Water Issues: Hard Water

Hard water is a common issue that affects many households, causing a variety of inconveniences and potential damage. Common signs of hard water include soap scum buildup on fixtures, cloudy ice cubes, and an unpleasant taste in your drinking water. Our expert solutions are designed to tackle these problems head-on, providing you with the high-quality water you deserve.

Water Issues: Hard Water

Bad Taste, Odor, Cloudy Ice Cubs, and Water Build Up? Common Hard Water Issues

If your shower gets a buildup of soap scum, your pipes are clogged by water scale, or your freezer produces cloudy ice cubes, you are experiencing hard water problems. Over 85% of homes in America have hard water. Hard water can not only cause costly issues for plumbing systems and home appliances, but it can also harm people’s skin and hair.

What Causes Hard Water?

Hard water problems are caused by an abundance of minerals in the water. Sometimes boiling can remove the hardness, but some water with a high mineral content—that which is high in calcium and magnesium sulfates—cannot. As water dissolves or suspends, it exchanges elements and compounds with many things it comes in contact with during its travels. Therefore, all freshwater sources likely contain varying quantities of calcium and magnesium. Depending on your water supply’s geographical location, your water may also contain elevated levels of aluminum and manganese.

The Churyk Solution to Treat Hard Water

If your home has hard water, the easiest hard water treatment solution is a water softener. With a water softener system, hard water passes through the filter which contains negatively charged resin beads that attract and filter out high levels of minerals from the water, specifically calcium and magnesium. Then, the newly softened water goes through the filter and into your home.

To determine if your home has hard water and if a water softener is the best solution, an accurate water test is critical to making sure your purchase will give you the results you expect without overspending. Our certified technicians will perform a water test, in order to develop a custom water quality solution to fit your specific needs. For over 70+ years, we’ve been industry leaders for affordable and efficient water softener systems.

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Effects of Hard Water

Damaged Appliances

Precipitation of minerals that form rock-hard deposits also known as limescale causes scaling on pipes, drains, and faucets.

Hard water deposits can be found in plumbing, water heaters, dishwashers, and washing machines, wasting energy and causing early failure of all water-using appliances.

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Additional Expenses

Mineral deposits that collect on the inside of pipes cause plumbing to work harder which can lead to higher water bills.

Clothes that are frequently washed in hard water will fade faster than clothes washed in softer water. Many notice a lack of suds in their soap, requiring more detergent or soap for laundry, dishwashers, shampooing, and bathing.

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Scale Buildup

Unsightly white buildup around your faucets and fixtures are hard to remove, and you will start to notice discoloration in the bathtubs, showers, and toilets.

The combination of soap and hard water forms “soap scum” that can’t be rinsed off, leaving unsightly spots and deposits on bathtubs, dishes, glassware, and shower doors.

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Dry Skin & Hair

Body soap and hard water together cause the formation of scum known as “curds.” This occurs when calcium and magnesium form insoluble salts, remaining on the skin even after thoroughly rinsing.

Frequent showering in hard water can cause dryness, rashes, and irritation of the skin which can lead to premature aging. Hard water has a similar effect on your hair, causing rough and tangled hair.

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Churyk Company Solutions to Removing Hard Water

Clack Water Softeners

Reliable, Dependable, and Easy-To-Use

Clack Softeners has three main objectives for common water problems:

Prevent scale build-up and iron staining
Deliver peak performance after install
Move beyond the trend of disposable water softeners

The Clack water softener is designed for simplicity. This reliable softener features a non-corrosive tank, valve and by-pass. Available with either a time clock or a water meter, the water softener line offers several sizes to ideally meet a customer’s application requirements.

It’s easy to use and understand, with an uncomplicated design that doesn’t need constant maintenance or care. The Digital Control Display will show the softener’s progress as it advances through the cycles. The control valve uses an industry leading powerful motor drive that doesn’t include screws or other components that could malfunction or break and it’s also corrosion-resistant, making it reliable and durable.

Churyk water softener series is equipped with the option of either a time clock or a water meter. The time clock allows the water cycles to be scheduled, while the water meter will provide a digital projection of the expected water usage, which is based on the amount of water that is typically used. Homeowner’s have the option of using salt or potassium depending on personal choice.

Features Include:

Regeneration based on average water usage
Lithium battery backup
Non-corrosive material on all parts
Low salt alert
System malfunction alert
Fewer moving parts

Benefits Include:

Eliminates low levels of harmful contaminants such as Radium, Iron and Lead.
Protects plumbing, pipes and appliances, making them more efficient and extending their lifespan.
Makes your hot water heater 22-29% more cost efficient and extends its lifespan.
Reduces soap scum, hard water buildup and staining in tubs, showers and sinks.
Leaves dishes, glasses & silverware cleaner & shinier.
Reduces the amount of laundry detergent and household cleaners needed.
Improves the quality of drinking and cooking water.
Promotes healthier skin and hair. Helps reduce dry skin, psoriasis, eczema and acne.
Electronic demand water softeners use little salt and water to regenerate.
Can use sodium or potassium, if sodium intake is a health issue.
A water softener is cost efficient, low maintenance and will pay for itself over time.

Water Descales (Saltless Systems) Vs Water Softeners

The simple differences between the two options are that one prevents the buildup of minerals such as calcium and the other scales or slows down the buildup. There’s more to that than the answer given but that’s the gist of how those two systems work.

While calcium buildup is unavoidable, by using a water softener, it will eliminate most traces of calcium and other minerals by changing the composition of the chemicals in your water. On the other hand, if you opt to go with water descaler, it will only scale or slow down the accumulation of minerals and calcium in your pipes. They are two completely different methods used for different purposes.

Salt-Free Water Conditioners/Descalers create hardness crystals by encapsulating minerals, but leave minerals present in the water. The crystals won’t adhere to surfaces so you will see a reduction in scale build up. Descalers do not affect the water composition, quality or taste.

The main benefit you receive from a salt-free system is the maintenance-free aspect and the obviously lack of salt use. However, it does not offer the same reduction and removal benefits of a water softener.

Salt-Based Water Softeners will give you more of the “slick” feeling of the water in the shower and you will notice the soap creating more bubbles. The reason and what many water experts will tell you is “this is the feeling of being clean.” This is due to the minerals being taken from the water and no longer being present to dry your skin in addition to lack of soap scum residue.

Softeners provide better tasting water, have less minerals and also promotes healthier skin. The impurities found in water are the leading cause of skin problems such as acne and rashes.

Other benefits you’ll see include keeping brighter colors in your clothes with the abrasive minerals no longer present. Is your skin feeling dry? Are you getting scale build-up on shower doors/glassware? Are your clothes dingy? Do you want to use less soap? A salt water softener would be your better choice.

In addition, water softeners reduce sediment and turbidity, remove calcium and manganese, reduce lead and iron, eliminate spotting on dishes and limescale buildup on fixtures and improve water quality. Descalers do not.