Leaving water in jugs can cause mineral build-ups and we advise our clients to rinse and empty jugs or kettles often. Leaving appliances out to dry after use is a common way to prevent unwanted build-ups as well. A water softener is a long-term solution for preventing limescale and mineral build-up in appliances.
Best of all, you probably have everything you need to remove limescale in your home already. The citric acid in lemon or acetic acid in vinegar is your best weapon, ensuring a limescale-free bathroom without the need for abrasive chemicals that can damage the finish on your bathroom fittings.
Limescale is caused by a build-up of calcium and magnesium minerals in hard water. This hard water is formed when rainwater filters through rocks like chalk and limescale, picking up hard minerals along the way.
Reverse Osmosis:
The most complete method to reduce limescale uses a membrane with very small holes to filter only water and block chemicals and dissolved solids like calcium, magnesium, lead, arsenic and more.
A scale inhibitor is a device designed to reduce the amount of limescale formed in hard water areas. These devices are usually compact and designed to protect single pieces of equipment such as a boiler.
But a way to alleviate the issues and to minimise limescale from your water supply is to have a mains water limescale filter, or hard water filter, fitted. This should realign the calcium molecules, so they no longer form limescale and you will have water that resembles soft water.
Is drinking water with limescale bad for you? You've probably asked yourself more than once if drinking water with limescale can damage your health. The answer is no! It's a fact: limescale, in small quantities, does not have any bad repercussions on your organism.
Bottled water is hard water as it contains lots of dissolved minerals. Hard water can cause problems in the home for example the build up of lime scale in kettles but it does have the benefit of tasting nice.
You Still Have High Total Dissolved Solids
Water softeners remove things like calcium, magnesium, and iron, but there could easily be other dissolved solids in the water that are leaving behind some sort of film or residue when the water evaporates.
Two of the most effective substances are lemon juice and ordinary vinegar. Lemon juice is usually the best (and will also leave a lovely smell behind). Stronger pickling vinegar and lime juice are both even more acidic and can be used for really stubborn deposits.
Hydrochloric acid is much stronger than acetic acid, for example, and therefore tends to remove scale faster. Weak acids such as acetic or citric acids may be preferred, however, where damage to the substrate is to be minimised.
Moreover, a limescale build-up can cause permanent damage to your bathroom. It eventually eats into the chrome of your taps to the point where it can't be removed without stripping away the chrome as well. In toilets you can get an unsightly brown crust forming below the water line.
Limescale can be easily dissolved using a mild acid solution, such as diluted white vinegar. For example, when descaling a kettle, simply fill the kettle with equal parts vinegar and water and leave for an hour before boiling and then letting stand for another 20 minutes.
Hard water causes scaling in hot water systems, kettles, electric irons and domestic appliances. Scaling is defined as deposits of calcium and magnesium that build up on heating elements over time. Scaling of heating elements shortens their life and makes appliances less efficient.
Limescale will build up faster on hot water appliances. This is because hot water evaporates off a surface much quicker than cold water would. If you live in a soft water area, you won't have an issue with limescale, however you may find that your taps start to erode over time.
Is limescale bad to drink? Limescale found in hard water is not harmful to drink, in fact some prefer the taste compared to soft water. Hard water is known to be beneficial for health.
Ingesting limescale may be unpleasant to the palate (not to mention crunchy!) but it isn't harmful. The minerals which form limescale, magnesium and calcium, are actually very important to the human body. In some areas hard water is actually a supplemental source for these important minerals.
Clean your appliances regularly
Keeping items dry will prevent limescale by stopping water from evaporating and leaving mineral deposits. You should tackle limescale as soon as you notice it beginning to form, and ideally be cleaning at least once a week to prevent it from building up.
Use a Water Filter
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. They work by passing water through small filter cartridges that trap the calcium carbonate and other minerals in the water.
Limescale is the all too familiar by-product of hard water. A hard, chalky deposit which bonds on surfaces when hard water comes into contact. Limescale will usually appear yellowy white in colour but this can vary, water with a higher iron content will have a reddish brown deposit.
The BRITA MAXTRA+ water filter provides up to four weeks and 100 litres of freshly filtered water. Its ion exchange resin reduces both carbonate hardness (limescale) and metals such as copper and lead. The activated carbon reduces substances that can impair taste, such as chlorine and chlorine compounds.
A BRITA water filter jug reduces the minerals that lead to limescale, helping prevent limescale deposits from forming.
Method B: Reverse Osmosis (RO)
Read more about Reverse Osmosis Filters. This is effective in removing limescale but also removes all the healthy minerals and makes the water taste “flat”.