27 August 2021

The Water Hardness Scale

Hard water is water that includes minerals such as calcium and magnesium that can lead to problems in your home - spotty glassware, scale on faucets and reduced life span and efficiency of your appliances. 

It’s important that you figure out if you have hard water and the level of hardness as different levels of hardness have different impacts.

The easiest way to measure water hardness is by using the water hardness scale. This scale ranks your water based on how many milligrams of calcium carbonate are found per liter. The closer to zero your water ranks, the softer it is. The harder your water is, the higher the ranking. Below you will find the water hardness scale: 

• Soft: 0 - 60 mg/L
• Moderately Hard: 61 - 120 mg/L
• Hard: 121 - 180 mg/L
• Very Hard: 180 mg/L and up

To find out where your water ranks on the water hardness scale, you can buy test kits or ask if your local hardware store carries them. Sometimes they are available for free from your city.  You can also call your local water utility to see if they have recent data on the water in your area. 

Here is a map that can give you a general idea of the water hardness in your area. 

Source: https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/map-water-hardness-united-states