Many know hard water as an annoyance that leaves scale buildup on surfaces and leaves skin feeling dry and itchy. The constant application of lotion, the conditioners and other hair products, the endless cleanup of showers and fixtures. Even with all of that, many still consider a water conditioner a luxury that will cost them money.
In many cases the opposite is true. Letting hard water run through your home and wreak havoc on your appliances ends up costing more than having soft water — and you still have to fight the water every day.
What the Research Shows
In 2009 the Water Quality Research Foundation (WQRF) studied the effects of hard water on appliances. They found that a dishwasher running on hard water required twice as much detergent to get dishes clean, and still left a film. The hard water was detrimental to the dishwasher’s function after only 240 cycles, requiring repair or replacement to keep working. Depending on household size, 240 cycles can be less than a year.
The same study looked at water heaters. Units running on soft water maintained their factory efficiency for 15 years. Water heaters running hard water lost up to 48% efficiency before they quit functioning. A 48% efficiency loss means twice the energy required to heat water, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Consider what that does to a power bill.
Below: a water heater that ran on 12 gpg water for seven years. So much scale had developed that the heater couldn’t be drained from the bottom.
The WQRF study didn’t cover it, but we’ve also seen the effect of hard water on hot water recirculation pumps and piping. The water has so much time as it recirculates that nearly all of the calcium and magnesium forms scale inside already small diameter pipes — usually half an inch — until no water can flow, or the pump burns out, or both.
Running the Numbers
Now factor in the cost of replacing those appliances. A dishwasher runs several hundred dollars and a decent water heater at least as much, and that assumes you can install them yourself. Assume a generous five-year lifespan for appliances on hard water, and the replacement cost alone works out to a meaningful monthly figure — before you count the additional energy, the extra soap, or anything else.
Then add your washing machine, fridge icemaker, coffee brewer, every faucet in the house, all the showerheads, the cleaning products, the extra lotions and conditioners, and, hopefully not, bottled water.
For many households that total is more than a water system costs. At that point you are already paying for a water system every month — you just aren’t getting any of the benefits.
Conditioned water makes sense on a lot of levels, but the arithmetic alone shows it is anything but a luxury item.
Find out how hard your water actually is with a free water test.