Business
Hard Water
How it Affects Your Cleaning
by Scott Warrington
Hard water refers to water that has a high ter is anything above 120 mg/L. In between
content of dissolved minerals. The most com- those levels is moderately hard water. Most
mon particles dissolved in water are positive
of the U.S. has water in the moderate, hard or
ions (cations) of calcium and magnesium alvery hard ranges.
though a number of other minerals and metThere is some evidence that hard water is
als may be present in small amounts.
good for our health due to the extra miner“Pure” water with nothing dissolved in it
als we get from drinking it. But hard water
is rather rare. This pure water is aggressively
is definitely not good for the health of our
seeking something to dissolve. Free flowing
cleaning equipment.
fresh water will quickly dissolve carbon diAs water gets hotter, it can not hold as
oxide from the air forming small amounts of much calcium. So, the calcium precipitates
carbolic acid in the water.
out of the water in the form of calcium carWater hardness is not a black and white
bonate. This white, chalky crud coats the inissue. Hardness covers a wide range of posside of any pipe, hose or part the water flows
sibilities. Hardness is commonly measured
through. This coating is especially harmful to
in grains* per gallon (gr/g) or milligrams per heat exchangers because the coating acts like
liter (mg/L). To convert from gr/g to mg/L
an insulation that slows down heat transfer.
multiply by 17.11. The U.S. geological survey You will now require more fuel and more
calls 60 mg/L or less soft water. (That is about time to keep your water hot. At current fuel
3 ½ grains per gallon.) Hard or very hard wa- prices, you don’t want that additional expense!