Fabric softener is not a hard water treatment. You may still find your clothing dirty-looking, stiff and rough after washing. Fabric softener can combine with the chemicals in your water to contribute to the soap scum.
You can also add 1/2 cup laundry borax to each load. Borax provides water softening by producing a soluble calcium complex (forming a chelate with the minerals so that they are no longer available for reactions) and boosts surfactant performance by preventing precipitation of a calcium/surfactant complex.
When washing with hard water, good detergents include extra ingredients that soften the water so the rest can get to work removing the real stains. This is why you'll need to use more detergent to soften the water if you live in a hard water area.
The hard water minerals will also prevent your detergent from mixing with the water to form a solution, which hampers the effectiveness of your detergent, preventing fabrics from getting completely clean – this will cause smelly clothes after washing.
Hard water prevents water from mixing with detergent to form an effective cleaning agent. The calcium minerals bond with the soap to create a detergent curd that sticks to the fabric fibers, drawing in more dirt than before you washed your clothes.
Because hard water is characterized by a higher concentration of dissolved minerals, it is no surprise that clothes washed in hard water can suffer from mineral residue. This residue can cause stiffness or a starchy feeling in your clothes and make them feel less comfortable than they used to.
Soften your kitchen water by boiling: Boiling will make the salts in water sink to the bottom of the boiler. You can then scoop out this water or pour the water in another pot leaving the deposits in the end. Install an ion-exchange filter to your kitchen faucet or use a water pitcher filter.
The Reason Hard Water Damages Hair
It can also make hair dull, frizzy, stiff, and more prone to tangles. These effects are heightened when hair is washed with hard water over a long period of time. The buildup may be more difficult to penetrate with serums, masks, or other treatments.
Say goodbye to soap scum, hard water build-up, calcium, lime stains, grease and gunk. OxiClean™ Bathroom Cleaner does the hard work for you.
Best for Tough Stains and Hard Water
In fact, in our ratings, 12 Tide detergents (liquids and pods/packs) offer near top-level efficiency in hard water. Hard water contains high levels of calcium and magnesium that can leave residue on your clothes and mineral deposits inside your washing machine.
Hard water can also damage your gasket and funnels. As the mineral deposits build-up, it can cause your machine to malfunction and overdry your clothes. In the end, this can cause rusting of the metal parts. If you're already having a problem, you may want to try a cleaning product made for washing machines.
The blue crystals in OxiClean™ Versatile Stain Remover are made of water softener molecules which help your detergent work better.
In regions where the water supply has a high mineral content (hard water), baking soda added to a load of laundry will prevent the dinginess in clothes washed in hard water. Add 1/4 box of baking soda to each load of laundry to soften the water. If you have a water softener, baking soda is unnecessary.
Baking soda is alkaline, while vinegar is acidic. Baking soda and vinegar are both natural disinfectants that can be used to turn hard water to soft water. They eliminate the scaly coating that occurs in hard water as a result of mineral deposits.
Boiling water is certainly one of the most effective ways to soften it.
Vinegar is very effective in dissolving the calcium, magnesium, and other mineral deposits of hard water. The added advantage is that it kills bacteria, mold, and other germs. Using vinegar as a softener for hard water is a simple hack to treat hard water at home.
The short-term effects of using hard water regularly are dry, flaky and itchy skin, besides breakouts at times. Hard water also affects the hair, giving it a dull appearance and can lead to an itchy scalp.
Add vinegar to your hard water washing loads
To keep your clothes feeling soft, you have to do what you can to neutralize those minerals, and that is where vinegar comes in. Add a half cup to a cup of white, distilled vinegar to your final rinse, suggests Well + Good.
Vinegar makes a perfect fragrance-free fabric softener and works well for hard water. To use vinegar as a fabric softener and static reducer: Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup of distilled white vinegar to the final rinse cycle of your washing machine.
Liquid detergents washed equally well in both soft and hard water. Powdered detergents were better than liquids in soft water. Water hardness affected powdered detergents, and, depending on the detergent type, 10-15% to > 30% extra detergent was needed to obtain a result similar to that of soft water.