5 Signs Your Home Has Hard Water—and How to Fix It

Whether you know it or not, hard water could be the source of a lot of your frustrations. It can damage your hair, your skin, and your appliances. But if you aren’t very familiar with water hardness, then you may not even know what it is or how it’s impacting you and your home.

“Hard water is any water that contains high levels of dissolved minerals,” says Josh Rudin, owner at ASAP Restoration. These minerals typically include calcium and magnesium. And while these minerals aren’t inherently harmful on their own, when there’s too much of them in your home’s water system, they can do some damage. So, here are the signs of hard water in your home—and what you can do to fix it.

Signs of Hard Water

Soap Scum

Perhaps the most obvious sign of hard water is soap scum left in your bathroom, and well as cloudy glassware. “Hard water leaves limescale deposits in your shower or bathtub, or in your sink faucets,” Alessandro Gazzo says. “Having these white, dusty residues near your drain, your showerhead, or your sink faucet is a sign you have hard water,” he says.

Residue on Your Skin and Hair

Hard water can also leave a film on your skin and hair. So, if your hands feel somewhat dry and chalky after washing or if your hair never feels fully clean after shampooing, you may be dealing with hard water.

Stiff Laundry

Rudin adds that hard water can also make your laundry feel rigid and abrasive. This can be caused by the mineral deposits left on clothing after washing.

Odd Tastes and Smells

If you’re dealing with hard water, Rudin says there may be a strange or metallic taste in your mouth when brushing your teeth or just drinking a glass of tap water. “Hard water poses no known health risks, but many people dislike the feel and effects that this kind of water quality can produce in their lives,” he says.

Faulty Pipes and Appliances

Over time, hard water could also negatively impact your plumbing pipes, water heater, and everyday water-based appliances. So, if you’re dealing with your appliances shutting down or not working properly, or your pipes getting constantly clogged, this may also be due to hard water.

Testing for Hard Water

Water hardness water is measured by grains per gallon (gpg), and one grain equals 0.002 ounces of calcium carbonate dissolved in a gallon of water.

Here are the different water hardness level:

• Soft water: 0 to 3 gpg
• Moderate water: 3.5 to 7 gpg
• Hard water: greater than 7.5 gpg

Hard water can also be moderately hard, hard, or very hard. “You can test if you have hard water by measuring the grains per gallon of dissolved solids, or the parts per million as volumetric approaches,” Rudin says. “Once you have the data for your water, you can compare it to known baselines for water softness, and take steps to achieve the desired level for your comfort.”

But don’t worry, testing your water levels is not as complicated as it may sound. You can purchase water hardness test kits, which are typically around $10-$15, and all the test involves is placing a test strip in the water and comparing the results to a color chart.  

Solutions for Hard Water

Fortunately, there are solutions for hard water. If you need to soften a small amount of water for some reason, Rudin says you can treat small amounts of hard water by boiling it, adding baking soda, or adding vinegar to cancel out the minerals in the water.

For bigger, more long-term solutions, however, you’ll need a water softener filtration system. “It’s a filter for these microscopic minerals, and you can install it yourself,” Gazzo says. Shower filters and under-the-sink filters are also an option for softer water when you’re showering, cooking and want purer drinking water. However, keep in mind that these filters don’t protect your plumbing.

Before getting a water softener system, however, there are things you can do to keep your surfaces clean. “In the meantime, I think you will find white vinegar extremely helpful to remove limescale—just spray your surfaces and run a non-scratch sponge,” Gazzo explains. For your showerhead, he recommends filling a small Ziplock bag halfway with white vinegar and tying it around your showerhead with a rubber band. Let it sit overnight, and then scrub and rinse.