# hard water buildup



## millipede (May 28, 2006)

I've looked this up... again and again... but, figure it doesn't hurt to ask again and again as people might have new experiences... 
We have hard water... It can be a problem for sinks and toilets, etc... 
There were a few times in the past where we'd make ice cubes... while we never really saw the minerals in the water... when ice cubes melted into a cup of water... then suddenly you could see the minerals.
Does this mean I'm drinking stone? ha 

We get lazy or forget and put off cleaning... and the buildup can get bad. I've seen mineral buildup in the toilet 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick... and we'd typically have to use a pumice stone to get that stuff out. But man that is a pain and takes some time and energy.

So far, I'm not finding any miracle solutions to hard water... but, I figure it wouldn't hurt to ask again... maybe someone has tried something that worked REALLY well? 
I see people talk about vinegar... how well would that really work on thick mineral buildup?
And we have a septic tank... been here 16 years and have never even had our septic tank looked at. I don't want to do anything that would upset the bacteria in there.
Any thoughts/suggestions?

To add to that... I think we ought to invest in a water softener or filter... anyone have recommendations for that? What we'd need? How much they cost? How much they cost to run? I'm poor... like really poor... like REALLY poor. I have to be careful with every expense. 
But I'm also aware that the hard water can be an expense of its own. At some point I'll have to replace the main shut off inside the house because... years ago I tried to turn the water off at that location and I couldn't turn it... at all.

Minerals... and some companies are adding minerals to their water... just have some of mine. ha


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Yes, you are drinking dissolved stone.

Vinegar will dissolve the deposits, if you let it set long enough. The Works makes a really good toilet bowl cleaner which has to be used regularly and let set for hours to keep the deposits cleaned out. They make a really good tub and shower cleaner too but I haven't been able to buy it from the store in months.

After fighting it for a bit over a year we bought a water softener. We bought a Morton brand softener that removes iron too. My white laundry was turning grey and I my hair never felt soft. The extra cleaning products were costing more than what softener salt costs.


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## doc- (Jun 26, 2015)

It's the minerals that give water its taste. Very high mineral content in the drinking water can bring on kidney stones in the very susceptible. As you've noticed, mineral deposits can screw up valves & water heaters.


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## wonderwmn (Feb 2, 2018)

I have a well and it has a water softener attached. It was already installed here when I moved here. I was skeptical at first(having never had one), however let me tell you ,I love it. I use less detergent when I do laundry. We install a bag of salt about every month and if it is neglected you can see the deposits start to form around faucets in the house. Get a softener and dont look back.


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## 67drake (May 6, 2020)

My last house I was on well water. I too got tired of the deposits in the toilets and showers. So I put a water softener in a year or two after I moved there. Much less cleaning to do after that as others mentioned!
BUT, the reason I’m posting, I loved the taste of my well water. City water tastes like drinking out of a swimming pool. Soft water isn’t much better, just no chlorine flavor. So I ran the plumbing so that the kitchen faucet cold water came directly from the well, the rest of the house, hot and cold, went through the softener. Best of both worlds.


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## millipede (May 28, 2006)

67drake said:


> My last house I was on well water. I too got tired of the deposits in the toilets and showers. So I put a water softener in a year or two after I moved there. Much less cleaning to do after that as others mentioned!
> BUT, the reason I’m posting, I loved the taste of my well water. City water tastes like drinking out of a swimming pool. Soft water isn’t much better, just no chlorine flavor. So I ran the plumbing so that the kitchen faucet cold water came directly from the well, the rest of the house, hot and cold, went through the softener. Best of both worlds.


Hmm... I wish I knew what it would taste like... or if as far as heath goes there's any downside to drinking softened water... does it add anything I'd be consuming?
We like our well water too... I'm wondering how difficult it would be to do that as I don't even know where all the lines are. Or, if they're even accessible. 
Good thought though...


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## 67drake (May 6, 2020)

If you know anybody with a softener, taste their water. It’s hard to describe,It’s not that it’s BAD, just a little... off.
A glass of cold hard well water is refreshing, soft is just blah.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

I grew up drinking well water, to me it was the nastiest stuff ever. Tasted like watered down blood and limestone because of the dissolved iron and other stuff. Then I spent years drinking city water which is like drinking pool water. When we moved here there was a softener installed and the water was delicious! After our second well went out we spent a few years dealing with the nasty well water again and I bought Ice Mountain water which wasn't as good as the soft water but better than untreated well water. Finally convinced hubby we needed another softener. I will now drink our water again.

Well water has different tastes in different areas. The advice about finding a neighbor with a softener and tasting their water is great advice.


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## Jenn (Nov 9, 2004)

I loved Grandma's well water. She didn't, so got bottles of her sister's softer well water (8 miles away) to drink and used rain water (cistern- until 1980s) to wash hands (Bathe? Don't recall). Of course it was cold. In Bath, England I tasted the famous curative (hot) waters. It's what Grandma's water tasted like when warm, which is awful and sulfury. Cold it is irony and refreshing- I guess like cold beer after working hard all day to beer drinkers. 

Have lived around the country and Europe. I hate soft soft or softened water- ran into it I think at rest stops MS LA TX driving this week: the soap never rinses off your hands and you freeze or waterlog them trying to rinse it off. (Didn't taste those waters though.) But I hear (not too picky about my hair and haven't had the option to choose) hair washed in soft or rain water is much nicer, clothes also. (Grandma's rain water was fine- maybe softened water has TOO much salt in it and feels so slippery, or maybe Grandma's rain water got a little mineralized from the cistern or large ceramic barrel they kept it in next to the wash stand (not at that time a sink).

MIL in Texas has hard water which builds up (she just got new water heater- the calcium etc builds up quick though they use sacrificial anodes to try to slow that down). Every few years I get her a new tea kettle and bring hers home to AL and use it here. After a few months chunks of calcium start coming out from the build up slowly dissolving in our softer (naturally, on more acidic soil here) AL water.

In England we lived "on chalk"- where hydrangeas are blue and blueberries or azaleas/ rhododendrons will not grow properly- and my workplace had a tea strainer at the tea station. I couldn't understand why- they used tea bags- and was told it was to filter out the calcium chunks that came out with the hot water from the kettle! (Think they call the more acidic areas "on clay"- like AL where I live now, or is it "on flint"?) Also when it froze- rarely where we were- pieces of water logged chalk (calcium compounds) would rise out of the lawn!!!! (Guess the ice in it expanded.) In central Texas we called it caliche- same stuff- from having been the bottom of the ocean in the past, guess from seashells?


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