Most residents in the United Kingdom have a problem with hard water. Hard water contains abnormally high and difficult levels of minerals and ions that are not found in "soft" water. Magnesium and Calcium are the minerals that worry people the most. Water starts out as soft but becomes hard when rain water seeps through areas of earth that are high in minerals before it is absorbed into the water table. Soft water is rain water that has fallen to ground that has high concentrations of stone or soil that is peaty. These cannot be absorbed into the water, so the water stays "soft" as it seeps into the water table.

The problems caused by hard water are caused by the minerals that build up in the piping of your home and on the inside of your home appliances or other types of machines that use water on a regular basis. This "scale" decreases the efficiency of the pipes, appliances and machines and eventually they stop working properly.

When your home has hard water it also makes it harder to clean because the minerals interfere with the lathering action of your soap making it harder to rinse the soap from whatever you are cleaning. All of the extra work your machines are doing and water you use as you try to keep your house and body clean cause your energy and water rates to rise. If you let the scale build up too long in your pipes, they will need replacing"a very expensive endeavour.

Many homeowners in the United Kingdom have found that installing a water softener can help a great deal in ridding hard water of its mineral content. A water softener sits between a ground water source and your home and acts as a filter to trap all of the minerals that cause the water to be hard. The filters act as strainers to trap the calcium, magnesium and other minerals that are found in UK hard water.

Some water softener manufacturers include filters that will filter out other things as well as hard water minerals, creating a soft water that is easy to wash and clean with and won't build up mineral scale on your home's pipes.

Hard water can wreak havoc on a house and the human body and the danger is proportional to the amount of dangerous minerals contained in the water. The worst minerals in hard water are magnesium and calcium because too much of either ion can cause disastrous effects on a home and on the human body.

Mineral scale build up on pipes can cause the walls of a pipe to become weak and eventually those pipes will start to leak. This can cause a person thousands in repair and doctor costs. The easiest way to make sure that you only use soft water is to install a water softener somewhere inside your home or on your property.