Hard Water: Signs and Treatment Questions

Hard water can cause a water heater to die much sooner than it probably should. Right now, in the industry, we're kind of seeing average lifespans of of tank style and tankless style water heaters be somewhere around 12 to 15-ish years. And the longer you let hard water run through it, the less that lifespan is. But, the reality is is most homes don't have a a water treatment solution in their house. And because of that, they end up with a bunch of calcium deposits and magnesium deposits in that water heater. And kind of put numbers to it, whenever you go to remove a water heater that's been running on hard water, that's been you know, running for 10 years or so, uh that water heater is going to weigh like 60 lb more than what it probably did the day that it was installed because of how much rock and sediment uh that is like just basically we've made gravel at the bottom of your water heater. >> [laughter]

We refuse to install electric tankless water heaters here in Oklahoma at Yarborough & Sons because we have so like we'll install gas tankless all day long because you're not dealing with the same kind of a chemistry set. So on electric tankless you have the heating element wrapped around the waterline and that heating element is powered by electricity. So we've created an electric magnet uh right there in your tankless water heater if it's electric. And so the lifespan of those because of how hard water interacts with an electric tankless, it can really shorten the lifespan and you know a tankless isn't cheap. That's a five or six thousand dollar ordeal and so now we've seen those fail as early as two years. When it comes to where your money's best spent as a homeowner, I I tend to steer people away from an electric tankless and if they want something that's more energy efficient, go towards a heat pump. It's an electric tank style water heater but it's going to be way more energy efficient than a traditional electric tank style water heater.

So, hard water is nothing more than minerals, you know, suspended in water. And how we get hard water is So, in the US, uh especially here in Oklahoma, cuz that's where I can talk as an expert specifically, but across the US, everybody has hard water. And the reason being is whenever you have basically acid rain hit exposed limestone or chalk deposits or even clay deposits, it's going to pick up that line, meaning calcium and or the magnesium, and take it to the ground water source. And so, that mineral gets suspended in the water, and it's pretty difficult in in large-scale water treatment plants because it doesn't have any true, like we talked about, any true adverse health effects. And so, as far as water treatment at the industrial scale goes, there's no real reason for them to to remove it. However, when it gets to your house, uh you know, it does start to cause some problems in your internal plumbing.

If you have hard water and you're not going to get it treated, you're going to burn a lot of money on like a ice machine, specifically like the Sonic like pebble ice is a huge deal. That is going to be one place where you're going to have a lot of burn as far as time invested in it not working if you have hard water. That is a really sensitive piece of equipment and it is going to cause problems if you don't have a water treatment solution in place. And so, before we start looking at expensive like shower heads like a rain head or something like that or like a like a pressure jet head. If you're going to spend money on your plumbing, I would start with a water treatment solution and then go to the fun stuff like a pebble ice machine and a jet head on a shower or rain head or something like that.

So, sorry. OKC, if your tap water tastes a little off later this month, it is not your imagination. Oklahoma City just moved about five point two billion gallons from Canton Lake toward Lake Hefner after Hefner dropped about eight feet over the summer. The city still treats what comes out of the plant, but what can change at the house is taste, smell, and how mineral-heavy the water feels while the two sources from Canton Lake and Hefner mix. And as Lake Hefner climbs back up, you may notice some differences. If the shower glass spots get worse, the ice maker tastes different, or the filter is clogged faster than usual, that is usually aesthetics and, and minerals, not necessarily a reason for panic. Um, a quicker water test tells you if a sediment filter, carbon, or a softener is actually worth it for your house. So how does your water taste at your home?

So, telltale sign number one that you have hard water is your faucets and your fixtures will start to have like kind of that white crusty formation start to appear. Number two is you're losing water pressure faster than like say you just moved into this house and over time you're starting to notice that you're losing water pressure. That's because those fixtures are getting stopped up by that deposit just internal to the plumbing fixture itself. Really, it's going to all just kind of capture right there at the shower head, the sink, the sprayer, or in your dishwasher.

So James in Oklahoma, you know, a lot of people have access to city water, but there's a lot of people that have access to well water. What differences do you see between well water and and city water? >> City water is usually not as hard, but it still has a hardness to it. Most of it here in Blanchard, I live in Washington over here, and all of that they still have hard water. You still need a softener and a filter on them. Uh your well water, you all all of these around here have hard water. There's very, very few that are soft water. And so that's why I highly recommend filters and softeners to condition your water. It will save you money, especially if you have a tankless, but also all your fixtures in your house. It won't build up the hard water. They last longer and they will do better. Your >> [singing] >> pros. >> [music]

How often would you recommend someone do this process on their tankless water heater? >> They recommend you do it once a year. Uh, if you have really hard water or anything like that, I recommend doing it twice a year. >> Okay. >> That way you know you keep it in good shape. It's more efficient this way. If that calcium builds up inside there, it's going to take it longer to heat and it's not going to get it as hot. So, that's why you want to do this as often at least once a year. >> Your home. >> [singing] [music]

If you own a tankless water heater and you haven't flushed it yet, doing so could save you thousands. Scale build up on tankless water heaters can make them die pretty quickly. And so, making sure that they're properly maintained is is a big deal. Your Rose. >> [music]

why we refuse to install electric tankless water heaters. I don't care how much you offer to pay me. We're not doing it. Uh matter of fact, I don't think they should be manufactured. I think it's uh almost malpractice on the manufacturers's part that they even make them. Uh everywhere in the United States, I don't care where you're at, especially in Oklahoma though, we have hard water. Hard water eats those electric elements like nobody's business. And so whenever it comes to electric tankless water heaters, we're out. We're not going to touch them. You'll have to find a different plumber cuz it's not going to be us who does it because we don't want to be on the hook for the warranty.

I would definitely recommend just being in Oklahoma a whole house filter and a softener if you can whole house filter is obviously just going to get some of that stuff out of the water but I personally have a softener at my house I would put one in really what's going to maintain your pipes as far as water that's so you won't get that calcium on the end of your faucets or anywhere on the sink it'll be clean water and you can always tell at first that you can wash your hands and it feels like the soap never comes off because that's just how softeners are it's just it feels a little bit different but then once you go to someone else's house that doesn't have a softener and then you'll realize how tough the water is

If you have hard water, you should do this more often. What are some easy things to help with the hard water situation? Well, it filters and water softener. The water softener, it is one of the biggest things you can do if you have hard water. I prefer the salt type water softeners myself because that way it softens the water, it doesn't just condition. Young Rose. >> [singing] [music]

Here is the reason why I absolutely despise the manufacturers of electric tankless water heaters. And frankly, I think it's a disservice to homeowners and to plumbers alike because they don't address this one thing, scale buildup. And here is the problem. Is scale buildup happens no matter what type of tank you have. If you have a tank, a tankless, gas, electric, you have scale, you have sediment, you have calcium. All of it is suspended in your water. And if you're on city water, you have hard water as well. The only way, like I said, there's those caveats of like we'll install it under very specific circumstances. And that's if you have a full-blown water treatment solution in place. So now we're talking like a $15,000 water heater plus water treatment. And at that point, we have other things that we could do to keep your water more comfortable. But the problem comes with the heating surface in a electric tankless. The heating element has to be so short so small. If there's hardness in that water, meaning like the calcium and the magnesium and all of that, whenever we heat it up, well, that actually acts like a little bit of a magnet, for lack of a better word. And what it does is it brings more of that to the surface.

We measure in grains of hardness. And so, if you've ever messed with like a pool chlorination kit where you dip the little tab in there and it tells you, you know, what to add or basically it's the exact same way. Is we take a little It's like It looks like a little pH strip and you dip it in the water and that tells us how hard the water is. And really that determines what size of water treatment solution we we're going to put on the house. Most of the time like water that is being brought to your house via municipality, so industrial water treatment, it's not going to be super hard water cuz like I said, they're stripping some of the minerals out there at the water treatment facility. And so, it's going to be, you know, mild It's going to be on the lower third. Really where we see super hard water is on well water. Um well water we're going to have to have a pretty complex system um just because you're, you know, you're going straight from source to to spigot.

Electric tankless water heaters, for the love of God, don't do that. Don't don't put those in your home. They are going to fail, especially if you live in a state with hard water like Oklahoma. If all you have is electric available, fantastic. Let's put a heat pump in. We can get a really efficient water heater. Whenever we have an electric heating element mixing with an on-demand system, we are creating electromagnetic field that is going to cause that inlet water line to cake up with so much hard water, you wouldn't believe. It's an incredible science experiment. If you want to run that for five or six grand, you can, you know, throw money that direction. Or, we can go back and put in either just a fully electric water heater or a heat pump water heater in place, and it will last you so much longer, cause you so much less heartache. Tankless electric water heaters are not worth their money. Use instead a either heat pump water heater or a total electric water heater. Now, if you have gas, that's a whole different conversation. Happily talk about gas tankless water heaters. Your >> [singing] >> host. >> [music]

kind of get and see how hard they have some pretty hard water out here this one's pretty close to 25 so you want it to be able to cover um how hard their water is so I try to go a little bit above what their water is but you don't want to go too high because you can get too much salt in your system we've been in the Home Comfort game since 88 in OKC share this with a friend who's in need of some serious Home Service help

Oh gosh, hard water myths. I think really outside of myths, I think it's more of people have this conception of that treating hard water is going to be super costly and it's going to be something that just is a huge burden financially and it's just kind of one of those deals that you have to deal with. That it's a well, this is the bed we've we've made and so we have to lay in it. I mean, I think that there's a ton of solutions out there that from your point of use water treatment all the way to a whole home solution. You know, most of the time we can get some sort of hard water resolution done for less than a couple thousand dollars and it that solution will last you, you know, 10, 15 years. And so I think that's probably one of the biggest industry myths that we constantly kind of have to fight back against is well, we have hard water and that's just the way it is.

Do you hear that? That's what it sounds like when you don't flush your tankless water heater. This unit is less than 3 years old and it's already dealing with mineral buildup on its heat exchanger. This is a costly fix that can be easily avoided. Don't wait until it turns into an expensive repair. DM us today to schedule your tankless water heater flush. >> Your pros. >> [singing] [music]