Got a little carried away with calcium hardness (CH) testing today!

[bertschb]

We just moved near Phoenix, AZ and I've heard the water is very hard here and it's not good to use non-softened water for the auto-fill system so I decided to use my RV water softener to add about 1.5" of water to the pool (auto fill wasn't working - different story). Prior to doing this I decided to test the water hardness of the water that is going into the auto fill system with some "Total Hardness" test strips that I used in the RV. The water tested at 40ppm which is near the bottom of the scale on the bottle. WhooHoo! I don't need to use the RV water softener! Or so I thought....

I then used the same strips to test the pool water. Yikes!!!!! It was pegged out on the hardness scale - like 1,000. I didn't expect that because when I last tested hardness with my Taylor 2006C kit in December it was around 380. I then tossed the test strips and tested the pool (390) and also tested water from multiple locations around the house using the Taylor kit. Here is what I found:

Calcium Hardness results-
Outside faucets (3): 90ppm
Kitchen sink: 90
Bathroom shower: 0
Bathroom sink: 0
Faucet at water softener: 0
Outlet from RV water softener: 0

What surprised me was how low the calcium hardness was at the outside faucets (one of which feeds the pool auto fill). Since everybody said the water here in my area was hard I was expecting something more like 500ppm. In fact, after measuring 90ppm at the outside faucets, I thought at first the entire house was plumbed through the water softener. That was until I tested the bath shower and sink and they came back at 0ppm. I've never had a water softener so I was surprised the kitchen wasn't plumbed into the softener.

Anyway, I'm going to continue using the RV water softener to fill the pool. I'll only use the auto fill when we're gone for an extended period of time. I'm also going to wash the car using the faucet at the water softener.

There apparently is a huge difference between the results from "Total hardness" test strips and the Taylor CH test.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Where EXACTLY in the giant Phoenix metroplex do you live? Different areas are served by different water utilities and each have different mineral hardness levels they allow.

There are several places in a home where you don’t want to run softened water. Outdoor spigots is one because watering landscape with softened water is a waste and will lead to increased soil sodicity. The cold water to the kitchen sink and the refrigerator line is also another line that is typically unsoftened. You use the kitchen sink to rinse and wash dishes, therefore using softened water would be a huge waste. Most people don’t like the taste of softened water and so kitchen refrigerator lines often don’t use softened water. All of the hot water tanks are plumbed to the softener loop so all hot water sources will be soft. Toilet tanks and cold water bathroom lines are softened as well. The plumbing distribution loop in your garage where your softener is cost the home builder about $1000 to install because of the added complexity of plumbing it. If you did not build the home be thankful the previous homeowner requested a softener loop. Not all homes are built with them and when you don’t have one it makes adding a water softener to a home a real PITA.

 

[bertschb]

Where EXACTLY in the giant Phoenix metroplex do you live?

We just bought a home with a Buckeye address but we're actually about ten miles north of Buckeye and ten miles east of Surprise (Sun City Festival).

We lived in Oregon for most of our lives and had excellent water in several different places we lived there - most recently Sunriver, OR (best tap water ever!). Because of this, we have no experience with home water softeners.

Is a CH of 90ppm out of the tap considered hard water?

 

[proavia]

West of Surprise instead of east?
Is this a new build?
Where is your tap water sourced from?
90 ppm for the PHX area is good.

Many of us here in the desert southwest have water in the 200-250 ppm (or higher) CH out of the tap.

 

[JoyfulNoise]

Total hardness (magnesium and calcium) is what determines water hardness. Anything less than 50ppm is considered “soft” water. Between 50-90 is “moderate” hardness and and anything over 90ppm is generally “hard” water. Down here in Tucson there are wells that can produce water with as little as 30ppm TH but most municipal supplies will be a mixture of well and CAP (Colorado River) water. Typical CH values around here run from 180ppm to over 250ppm.

I am of the opinion that it should be against building codes to build any home in AZ without a plumbing loop in the garage for a water softener. Leave it up to the homeowner to choose to install the softener but always make the option available. The damage done to hot water heaters and plumbing fixtures from calcium scale is enormous.