Soft, Medium, or Hard? H2O in the US.

I assumed I have hard water, but according to the USGS I have soft water.
Who knew? What are you using?

 

How do you tell which is which?

Edit: Ok, I figured it out. I am in the red. Most of my state has really hard water evidently.

 

In the red. I'm a former water plant operator now utility director. Our raw water (wells) comes in around 200 ppm and our treated water leaves the plant around 100 ppm. I've experiment with our raw and treated water and honestly haven't had issues lathering with either with the soaps I've tried.

 

Ryan, the higher the number with the color the harder the water. The color code is right off the toe of Louisiana in the Gulf.

 

Thanks for clearing that up. Maybe that explains why it's a pain for me to lather soaps sometimes.

 

That map doesn't have to be an exact indicator of the water type you get, since it is probably just an average. I have medium hard water at home, and when I got to my folks place 20 kilometers away they have very hard water.

 

My guess is it mostly pertains to ground water sources. Even in my area surface water tends to be much softer.

 

The funniest thing is the water at my parents well, it's as I said hard , full of iron and very unpleasant for drinking (ergo they don't use it for drinking), but at my uncle's yard there is a well and the water is although hard not as hard as my parents well, and is quite good for drinking...and the distance between the two wells is about 20 meters

 

Yep, it's gotta be an average for the area. I don't know hard from soft, but I recently moved about 10 miles and the difference in water quality is huge! It's good though, I just look at it as getting to learn how to get good lather all over again!

 

Yep, I'm in deep, deep red.

 

It can vary a lot too. I'm on city water in Sugar Land, TX. The water quality report from 2008 indicates an average hardness of 132 mg/L, but the minimum was 60 and the max was 211. Quite a variation, and worse than indicated on the map.

 

Even the piping can make a difference from house to house, old pipes=a lot more sediment in them=more minerals in the water going through them

 

Do minerals make much difference, or is it mainly the calcium carbonate?

 

Calcium carbonate is a mineral also
It's all the stuff that sediments (I think that's the word) from the water.
The best water I ever tasted was directly from a river Una in Bosnia. When we went rafting there we stopped at a place where water gushes from the rocky shore in to the river over some 15 meters of width, and the temperature was about 10 degrees celsius in the middle of the sumer...Fantastic feeling

 

I lived in Stavanger, Norway for a year. The tap water there was cold and crystal clear, better than any bottled water I found. What I found amazing was that a country with such great water made such lousy beer.

 

I never tried Norwegian beer but I will take your word on it

 

Hey. We have great beer.. Its called Carlsberg

But the water is pretty great. 20mg of calcium per liter. Maybe I'll go have a sip

 

There wasn't much of a selection in Stavanger. I think there were two local beers that were both bad. I'm sure the selection in Oslo was much better. Of course, this was in the mid-80's. Sometimes I forget how old I am.

 

If I remember correctly the typical norwegian beer/lager is pretty similar to Ožujsko in taste. Pretty mild and light.

 

Too bad Ožujsko is a bit too mild and too light
I prefer my hometown brew "Osječko" although a lot of people don't , a more classical lager beer, a bit heavier and stronger in taste