What is hard water?
The so-called hard water is water containing minerals, mainly calcium and magnesium ions. The more calcium and magnesium ions there are, the harder the water is. When washing your face with hard water, calcium and magnesium ions interact with soap to form an insoluble calcium and magnesium soap, which is like a colloidal, sticky substance that adheres to the face and is not easy to remove. In this way, the original dirt on the skin is not washed away, and new dirt is added. The mucous substances formed by these dirt and calcium and magnesium soap are blocked in the opening of the skin glands, which not only blocks the excretion channels of the skin, forms embolism, stimulates the skin, but also affects the normal metabolism of the skin, and causes the skin to atrophy and age prematurely. Therefore, when washing our face, we should pay attention to choose soft water with small hardness. In nature, the hardness of well water and spring water is the largest, the hardness of lake water and river water is medium, and the hardness of rain water, snow water and distilled water is the smallest, so it is better to use the last three kinds of water to wash your face.
The soft and hard water is related to the taste, hard water is refreshing, most mineral water has a higher hardness, which makes people feel refreshing and delicious, and soft water is bland and tasteless. However, using hard water to make tea and coffee, the taste will be affected. Some food processing water is more particular, hard water will affect food processing, easy to cause protein precipitation, inorganic salt precipitation or more difficult to cook, and soft water is better used for beverage. Hard water should generally be softened to prevent accidents caused by too much scale in boiler. The lime scale on kettles and showerheads, the stubborn stains on tiles and sanitary ware in the bathroom, and the spots on glassware are all caused by hard water. Hard water causes household pipes to gradually clog, wastes energy, shortens the lifespan of water heaters, requires more detergents for laundry, damages cotton fabrics, and leads to waste.
At present, organic pollution of water sources in China is very serious, with an increasing number of organic substances. According to statistics, there are about 70,000 commonly found substances. The presence of organic matter in water protects colloids and improves their stability, not only increasing the difficulty of water treatment but also making it difficult to degrade toxic small molecular organic matter, which accumulates in living organisms and has strong carcinogenic, teratogenic, and mutagenic effects or chronic toxicity. The harm of organic matter to human bodies is often delayed, from discovery to disease requiring a long time, even 20-30 years. In addition, organic matter combined with chlorine disinfectants produces halogenated compounds, many of which have been confirmed as cancer inducers. Among them, volatile trihalomethanes and non-volatile hypochlorous acid are the main ones, with the latter's carcinogenic risk being 50-100 times that of the former.
What is soft water?
Soft water refers to water that contains little or no soluble calcium or magnesium compounds. Soft water does not form lather with soap, while hard water is opposite. Natural soft water generally refers to rain and snow water. Artificial soft water is obtained by softening the calcium and magnesium salts to a level of 1.0 to 50 milligrams per liter.
Compared to tap water, soft water has a very noticeable taste and feel. It has high oxygen content and low hardness, which can effectively prevent stone disease and reduce the burden on the heart and kidneys. It is beneficial to health. Soft water bathing, hair and face washing, smooth and delicate, especially beneficial to the skin of infants. It can also make your investment in beauty, hairstyling, and skin care more effective by half. Soft water washes clothes clean, fluffy, vibrant, and without residual detergent and taste, extending the life of clothes by more than 15%. Soft water washes dishes, teapots and other tableware crystal clear, and bathtubs and basins no longer have stains, saving a lot of detergent and being very labor-saving.
Household water softener mainly removes calcium and magnesium ions from water through ion exchange resin to reduce water hardness. Compared with tap water, soft water has a very obvious taste and feel, soft water has high oxygen content and low hardness, which can effectively prevent stone disease, reduce the burden of heart and kidney, and is beneficial to health.
