Water Problems - Limescale
If you have "hard" water you will see grey/white limescale deposits building up on the inside of your kettle and spotting the surfaces of shower stalls, sinks, taps and counter tops. This means that the inside of plumbing pipes, immersion heaters and showerheads are also being affected.
Hard water contains dissolved calcium and magnesium minerals which adhere to surfaces as limescale. The level of hardness in water is usually measured in "grains per gallon". Very soft water will have one grain per gallon of hardness, or less. Extremely hard water will have in excess of 10 grains per gallon. Galway City water is typically 3 - 4 grains while water from drilled wells usually ranges from 15 - 30 grains. Our experience while testing water in the west of Ireland is that hardness levels average about 20 grains per gallon in most households with a drilled well. Water which is taken from rivers and lakes will have much lower levels of hardness.
Hard water and the resulting limescale is not a health issue but it is considered a nuisance. It raises the cost of household cleaning products, laundry detergent, soap and shampoo. It results in costly replacement of washing machines, pipes, immerson heaters, kettles and showerheads. For many people bathing in hard water will cause dry skin conditions, rough feeling hair and possibly increased problems with sensitive skin conditions such as rashes and ecsema.
The cure for eliminating future limescale problems is to have an ion-exchange water softener installed on the mains. A water softener will remove calcium and magnesium ions from hard water lowering the grains per gallon level of hardness to the point that the water becomes "soft". Magnets, electronic devices and other gadgets will not do the job.
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