A water heater is a necessary part of any properly functioning household. Whether it’s cleaning dishes or rinsing off in a hot shower, warm water is an integral part of our everyday lives. Unfortunately, if you live in a region that has hard water, it can affect the performance of your water heater and more.
What Is Hard Water?
Hard water is water that has a high concentration of minerals, including magnesium and calcium. This water is formulated as it percolates through gypsum, chalk, or limestone. Currently, over three-fourths of the entire U.S. population has hard water coming into their homes. The Water Quality Association has four different designations for water hardness that are determined by measuring the milligrams per liter (mg/L) of sediments in the water. The four classifications are as follows:
- Soft: 0 to 60 mg/L
- Moderately Hard: 60 to 120 mg/L
- Hard: 120 to 180 mg/L
- Very Hard: 180 mg/L and over
Most homeowners will be able to tell if their homes have hard water based on various observations. One of the most common indicators is limescale buildup. This will appear on the surface of your plumbing fixtures. You may even experience soap scum buildup on your dishes or a stiff-feeling from your clean laundry. You can always opt for having your water tested to verify whether it’s hard or soft. If you indeed have moderately hard to very hard water in your home, it can negatively affect your home’s water heater.
Shortened Life Span
Magnesium and calcium can build up inside the tank of your water heater. Unfortunately, these excess minerals will promote corrosion inside the tank. Corrosion can significantly decrease the overall life span of your water heater. Most experts suggest a reduction of two or more years.
Decreased Efficiency
Another way that hard water affects your water heater is in its efficiency. Hard water requires more energy to heat than soft water. This means your water heater is going to need to work harder and use more fuel or electricity to regularly heat up the water in your tank. This can lead to higher energy bills for you and will contribute to a shorter life span for the device.
Low Water Pressure
Just as mineral sediments will build up inside your water heater tank, they’ll also build up inside your plumbing pipes. The more buildup, the more restriction your water will face as it tries to flow through the line. This will lead to low water pressure when you turn on your hot water faucet and could even require the replacement of your water heater’s outlet pipe.
Faulty Pressure Relief Valve
All tank water heaters have a pressure relief valve that’s responsible for releasing excess pressure from inside the tank. This excess pressure can happen when your tank gets too hot. Unfortunately, hard water can cause corrosion and mineral buildup at the pressure relief valve and render it faulty. This can be very dangerous. Without adequate pressure relief, your water heater tank could essentially explode when there’s too much pressure inside it.
More Maintenance
If your home has hard water, it’s important to get maintenance on your water heater more often. Typically, water heaters need to be flushed each year. However, if you have hard water, your water heater might need flushing service more often. Every three to six months is ideal to help remove that excess sediment buildup and minimize its effect on the inside of your water heater’s tank.
A Note About Water Softeners
There’s no doubt that hard water can wreak havoc on your water heater and its overall performance. Fortunately, one of the best ways to help avoid having hard water is to invest in a water softener system. This system gets installed where the main water supply comes into your home. It will remove excess magnesium and calcium from your water supply so these unnecessary sediments never make their way into your water heater.
Professional Water Heater Service
Righty Roo Plumbing & Air offers helpful water heater service for the Palm Desert, CA area. We can also handle all your plumbing, water line, gas line, drain cleaning, camera inspection, hydro jetting, water filtration, and toilet repair needs. Call us today to book a service consultation with one of our experienced plumbers.
