within plumbing systems may cause corrosion, leaks or may cause pipes to even burst.

Health Effects of Scale in Water

The calcium and magnesium within the scale are inorganic minerals transferred to the water from underground rock. As a result, these hardness minerals are generally not bioavailable in the human body. Therefore, removing these minerals from the water is not a health risk.

The best resource of calcium and magnesium in your diet would be the edible vegetables and other foods that take the inorganic minerals and convert them to organic, bioavailable minerals that the human body can utilize.

There may be other physical risks from hard water. For example:

1. Hard water’s mineral content may dry out or irritate your hair and skin. It may also make bathing and hygiene more difficult. For example, you might have to use more (and spend more money) on moisturizer, soap, shampoo and conditioner to truly cleanse your body. In many ways, with softer water, looking and feeling good can be a lot easier and less expensive.
2. Hardness reacts with cleaners to form soap scum or soap curd, which sticks on surfaces and gets trapped in clothing. Soft water saves significant money spent on cleaners.
3. Scale deposits may create areas where germs and bacteria can thrive. These bacteria may pose various health risks — such as legionnaire’s disease — to those exposed.

On the one hand, various home cleaning solutions can help you remove scale after it builds up. However, if you want to avoid the hygienic inconveniences of hard water, a better solution may be to soften the water itself.

Water softening products like Kinetico’s Ion Exchange systems can combat the sources of scale within your water. That way, you don’t have to waste time and money cleaning troublesome staining or replacing damaged water-using appliances.

Learn More About Kinetico’s Water Softener Solutions

What Is Soap Scum?

Soap scum is a pervasive issue caused by dissolved hard water minerals in the water interacting with the soap. Soap scum is a chalky residue or film, usually white or gray, that builds up where you most often use water and soap, such as shower heads and faucets, washing machines and in your shower on the floors, drain, walls, tiling and grout, fixtures, curtain and shower doors.

Soap scum leaves unsightly, hard-to-remove stains that can contribute to mold growth. On its own, soap scum is harmless. Keep in mind that pink stains in your shower are not actually soap scum, but are a type of mold — pink mold — caused by Serratia marcescens bacteria.

If you’ve ever noticed a white film on your clothes after washing, that can also be from soap scum, though may be attributed to excessive detergent use or appliance issues.

How to Remove & Reduce Hardness Scale Deposits

Combatting scale in your home can help you achieve a cleaner, healthier environment. The goal is to remove or reduce scale that has built up on various surfaces. A number of natural and chemical removal methods can help.

Chemical Scale Removal Methods

A variety of specialty products (e.g., Simple Green®, Lime-A-Way, Amaz Clean & Green and CLR products) contain chemicals and acids will break up and dissolve scale’s mineral deposits. After applying these products, you can wipe the residuals away and reveal clean surfaces.

However, these chemicals may be harsh on some products if used improperly or excessively. Therefore, you should always check if your product is safe before using it. They are also expensive.

Natural Hardness Scale Removal Methods

If you aren’t one for using a lot of chemicals when cleaning, several natural equivalents may help remove scale. For example, the acids in vinegar and lemon juice can be very effective at breaking down mineral deposits. Moreover, the particles within baking soda or borax can help chip away at particularly difficult buildup.

Still, natural products may take longer to dissolve and remove hardness scale. They might also not combat germ and bacterial buildup as effectively as other materials.

While they can help combat scale, chemical and natural removal products are simply cleaning up the problem. They cannot fix the causes of scale. Without a preventive water softening solution, scale will continue to build up over and over again. Kinetico’s Ion Exchange systems can help break that cycle.

How to Prevent Hardness Scale Long-Term

Because the minerals within hard water cause scale, the best way to prevent this problem is to remove those minerals. To put it simply, you need to soften the water. One of the most effective ways to do so is via ion exchange.

During the ion exchange process, hard water passes through dedicated water softening tanks. Charged resin beads within the tanks will pull harmful dissolved metals and minerals out of the water and exchanges them for a benign mineral (e.g., sodium). Afterward, the resin beads are flushed of the minerals through a process of regeneration. The process then starts again.

Contact Kinetico For Hardness Scale Removal Solutions

Got hardness scale buildup? Kinetico Advanced Water Systems has the solutions to soften your water and make cleaning, bathing and drinking altogether better experiences.

Schedule a free water analysis to learn more about what’s hardening your water, or give us a call at (833) 202-2622.