Is hard water harmful?

Posted: 29th April 2025 | Author: Adam Brown | Category: Plumbing

Understanding the effects of hard water is key to deciding what to do about it - and indeed, whether to do anything about it at all.

Here, we run through the effects of hard water, in terms of health, expenditure and how it can affect your property, to help you get a better sense of how softening your water could change your day-to-day life.

Is hard water bad for you?

The first and most important thing to consider is your health, and of course that of your loved ones. The good news is that hard water isn’t considered to be harmful to your health for the general population - in fact, it can even be beneficial.

Hard water is characterised by a relatively high mineral content caused by the dissolution of bedrock as the water travels underground before it is supplied to your home. These minerals are primarily calcium and magnesium, both of which are essential for the proper functioning of your body.

So, for those who don’t normally get enough calcium and magnesium through their diet, drinking hard water can help to keep their mineral levels up to stay healthy. Some evidence suggests that drinking hard water can be good for your cardiovascular health, which is why the UK Drinking Water Inspectorate recommends a minimum hardness for companies who artificially soften the water they supply.

However, your health isn’t the only way hard water can affect you. Some people prefer soft water from a purely preferential perspective - the taste of minerals like calcium and magnesium can be noticeable and you might not find it palatable.

Another unexpected characteristic of hard water is that it can prevent soaps and shampoos from lathering easily. This applies to dish soap and laundry detergents as well as the soaps you use on your body and hair.

This happens because the calcium and magnesium in the hard water react with the detergent compounds to form ‘soap scum’, a thick, sticky substance that you’ll find yourself cleaning out of your bath, shower tray and sinks. This reduces the soap’s ‘bubbliness’, so it’s harder to work up a satisfying lather.

As a result, most people tend to use more soap to get the job done, whether it’s cleaning themselves, their cookware or their clothes. Over time, this excessive usage adds up and leads to a higher bill for soaps and detergents.

Is hard water bad for your plumbing and appliances?

While hard water is generally considered to be harmless to consume, it can have more impactful effects on your appliances and plumbing.

One of the best-known side effects of hard water is a buildup of a substance known as limescale. If you live in a hard water area, you’ve probably noticed white or cream-coloured deposits in areas that see lots of water - think taps, kettles, plugholes and showerheads.

Usually made up of calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate, limescale is caused by the minerals in hard water being left behind as it flows. It can be unsightly, and it can also impact the efficiency of water-based appliances like washing machines, leading them to wear out more quickly.

But this kind of damage caused by hard water isn’t limited to your appliances. That same process that allows these mineral deposits to form inside a kettle or on the face of a showerhead can also leave behind these deposits inside the pipes and plumbing of your home - and since you can’t see these areas to monitor the effects, it can be easy to forget about them until the damage is done.

If left untreated, limescale deposits could build up and eventually cause blockages within your home’s plumbing system - blockages which could be costly to remove and repair. This could affect all areas of your home’s plumbing, from basins and bathtubs to the central heating system, radiators and boiler.

Fortunately, there are ways to reduce the likelihood of these deposits forming and building up to become problematic - by using water softeners, you can remove those excess calcium and magnesium levels from the water so it won’t damage your pipes and appliances. At the same time, this would also mitigate the effects hard water has on soaps and detergents, which may help you to use less and save money.

Some water softening systems even allow you to pick and choose which water is softened, meaning that you could keep a tap that uses hard water in order to still get the benefits of the high calcium and magnesium levels to supplement your diet.

The Author: Adam Brown

With a background as a Mechanical Engineer, I started Nationwide Supplies alongside my brother with a vision to modernise what seemed a stuck-in-its-ways industry in the builders merchant sector.  Since 2011 it has been my goal to source quality products at the correct prices to be able to offer a saving to customers along with high quality customer service which offers quick delivery and superior technical knowledge in the industry.  

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