What is Hard Water?

Hard water is water that contains lots of dissolved calcium and other minerals. These minerals get picked up by the water as it travels through rock [such as limestone or dolomite]. Minerals are not harmful to your health, in fact they are known to be related to lowered risk factors for heart disease and other ailments. You need a certain amount of hardness in order to ionize at all. The problem with very hard water, calcium in particular, is that it tends to scale due to its crystaline shape. This scaling can cause clogging inside a water ionizer or any water-related equipment. In particular with water ionizers, the calcium scale can build up on the electrodes or between electrodes. When this happens the pH and ORP drop. This is why purchasing a water ionizer with an excellent internal, water-cell cleaning system is an important concern. A good water ionizer self-cleaning system is always a smart idea.

Hardness is reported in ppm [parts per million] or gpg [grains per gallon]. The perfect hardness for a water ionizer is about 80 - 120 parts per million or 6-7 grains per gallon of hardness.  Feel free to call for a free consultation on your water quality and hardness. 1-888-692-5525.

Here is a link to the USGS water quality map, chart and other information online: http://water.usgs.gov/owq/hardness-alkalinity.html#chart 

Water is considered soft or hard according to the ppm or gpg of calcium and magnesium in the water. Most references report the following: •Soft: Below 17 ppm [or 0-1 gpg] •Medium: 18 – 75 ppm [or 1 - 4 gpg] •Medium Hard: 76 – 150 ppm [or 4 - 8 gpg] •Hard: 151 – 200 ppm [or 7 – 11 gpg] •Very Hard: Over 200 ppm [or over 11 gp **Very, Very Hard: Over 300 ppm [Note: can go as hard as 500 or more ppm] If your water is very, very hard, you will need to do extra filtration of it before you can get good results with your water ionizer. Reverse Osmosis [with a remineralizer] is the standard way to filter very, very hard water properly. Hardness appears as a yellowish/whitish [or even greeny-blue] film, but if there is also a high iron content in the water it will be a brownish film.]

Do You Have Hard Water?

If you live in a hard water area [over 200 ppm of hardness or over 12 grains of calcium per gallon] you have very hard water and will want to read this.

Hard water is a problem for water ionizers. Even medium-hard water can cause a water ionizer to lose its pH or ORP over time, due to scaling on and between the plates. Certain models [such as the Jupiter ionizers] have continuous cleaning inside the water cell, and so would be better to use with hard water. Other solutions to hard water are the following [listed in order of cheapest to most expensive]:  

• Ionizer Armor prevents hard water from sticking to your water ionizer as it passes through it. Good for medium-hard water6-8 gpg [grains per gallon] or up to 150 ppm of hardness. If your water is slightly harder than that it's suggested that you get 2 Armors and install them 1" apart.
• The Spartan Ionizer Shield can work with any Jupiter water ionizer, and will filter out a good deal of the excess TDS [total dissolved solids] and hardness from the water, up to about 350 or 400 ppm of hardness, without the need to go the route of reverse osmosis. The cost is $299.
• The Elimination of Scaling [EOS] device can plug into the 1/4" input line for your water ionizer.  This device is the most effective anti-scaling device known to date, and works well up to about 230 ppm of hardness. It will last two years and costs $160.00. It can be found on our "Other Products and Filters" page. 
• Another anti-scale device is the Scale Watcher, which is proven against hard water up to 25 gpg but works with even harder water http://www.alkalinewaterplus.com/scalewatcher .
• You can also effectively get rid of hardness by using the Reverse Osmosis Remineralizer System http://www.alkalinewaterplus.com/product/RO-System just prior to your water ionizer. Reverse osmosis is an excellent filtration method, but the water flow is slow. Make sure to either use our system [made for water ionizers] or to use a system that has a large tank, fast refill time and get a remineralizer to add on to the line just prior to ionization http://www.alkalinewaterplus.com/product/Remineralizer .
• If your water is off the charts [some areas have water that gets so hard it's referred to as "rock-hard"] It is doubtful that no-salt softeners, will work with that. In this case you might need to go with the sodium-based softener, but then you will need to read the page regarding sodium http://www.alkalinewaterplus.com/sodium .

Please give us a call if you would like a free consultation.

Do You Need to Have Your Water Tested?

Most municipal water is thoroughly tested, and they usually report their results online. However certain things, like hardness, are not always reported. If your water quality report doesn't show your water's hardness, you can call the water company and ask, though, or you can do some testing on your own.

If you use well-water, you should test your water hardness, among other things. Well water is often very hard [not always, but it should be tested]. Some municipalities will test your well water hardness and other things for free.  

At Alkaline Water Plus We Offer Two Options for Testing Your Water

Comprehensive Water Test Kits: For a single test of your water for 9 of the most important things you should know about your water.

Well Water Lab Testing Services: For a complete 27-point analysis of your water by an EPA certified lab.

At Alkaline Water Plus we will do a free water analysis for you. If you do find your water is of poor quality, or too hard, there are always ways to fix it, so you can have perfect ionized water no matter what. If you don't do something to handle the water hardness and excess TDS [total dissolved solids] you will eventually have a problem.

Alkaline Water Plus will reimburse you for the cost of water testing if you purchase a water ionizer from us.