2007-01-22 08:02:57 · 10 answers · asked by Anonymous in Home & Garden ➔ Other - Home & Garden
I don't know what you mean by "free home depot"?
I thought one could just look at a list of regions on some kind of website, Scottish Water or whatever. Doesn't seem to be that convenient however.
2007-01-22 08:07:55 · update #1
Type in your supplier on the internet, look for water quality, I typed in Anglian water, and got 4 pages of specs, showing when they had taken the samples during the year. I had to put in my postcode. It showed everything
2007-01-22 08:31:19 · answer #1 · answered by woodworker143 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are several symptoms of overly hard water. In a house without a water softener, you will see (1) a water "stain" or rust line in the bowls of toilets (especially toilets that are less often used) where the water line meets the air and the bowl surface. (2) the mechanism inside the toilets "water closet" can become covered with rust or calcium buildup. (3) shower heads and other faucets need more frqeuent maintence to periodically clear screens and remove calcium deposits and discoloration. (4) in extreme cases, the water may even have a mineral odor to it.
Overly "soft" water's hallmark is that when you are taking a shower and rinsing off soap from your body with your eyes closed... your wet body continues to feel soapy long after all the suds are washed away. Rinsing with hard water is quite the opposite and you will have a very pronounced feel of when the suds are gone.
I've lived in several different areas and have suffered through my share of cryptic regional "water reports" that I've recevied in the mail. From some online study I have learned water hardness has no corrleation to the drinking safety.
Running a water softener in your house is really only good to treat the symptoms that I outlined above --- IF they are a nusance to you. As an offset, you will have to drag in heavy bags of salt for the softener and it will consume a fair amount of water when it runs (roughy once a week). Water softeners do not filter your water.
When we lived in rural Michigan, we were on a well and used a water softener to keep our toilets and sinks from rusting. We now live in Illinois and have recently disconnected a water softener that we really do not need.
Hope this helps. Good luck.
2007-01-22 17:40:39 · answer #2 · answered by firm_shake 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Take an empty clean pepsi/coke bottle - fill it half full with tap water. Put a few drops of dish washing liquid in. Cover with your thumb and shake a few times. Now watch the bubbles. If you have hard water, there will be a very small amount of bubbles that will disappear quickly - if you have soft water there will be quite a lot of bubbles that will stay there.
Understand that this is not a scientific way of determining hardness but way to get a vague idea. Have your water tested professionally, because seeing that you are concerned about water hardness leads me to believe that you do indeed want to invest in changing its' condition.
2007-01-22 16:24:46 · answer #3 · answered by badnessdc 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Get some litmus paper or a ph stick. Your local pet shop should have them (for aquariums). Run some tap water over the stick or fill a plastic bowl with water and dip the litmus paper in (like at science at school).Blue litmus paper turns red under acidic conditions and red litmus paper turns blue under alkaline conditions,
Hard water is alkaline whilst soft water is acidic.
As said before. Hard water deposits limescale. Soft water doesn't. check your kettle.
2007-01-22 19:04:47 · answer #4 · answered by drakshug 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Check your kettle for limescale. Hard water areas have more limescale and you will see this deposited on the filament. Also, sounds silly, but see how long it takes to wash shampoo off your hair or soap off your hands. In soft water areas, it takes longer to wash off. Obviously only useful if you have something to compare it to!
2007-01-22 16:09:04 · answer #5 · answered by Kat W 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
make some ice cubes if there are bubbles only in the center of the ice its hard if the bubbles are more distributed its soft. You can also get test kits from home improvement or hardware stores.
2007-01-22 16:16:25 · answer #6 · answered by c m 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
thats easy ...get a cup of water tip it on your head from a bedroom window if it hurts it hard if it dont its soft
2007-01-22 16:07:53 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
test - -free home depot!
2007-01-22 16:06:00 · answer #8 · answered by Bonno 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
tell it you slept with its mother then offer it outside!
2007-01-22 16:05:41 · answer #9 · answered by bastaad 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
hand it a flick knife and see what it does
2007-01-22 16:23:41 · answer #10 · answered by scottishmidget69 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋