Hardness or softness of water

Kake Lover

Kake Lover

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I've just come home from a weekend at my parents and the thought struck me how quickly I'd got used to their hard water. We have very soft water and one of the first things I did was wash up a water bottle and a flask, but I squirted far too much washing up liquid in and I had to rinse everything much more thoroughly.
It got me thinking about the effects that the hardness or softness of water has on the way we cook and experience our food and drinks.
The only other things that I have noticed besides needing more detergent with hard water is:
  • tea brewed with hard water tastes so much better, but that could be that was what I grew up with. I know that a good real ale will have been brewed with hard water.
  • boiling anything in a pan like eggs will leave a white mark around the edge of the pan, which is why we always have one old saucepan that is only used for boiling eggs.
I don't think that I have noticed any other differences in the way that I cook or taste.

What about you?
 
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I've had fresh water, from a well, that was hard water. Scale built up on a brand new element in the kettle within a week of it going in.

Got used to it quick enough, always have done. And up until this was posted never gave it much thought.
  • Commented on the food tasting different, but I've always put that down to it being fresher, meat included, and being in the country.
  • Tea, unless making for more than myself was teabag. After that the teapots came out. They browned quicker though. Different tea to what I use over here, adding to the taste difference.
 
Our water is so hard, everyone buys bottled water. There are bulk water machines all over town and every grocery store has one. You bring your own containers and fill them. The typical cost is $1 for 5 gallons (roughly 20 liters). Or 25 cents for 4 liters.
You also buy ice. We have a lot of lime in our water.
 
Cinisajoy said:
Our water is so hard, everyone buys bottled water. There are bulk water machines all over town and every grocery store has one. You bring your own containers and fill them. The typical cost is $1 for 5 gallons (roughly 20 liters). Or 25 cents for 4 liters.
You also buy ice. We have a lot of lime in our water.
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Do you use it for cooking or just for drinking?
 
Kake Lover said:
Do you use it for cooking or just for drinking?
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If we are boiling something that will be drained, we use city water. If it is soup or used in a recipe we use the bottled water.
Oh and if you try to make ice with our city water, it is white.
 
Curiously I actually have both soft and hard water where I live currently. My soft water is the rain water or tank water as it is also known, but it had a brown tint to it from the leaf debris in the gutters. It doesn't fur up the kettle of plans but they do get a brown hue to them. My bore water is hard water though and scales up the toilet and washing machine badly. It had a metallic taste and look to it because if the very old metal pipes used which are slowly failing.

I grew up somewhere began hard and soft water. I had exceptionally soft water in the lakes and Scotland because it was straight off the mountainside. In Scotland it was stained brown to the point of not knowing if the toilet had been flushed (politest way of putting it) and we used to have best fun in the bath as a result. But in the town in Staffordshire that we lived in, it was very hard water and limescale was a continual problem to the point of it being in the bottom of your mug everyone you had a hot drink. You got used to not drinking the last mouthful.

In Lancashire at uni the water was so soft that after 3 years there our kettle still looked brand new inside!

Tetleys actually do a different tea mix for each area which they launched a couple of decades ago and I don't mean the advertised hard water tea bags. Their standard teabag is different between hard water areas and soft water areas.

Personally I prefer soft water. I guess it is closer to what I know when living outside in the mountains. I just prefer the taste.
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
Curiously I actually have both soft and hard water where I live currently. My soft water is the rain water or tank water as it is also known, but it had a brown tint to it from the leaf debris in the gutters. It doesn't fur up the kettle of plans but they do get a brown hue to them. My bore water is hard water though and scales up the toilet and washing machine badly. It had a metallic taste and look to it because if the very old metal pipes used which are slowly failing.

I grew up somewhere began hard and soft water. I had exceptionally soft water in the lakes and Scotland because it was straight off the mountainside. In Scotland it was stained brown to the point of not knowing if the toilet had been flushed (politest way of putting it) and we used to have best fun in the bath as a result. But in the town in Staffordshire that we lived in, it was very hard water and limescale was a continual problem to the point of it being in the bottom of your mug everyone you had a hot drink. You got used to not drinking the last mouthful.

In Lancashire at uni the water was so soft that after 3 years there our kettle still looked brand new inside!

Tetleys actually do a different tea mix for each area which they launched a couple of decades ago and I don't mean the advertised hard water tea bags. Their standard teabag is different between hard water areas and soft water areas.

Personally I prefer soft water. I guess it is closer to what I know when living outside in the mountains. I just prefer the taste.
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I remember holidays in Scotland and also in Southern Ireland where the water was brown from the peat. We used to love how soft our hair was when washed in it. Such a contrast from the chalky Hampshire water which I think tastes nicer than hard water from a bore hole.
 
Its hard water here but we use a water filter for drinking water and for water that goes in coffee and tea. I'm not sure I can tell the difference, though.
 
I'm allergic to tap water (!) but can drink it in tea, coffee and hot chocolate or add it to food if it is filtered and then boiled, although I do use if for actually cooking veg etc. I live in a hard water area and, whenever I come home from visiting my daughter, even though I filter and boil the water, tea and coffee taste absolutely foul in comparison. It takes me a good few cups to get used to the taste again. Also, when I do the washing up, whether it's in the dishwasher or done by hand, I notice a white powdery scum on stainless steel and glass stuff in particular. Even when I leave things to drain after just rinsing them quickly, the draining board is covered in the same white powdery scum. If I put washing up liquid in the water, it doesn't foam hardly at all, so when I wash up by hand I squirt the washing up liquid on a damp sponge and give everything a wipe over with that before rinsing it off. The main difference in the water where my daughter lives and where I live is that their water comes from a reservoir; ours comes from the local sewage works :thumbsdown:
 
Elawin said:
I'm allergic to tap water (!) but can drink it in tea, coffee and hot chocolate or add it to food if it is filtered and then boiled, although I do use if for actually cooking veg etc.
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So you are not actually allergic to tap water but an additive in the water (not all tap water affects you this way). Quite likely fluoride which is often added to water in towns and cities now to help with peoples teeth.

My mother is not able to drink unfiltered tap water at all any more. It gives her IBS. Presumably there is something in their pipes which is setting her off. I'm assuming a bug of some kind (bacteria or virus) going by her symptoms. They have now invested in an expensive on counter UV system that also filters out various chemicals added by their water authority. Ironically they don't bat an eyelid over using the same water in their dishwasher which when we visited (before leaving the UK that is) I could taste. I would end up rinsing everything under the tap before using it because the soap residue on their dishes most notable when I had a glass of water in that the bubbles never dissipated from the surface of the water (I studied soaps at the surface interface for my (uncompleted) PhD in organic chemistry). I hated the taste of water there until I worked out that if I reused the glass it was fine (my refills not ones done by my mother who would give me a clean glass each time).

For me soapy residue on crockery actually makes me physically sick and is the major cause of travel sickness for me as well. I can be fine, have a cup of coffee at a service station in a mug rather than a take away cup and I can be throwing up at the side of the motorway within 15-20 minutes. So I now use my own, claiming it is more environmentally friendly etc.. It is and it saves me...
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
So you are not actually allergic to tap water but an additive in the water (not all tap water affects you this way). Quite likely fluoride which is often added to water in towns and cities now to help with peoples teeth...
Click to expand...

It cannot be fluoride. Our water does not have fluoride in it, and all tap water does the same. I also at one time had a hole in one of my teeth packed with fluoride paste without any effect. However, I can no longer use/drink anything with fluoride in because of interactions with one of my medications. I avoid bottled water/mineral water for the same reason. I very rarely drink even tea or coffee made with water when I am out and about, and usually end up having coffee made with milk if they do not filter their water. I had 2 sips of water a couple of years ago during a SALT appointment and ended up needing medical treatment; if it got any worse, I was to go to A&E. I try not to get water on my skin because I come out in blotches and start scratching myself to pieces, and wipes etc that have purified water in them have the same effect. I use prescribed oils and creams for washing and bathing and even washing my hair, and have some steroid lotion/creams for any side effects from the water (usually if I splash myself or miss a bit when using the creams). My late sister was the same.
 
My old Mum used to swear by washing her hair in rain water. But now I'm wondering if rain water is soft water or not.
 
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