With its picturesque mountains and incredible snow, Utah is known for being blessed by nature in many departments. But when it comes to its water sources, the state runs short of achieving the same status.
It’s because water in Utah is famous for being hard. In fact, if you have lived in the state for a long time, this wouldn’t be news for you at all. But if you have just moved to the Beehive State or plan on finding your forever home in it soon, it might be new yet critical information for you to know.
Thankfully, taking targeted steps such as getting a water softener Utah residents rely upon can solve this problem quite effectively. By following the right approach, you can ensure to steer clear of any damaging effects of hard water.
See more to learn about these tips and choose a solution that fits you the best, here’s a lowdown on the hard water problem in Utah and its solutions.
Contents
- What is Hard Water?
- For a Permanent Solution: Get a Water Softener Utah Residents Have Come to Trust
- For Temporary Relief: Install Individual Water Filters on Your Faucets
- Another Short-Term Technique: You Can Use Certain Products to Handle the Problem
- Move Forward With the Permanent Solution as Soon as You Can
What is Hard Water?
To put it simply, the term hard water refers to pure water affected by a heavy concentration of minerals. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), water hardness is defined by the level of magnesium and calcium that’s found in a particular source of water.
This hardness becomes a problem by being evident through various visual and functional signs. For instance, it can leave stains on your plumbing fixtures and cooking equipment. When you heat your water, it can also take a long time until it gets warm. Minerals can also build up in your fixtures and cause your pipes and the heaters to get clogged.
In a state such as Utah where winters can get immensely cold, all of these symptoms can cause various problems. In addition to damaging the visual form of your kitchen equipment and your plumbing fixtures, it can also make your pipes clog and even burst. When your heater stops working in the middle of a sudden snowstorm, it can disrupt your peace as nothing else could. The added time to heat it can also drive up your utility bills.
That is why it’s vital that you look into relevant solutions to solve this problem.
For a Permanent Solution: Get a Water Softener Utah Residents Have Come to Trust
Since the high levels of minerals cause hardness of water, a filtration system such as a water softener can effectively resolve it.
By using targeted systems that pull excess minerals away from hard water, these softeners ensure that water flowing out of them is clear of excessive substances such as calcium and magnesium. As a result, water that flows through these softeners turns into soft water that is free of harmful levels of minerals.
Instead of being installed on individual plumbing fixtures, these water softeners are fixed at the entry point of your plumbing system. This ensures that the filtration is not limited to water that you use out of your faucets. As a result, this system saves your pipes from clogging due to mineral build-up and provides you with clean water that you can use without a second thought.
Since a water softener works on its own and doesn’t require you to tend to it every so often, it remains a hassle-free way of solving this highly critical problem. That is why it remains the primary solution to the problem for residents of the Beehive State.
For Temporary Relief: Install Individual Water Filters on Your Faucets
As defined above, installing a water softener Utah households have come to trust is the most effective way of handling the state’s hard water problem. But if you are either facing a shortage of funds or waiting on your landlord to install a softener, you can take temporary measures to resolve the problem.
The next best thing is installing individual water filters on your faucets. This makes sure that water that flows out is clear of excessive minerals as much as possible.
Many of these individual faucet filters are quite affordable and take minutes to install. This makes sure that as you wash your dishes, cook, or make your coffee, it doesn’t leave any stains on your cooking equipment. It also saves your sinks and clothes from getting stained via mineral buildup. As a result, you can reduce any effects of facing this problem to a certain extent.
With that being said, these faucet softeners only clean the water that flows through each filter. The actual problem of hard water flowing through your pipes and clogging your plumbing system remains in place. This can also cause issues with your heater.
Another Short-Term Technique: You Can Use Certain Products to Handle the Problem
While you wait to get a water softener Utah residents utilize regularly, you can use certain products to minimize the damaging effects of hard water.
This is also a temporary solution that actually comes with repeated vigilance and use of these additional measures. However, it gets the job done while you wait on getting a more permanent fix to the problem.
With that in mind, you can use the following products to reduce any effects of hard water on your household.
1. Vinegar
It may seem like an odd choice at first. But the acidic properties of vinegar work quite well against hard water. You can simply run vinegar through your cooking equipment and plumbing fixtures from time to time to get rid of white stains that are left by mineral build up.
2. Use Lemon Juice
To remove hard water stains from your dishes and pots, you can also put lemon juice on them. This particular solution also works due to lemon’s acidic properties that cut through effects of hard water minerals. It also works well against sinks and plumbing fixtures.
3. Use Special Cleaners
Using specific solvents to wash your sinks, floors, and outside of your plumbing fixtures can also help. This can be as easy as using all-purpose cleaners. But if the stains are stubborn, you can use solutions that have hydrochloric acid in them.
Move Forward With the Permanent Solution as Soon as You Can
As you wait for things to come together for installing a water softener Utah households trust with their needs, you can move forward with the temporary fixes to the issue.
With that being said, it’s critical to remember that these make-do solutions are unable to safeguard your plumbing system that gets the brunt of hard water. To resolve the issue for good, you need a solution that’s as robust as a permanent filter for your main water supply.