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Water hardness is a huge problem for many people. Not only is the water distasteful to be around, but it can damage skin, clothing, and other things in a house. Hard water is where high mineral content is in the water. This means a lot of calcium, magnesium, and other compounds are in the water affecting its cleanliness. There are ways to test water hardness, which can help you determine how to proceed.

When you test water hardness it may be because you noticed the water is no longer washing away the soap. Instead you are finding soap scum in the bathroom, your drains, and even that soap is not being washed out of your clothing. You test water hardness with certain equipment meant to tell you the amount of minerals in your water.

The simplest way you test water hardness is the soap or toothpaste test. In soft water the soap will lather easily, but this does not occur with hard water. It is not a conclusive way for you to test water hardness though, because you will be unable to tell the exact mineral composition. A more exact way you can test water hardness is through wet titration.

Titration is a process used in a laboratory with quantitative chemical analysis. It tells you based on the volume of the key elements if your water is hard. The results will be read as parts per million or weight/ volume depending on your calculations of the calcium carbonate in the water. You should know that even though the test is for calcium and magnesium there can be other metals affecting your water like iron, manganese, or aluminum.

Another option to test water hardness is using calcification tests. Calcification will allow rust to develop rather than a white color of soap scum. Rust tells you that there are more elements than just calcium and magnesium in the water. To treat water hardness you would need a water softener. A softener is designed to prevent the minerals from entering your pipes and thus breaking down any hard water build up you already have.