While drinking water with minerals is
recommended for your health, the same cannot be said for your plumbing: hard
water, or water with high mineral content, can be the cause of a bigger
plumbing headache.
Water normally becomes hard as it flows through
the ground, since it can collect minerals such as calcium and magnesium along
the way. Water, which has a mineral content of over 3.5 grains of mineral per
gram (GPG) is already considered hard water, but to accurately and easily test
whether your household’s plumbing contains hard water, you can test it by
looking at the sud formation in water: hard water would normally yield less
lather formation when used with soap, and would instead produce soap scum, or a
white precipitate.
