Hard water damage is sneaky, and we often don’t notice it until it starts causing problems. San Antonio has what’s called “aggressively hard water,” which can harm your pipes, plumbing, and appliances. While hard water itself is not bad for your health, it’s definitely not good for your home.

Here are 3 signs you might have hard water damage:

1. “The White Stuff”
That chalky white buildup on your faucet? That’s limescale–calcium deposits left behind after the water in your hard water has evaporated. Generally we see most limescale damage in a bathroom or kitchen, areas that handle the most water. But limescale can also build up inside your pipes, especially as your home ages.

If left untreated, limescale buildup in your pipes can cause major (read: really expensive) plumbing issues. Even in new homes, the damage from hard water begins on day one! Can you imagine what the damage looks like inside the pipes of older homes?

2. Water spots
Not all water spots are created equal. Sometimes those pesky water spots are caused by sticky soap scum or silica, and they just mean we need to clean a little. But tough, constant water spots can signal hard water damage from mineral buildup.

If those water spots keep coming back, take some elbow grease to remove, or keep showing up in a soap-free zone, your hard water might be to blame!

3. Dying Appliances
But, didn’t you just buy that coffee pot? The biggest sign that you have hard water damage is your appliances are constantly on the fritz…or constantly bite the dust. Dishwashers, washing machines, coffee pots, hot water heaters–anything that has an internal heating mechanism for water is vulnerable to hard water damage.

Your water heater is designed to last 15 to 20 years, but water heaters in San Antonio often last for only 6 to 8 years, maximum, due to hard water damage. Those minerals build up, wear down, and wear out your appliances at a much faster rate. And if you have a tankless water heater, you may actually be required to have a water softener (or other type of filtration) otherwise you may void your warranty!

While we can sanitize the heck out of our coffee pots, chlorine doesn’t kill hardness. And while we can scrub surfaces–the bathtubs, showers, and sinks–we can’t scrub the inside of appliances.

The only way to protect our appliances from hard water damage is to remove it entirely.

How Do I Remove Hardness?
To remove hard water, you just have to remove the “hard” part, which can be easy! (See what we did there?) The damaging part of hard water is the mineral deposits it can leave behind, not the water itself. To keep these deposits out of our homes, we recommend installing a whole-home soft water system, refiner, or conditioner.

Many people think a water softener is a filter, but it’s much more complex! Water softeners exchange the hard minerals (calcium and magnesium) for sodium (aka good old salt) through an ion exchange process. To explain this process, we can go back to science class and learn about how water softeners work!

Stopping the hard water from entering your home is the only way to protect your faucets, pipes, surfaces, and appliances. If you have any of the above signs of hard water damage, we would love to help you find the best protection for your home!

Dupure - “Better water”