The best way to prevent calcium buildup in your home is to install a water softener. Water softeners specifically address calcium and magnesium in your water by filtering the water through salts and ion-exchanged resins.
Also known as limescale, calcium buildup is a result of water that contains dissolved calcium salts moving through your pipes and flowing through your faucets and showerheads. When you have water with a high levels of these calcium salts and other minerals, it is called hard water.
To fix this issue, you'll need to call a professional plumber that can work to unclog the pipe or even replace it if the clog has rendered the pipe unusable. The best way to prevent calcium buildup and maximize the life of your plumbing system is to have a water softener installed.
The acid in vinegar attacks the calcium carbonate, breaking it down. If you don't want to risk making a mess with a bag of vinegar, another option is to take a towel and soak it in a vinegar solution. Wrap the towel around your faucet or showerhead. Leave it overnight.
Use a Water Filter
Another way of preventing limescale buildup is by using a water filter at your faucet or tap. You can purchase an inline filter, an under-counter filter, or a whole-house filter. Inline filters are cheap and can be installed on the water supply pipes of your home.
No, even if calcium and magnesium are present in a very low percentage, limestone will buildup in any case. If you wish to use bottled mineral water, read into the label values, especially to the fixed residue and calcium.
Use Vinegar & Baking Soda
White vinegar is a natural solution that can be utilized to dissolve calcium buildup. Sitting overnight, you will be able to remove lime buildup from the drain while avoiding the harsh chemicals in traditional drain cleaners. Avoid putting any store-bought chemicals down the drain.
Limescale and soap scum on taps & handles can cause white chalky, unsightly stains. CLR Bathroom & Kitchen Action Cleaner is the perfect solution for making your bathroom and kitchen areas looking fresh and clean.
In areas with hard water, these minerals precipitate out of your tap water onto surfaces–which is why they're found most commonly on your faucets, shower heads, pots and pans, and anything that comes out of the dishwasher. You might hear this chalky white substance called “limescale”, or “calcium buildup”.
Eating more green vegetables – Vitamin K helps to block off calcium from building up in your arteries. Reduce salt intake – Too much sodium in your diet can cause high blood pressure. High blood pressure weakens the walls of the arteries and makes it more likely for calcium to build up in this area.
Calcium, Lime, and Rust Remover, or simply CLR, is a common cleaning agent for hard water stains and rust. Its heavy-duty nature is quite effective at removing hard water stains, including limescale.
Remove limestone stains with WD-40!
Spray the product directly on the faucet, showerhead, or sink and then wipe it with a cloth or an old toothbrush. It tackles the most stubborn limescale deposits quickly. Using the WD-40 Multifunction product also serves two more benefits.
No, most filters, like activated carbon and KDF filters, can't remove hard water minerals. There's no such thing as a calcium filter for hard water. Some filters, such as reverse osmosis systems, have small enough pores to reduce some hardness, but high hardness can damage the RO membrane.
Rinse the sink out and dry the faucet. With Vinegar: Wrap a bag or cloth covered in vinegar around your faucet. Keep it there for several hours and wipe down the surface when you're done. Vinegar and baking soda can also be combined to make a paste for scrubbing calcium deposits.
Prolonged exposure to vinegar will damage chrome finishes by eating the finish right off of your fixtures.
If you feel confident that your faucet's material can withstand the acidic cleaner, fill a plastic bag with equal parts water and white vinegar. Submerge the faucet head and secure the bag to the faucet with a rubber band or a zip tie and let it soak. Wait 30 minutes to an hour, then remove the bag.
use these cleaning products
The following products are safe to use on all Delta Faucet finishes, when used according to the manufacturers' instructions for use: Formula 409® Antibacterial All-Purpose Cleaner. Fantastik® All-Purpose Cleaner. Windex® Original Glass Cleaner.
For a tried and true cleaner to tackle hard water stains, we recommend Bio-Clean Hard Water Stain Remover. It's easy to use, efficient, and it smells pleasant, too. For a more budget-friendly but still effective pick, check out CLR Multi-Use Calcium, Lime & Rust Remover.
As previously mentioned, baking soda does a bang-up job at dissolving calcium deposits left behind from hard water, but this pantry staple doesn't act alone. By introducing an acid (i.e., white vinegar), a chemical reaction takes place that may be short-lived, but highly effective.
Both vinegar and lemon juice will do a great job of removing any limescale deposits and freshening up your machines' innards at the same time. In a washing machine, use a large cup of either liquid in place of your usual detergent and run a normal washing cycle (without clothes).
Overall, it appears that tap water is a better option in most cases. It is convenient, free or inexpensive, and has much less of an environmental impact than bottled water. Tap water is also just as safe as bottled water, and most people will not be able to tell the difference in taste.
Where purifying water removes bacteria and impurities, distilled water also removes minerals. This makes it an attractive choice for use in heating appliances as it won't leave limescale behind.