how do you know if you have hard water?

aleksmar

I know, it may be a stupid question. but how do you know if you have hard water or not? is there a special chemical test you do?

rickandcaitlin

You have hard water. If you had soft water you would have a whole soft water system that you would need to maintain.

pixy_stix

Call your municipality's water dept. and ask.

Also, I'm not sure what the previous poster is talking about.  Many people don't have systems in their houses that they have to maintain, hard/soft or otherwise.

lostaspen

With hard water you will notice spots/rings left on glass or metal, and in dishes that hold water constantly (dog or cat water bowls, or the toilet) you'll have to scrub a hard ring off occasionally--it's calcium and/or other things precipitating out of the water.  There are home tests you can do as well (try googling).  We had someone from a company come out to test our water (it was WAY off the charts hard), then they tried to sell us some softener system.

sosoph

lostaspen:

With hard water you will notice spots/rings left on glass or metal, and in dishes that hold water constantly (dog or cat water bowls, or the toilet) you'll have to scrub a hard ring off occasionally--it's calcium and/or other things precipitating out of the water.  There are home tests you can do as well (try googling).  We had someone from a company come out to test our water (it was WAY off the charts hard), then they tried to sell us some softener system.

This, plus stubborn soap scum in your showers. Really stubborn. You can also look in the bottom of your dishwasher or a tea kettle for the telltale residue. 

flyer23

Something like 90% of the country has hard water. So unless you know you have soft water, you probably have hard water.

j_luvs_r

pixy_stix:

Call your municipality's water dept. and ask.

This.  

Or, I just went on my water company's website and found the water quality report for my area's water treatment plant.