Around 60% of homes and businesses in the UK and about 85% of those in the US have a hard water supply. Not only does this impact on the performance and lifespan of our white goods and hot water systems, plus the efficiency of our cleaning products, but hard water can affect cooking too.
Hard water deposits are neutral to healthy people – our bodies simply flush excessive amounts of magnesium and calcium straight through our bodies. Some people even profess to prefer to taste of hard water to soft. When cooking or eating, most people might not realize what an impact these benign minerals have on the process and the end product.
• Longer cooking times for dried beans and pulses
• Affects the quality of bread and cakes
• Very hard water may make fruit and vegetables tough
Watered is softened by filtering out the mineral deposits; saline produced from a salt block or salt tablets within a softener unit flushes out the filter regularly to ensure it continues to work effectively. The water coming through your tap is much purer as a result – and the saline used within the unit won’t make it saltier.
Installing a water softener unit which takes salt blocks or salt tablets can also lessen the time it takes you to clean your kitchen up after a bake-off. Calcium and magnesium residues can make a house-proud cook despair – pans and glasses never look clean. Softened water not only eliminates these mineral residues but it allows detergents to work more efficiently, and you’ll be able to use less of it too.