Removing Hard Water Stains from Toilets

removing hard water stains toilets

Hard water, or water containing high amounts of calcium and magnesium, can create a white or cream colored build up on any of your plumbing fixtures, water using appliances and dishes. These stains can be tough to remove and are particularly problematic on the toilet.

At Kinetico, we have water softening systems that make sure you and your family don’t have to deal with these kinds of stains. If you’re still waiting on a water softener installation and need some help cleaning tough hard water stains from your toilet there are a few methods you can try.

Baking Soda and Vinegar

Using these two basic household products, you can usually get rid of most basic stains. Pour a cup of vinegar into the toilet and use a brush to swirl it around a bit, let it sit for a minute or so and add a cup of baking soda, now quickly add another couple cups or vinegar to create a fizzing solution. Let this sit for about 10 to 15 minutes.

From here, use the brush to swirl the solution around to make sure all of the stains get ample contact with the solution. Do this for about 30 minutes total, regularly moving the solution around. Many stains will go away, if they don’t, use the toilet brush or a nylon brush to scrub.

Borax and Vinegar

Borax is a common cleaning product that can help remove hard water stains on plumbing fixtures. Pour a quarter cup of Borax into your toilet and swish it around, add a cup of vinegar and let the solution sit for 20 minutes. Then scrub the bowl to get rid of the stains.

Borax Paste

If your stain is a bit stubborn and won’t come off using the above methods, consider a Borax paste. First shut off your water to the toilet and flush it, then mix a half-cup of Borax with as much vinegar as you need to form a thicker paste. Quickly spread this onto your stains in the toilet until they’re completely covered – the paste will harden fast. Let it sit for 20 minutes and then scrub the area(s) with a stiff brush.

Sandpaper Scrub

For the toughest stains, you might consider fine grades of steel wool sandpaper. You can use this either with plain water or with other household cleaners. We recommend 0000-grade wool, which is the finest grade and will not scratch your porcelain.

Chemical Cleaners

And finally, if nothing else works, you can purchase chemical cleaners like limescale remover, toilet bowl cleaner or other similar products. Make sure you know the safety recommendations and be sure none of these chemicals will damage any of your plumbing fixutres.

For more on ridding your toilet of hard water stains, or to learn about any of our water softener or water filtration systems, speak to the pros at Kinetico today.

Importance of Water Softeners in Hotels

Water Softeners

For many homeowners, a water softener is nothing short of a blessing. Soft water is beneficial to both people and the home’s plumbing system, and is a fantastic investment for the homeowner who cares about their water quality.

At Kinetico, however, we’re here to tell you that residential needs are far from the only ones filled by water softeners. We have water softener systems for commercial buildings as well. Let’s look at some of the ways a water softening system can benefit a hotel, from the guests to the owners.

Owner Investment and Costs

Hotel owners and managers invest in water softeners for multiple reasons: Because they increase guest comfort, of course, but also because they help with the bottom line. Hard water creates issues in plumbing systems, particularly in large industrial systems like hotels that see lots of strain on a daily basis – water filled with minerals leads to fixture failures and issues with water heaters. Showers and faucets also require a lot more cleaning to keep them looking nice.

From a cost perspective, soft water is extremely beneficial for big plumbing operations like these. It reduces operating costs in numerous ways, from requiring less soap in laundry to keeping towels and linens soft and usable for longer periods of time.

Guest Laundry

Guests often pay a premium for hotel services, and they expect everything they receive to reflect this. This includes areas like laundry – guests don’t want towels that are stiff or dingy looking, but rather soft and fresh towels that feel like new. They also want fresh sheets to sleep on, and hotels need to be able to provide these services without breaking the bank. Soft water can save hotels nearly 50 percent on their detergent costs and get the same, or better, results than when using hard water.

Guest Comfort

Laundry isn’t the only guest-related area where water treatment makes a big improvement. Guests also bath or shower and shave using the water in their rooms and are really turned off when they notice hard water stains on plumbing fixtures or in shower stalls.

To learn more about how water softeners benefit hotels and other commercial buildings, or for information on any of our water filtration systems, speak to the staff at Kinetico today.

Basics on Powdered Drinking Water Add-Ons

water glass

For those who struggle with staying properly hydrated, using powdered drinks mixed with water can be a viable alternative. By infusing a little bit of additional taste into water, some people are able to increase their water consumption and hydrate more effectively – but is this healthy?

At Kinetico, we’re here to help with all these water-related questions. We have high-quality drinking water purifiers available to provide you with all the clean, purified water you and your family could need. Let’s go over how powdered drinks like Crystal Light and others work, how they help with hydration, and whether they’re safe.

Powdered Drink Basics

For starters, in most cases the basic answer to the question above is yes – powdered drink add-ins are generally safe. They come in a variety of styles and flavors, from protein powders to drinks using herbs, vegetables or many other ingredients. They may contain beneficial vitamins and minerals as well, including vitamins C, B-2, B-5 and B-6.

Hydration Effects

In most cases, these powders will dissolve into water quickly. This means they’re mostly made up of water – so if you enjoy the flavor, you might be able to up your water intake fairly easily.

The World Health Organization states that the average man needs 3.7 liters of water per day, while the average woman needs 2.7 liters, but you’ll need more if you play sports or live an active lifestyle. For some, these powdered drinks can help you get the water necessary to be properly hydrated.

Preventing Other Intake

Another possible benefit of these powdered drink add-ons is the way they can limit your cravings for other drinks that might not be so beneficial. Rather than sodas or dairy-heavy lattes and coffee drinks, you can fill your craving for flavor with a powdered addition that helps you stay hydrated without adding those other negatives into your system.

Staying Safe

If you’re unsure of a given powdered drink or some of its ingredients, take some basic care. Speak to your doctor about your hydration concerns, and find out whether you’re close enough to proper levels that a few powdered drinks could help push you over the edge. There may be certain powders you should limit to one serving per day, especially if they contain sugar or caffeine in higher amounts.

To learn about any of our water purification systems and how they can help with hydration for you and your family, contact the pros at Kinetico today.

4 Signs You Have Hard Water in Your Home

hose

For many homeowners hard water is a major issue in kitchens, bathrooms and laundry. Hard water is caused by calcium and magnesium dissolving into the water as it comes in contact with the earth.

Spotty Dishes

One of the early signs of hard water is spots, or a cloudy residue, showing up on dishes when taking them out of the dishwasher. This film isn’t a sign that your dishes aren’t clean, it’s residue left from the dissolved minerals in the water.  The spots are also very difficult to clean off and will eventually etch the glass.

Soap Scum

Another visible sign of hard water is “scum” found on the bathtub, the shower curtain or shower doors and walls. This kind of scum is created by a chemical reaction between the soap and the hard water. Soap scum will appear as a ring in the tub, spots or film on the tile or glass in the shower.

Scale Build Up on Faucets

Any water fixture will have a white, often time chalky, residue left behind where ever a spot of water is allowed to dry. Over time a white residue will build up at the end of the faucet and around the spray orifices on faucets and showerheads.  When water evaporates it leaves all of the minerals behind and that’s what forms the spots and scale build up.

Soap Doesn’t Go As Far

Another common effect of hard water is the way it makes soap less effective. Have you noticed that your soaps don’t lather or suds up as well as they should and you’re using far more soap than you expect? What about clothes in the wash – do they start to feel hard and stiff instead of soft and fluffy?  These are signs that you have hard water and you could use a water softener in your home.

At Kinetico, we’re here to help. We offer full-service water softener installation, replacement and repair so you can solve these issues once and for all.

For more on hard and soft water, or to learn about any of our water filtration services, speak to the pros at Kinetico today.

How Drinking Water Makes You More Effective at Work

glass of water

As employees and managers alike, we’re always looking for ways to improve our efficiency. People try all sorts of things to boost productivity when one of the simplest and best solutions is to drink more pure, healthy water.

Many people don’t realize how good water is for both the mind and body, and how drinking enough water can benefit you at work. Here are three areas where the benefit is clearly shown.

Physical Fitness

Feeling physically well is something we’re capable of, whether you’re a high-level athlete or not – and water plays a big role. A body that is properly hydrated is able to function at peak capacity, with benefits ranging from better breathing all the way to softer more full looking skin. If all you had to do to achieve better physical health is drink eight cups of water per day, would you?

Focus and Concentration

Many people feel tired at work, and look to pick-me-ups like coffee or other caffeinated drinks. In reality, this can cause its own set of issues – these beverages can dehydrate you, and this dehydration is often the primary cause of tiredness in the first place.

Research has indicated that people who are dehydrated have memory, concentration and even mood issues, on top of higher risks for anxiety. Drinking plenty of water to avoid this dehydration can help more than you might think.

Overall Energy Level

Coffee and similar caffeinated drinks can have side effects beyond dehydration, many go through a “crash” when the sugar and caffeine wear off – this slows down circulation and causes the body to naturally begin conserving energy. Choosing water helps restore proper circulation, which brings more oxygen into the blood and gets your energy level back up.

For more on how water helps workplace productivity, or to learn about any of our water filtration systems, speak to the pros at Kinetico today.

Winter Water and Weather Facts, Part 2

water splash

In part one of this two-part blog series recently, we went over several curious facts about winter weather and the water considerations that come along with it. As one of the wettest periods of the year in many parts of the world, we at Kinetico have a great interest in winter and water interactions.

Here in part two, let’s continue where we left off. Here is another set of remarkable facts you may not have known about winter weather around the globe.

Snowy City

Every year, citizens of Aomori City in northern Japan receive an average of about 312 inches of snowfall, a remarkable amount. This is about 26 feet of snow per year! This is the most average snow received of any major city on earth.

Salt

Salt is used on roads around the world to help remove ice and snow, and in the US alone, over 22 million tons of salt are used per year. That’s about 137 pounds of salt per person, per year.

Wind Chill

When talking about temperatures, have you ever heard the term “wind chill” used? This refers to the “true” feel of temperature – the air may be a given temperature, but wind speeds can make it feel even colder. This is calculated using a precise formula that we won’t even list here due to its complexity.

Snowball Formation

When we think of snowballs, we think of someone picking up a bunch of snow, then packing it together to make a snowball. But in some parts of the world, snowballs actually form on their own – “ice orbs” have been found in Siberia that reach nearly three feet in width.

Wet Snow and Snowmen

When building a snowman, you always want to go for wet snow. The perfect snow-to-water ratio, as determined by one scientist, is 5:1.

Snow Disposal

In some cities, there’s so much snow that it creates an issue with finding space to dispose of it. Certain large cities even dump snow in the ocean, but this takes heat from environmental organizations. Others use snow melters to melt snow at a high hourly rate, but this can be expensive and burn fuel.

Snowflakes Not Always Unique

We’ve all heard the legend that every snowflake is unique, and while this is usually true, there’s at least one instance of truly identical snowflakes. This happened in 1988 in Wisconsin.

Freezing Rain Versus Sleet

You may think of these two as the same things, but they aren’t. Sleet is a slushy form of water that’s semi-frozen by the time it hits the ground, while freezing rain is fully frozen.

For more on winter and water, or to learn about any of our water filtration systems, speak to the pros at Kinetico today.

Winter Weather and Water Facts, Part 1

water poured into glass

At Kinetico, water is our business. With products like our water filter system or water softener, you and your family can be content knowing you have clean, healthy water in all the areas you need it.

The winter is a particularly interesting time when it comes to water all around the world. In part one of our two-part blog series, let’s look at a few interesting winter weather trends, many of which relate to the very water you drink and interact with daily.

Snow in Unexpected Places

Most people expect snow to fall in northern areas of the world, but snow has been seen virtually everywhere on earth – including the Sahara Desert, even. Even the driest location on earth, the Atacama Desert in Chile, got over 30 inches of snow back in 2011 due to a strange cold front in from Antarctica.

Air Moisture and Snow

While rainfall is made up almost exclusively of water, snow – especially the fluffy kind – contains plenty of air, and this makes it bulkier. This means that not much moisture in the air is required to create snowfall, and a little air might lead to more snowfall than you’d expect.

Snow Fall Rates

For snowflakes with broad structures, snow generally falls at rates between one and six feet per second. Snow that falls in pellet form comes much faster.

Snowflake Sizes

An average snowflake will have a wide range of potential sizes: From just smaller than a penny to the width of a human hair. They can also grow much larger, though, with extreme cases being reported throughout history that reach up to 15 inches wide.

Thunderstorm Sounds

Most people associate thunder with rainfall only, but it can also be present during snow. This is called thundersnow, a rare winter occurrence that often happens close to lakes. Lightning can be tougher to see, though, and the snow can often limit the thunder sound.

Earth and Sun

The earth is closest to the sun during winter, though this distance has no effect on temperature drops in the winter – this relates to the direction of the earth’s axis, in reality.

Dropping Temperatures

During the winter periods, especially in the coldest months like January, temperatures can plummet in a hurry. In 1911, Rapid City, South Dakota began at 55 degrees Fahrenheit – only to drop all the way to 8 degrees in just 15 minutes, the quickest recorded cold drop in history.

For more on winter weather and how that affects your water, or to learn about our water filter offerings, speak to the pros at Kinetico today.

Problems With Hard Water and Acne

question marks

For many dealing with acne, finding a solution can be a frustrating process. You make big changes in numerous areas, from skin products to diet to exercise, and you’re still dealing with unsightly and potentially painful acne sores.

Have you considered that your water might be part of the problem? At Kinetico, we’ve seen numerous clients who switch from hard water to soft water and find major results with skin conditions like acne – why is this, and is there a connection between acne and hard water? Let’s take a look.

Hard Water Basics

Hard water refers to water that contains mineral buildups acquired from pipes and other appliances. The minerals in hard water, which can be found in numerous areas around the country, can leave deposits on kitchen fixtures and can etch or scrape glass in some cases.

You won’t always be able to see hard water buildups as they form, and that’s part of the problem – both for kitchen items and, perhaps more importantly, for your skin. The skin could be seeing major detriments from these buildups, and in our next section, we’ll go over how this relates to acne.

Skin Irritation

The goal of washing the face to reduce acne is washing away the various bits of uncleanliness on your face that have built up over time. But when you use hard water to do this, you’re really accomplishing the opposite – the minerals found in the water are actually adding to impurities on your face. Hard water also interrupts the way typical soaps and cleansers work on your face, and can block these soaps from washing away properly. All these factors can clog your pores and actively make acne worse.

Switching to Soft Water

If you’ve tried a number of other acne solutions without success, getting a water softener might be your best bet. Soft water won’t clog the pores, but will rather help clean and seal them as necessary.

For more on hard water and acne, or to learn about our water softener installation services, speak to the pros at Kinetico today.

Water Softening Explained

water going down drain

What makes water hard?

Water has a nasty habit of picking up magnesium, calcium, and other metal particles. If it picks up enough of them, as 85 percent of the nation’s water does, it becomes hard.  Water is defined as “hard” when it contains 121 or more milligrams of those particles per gallon.  If 121 milligrams doesn’t sound like much, consider that the average family of four goes through 146,000 gallons of water every year. Every three years, that’s over a half-ton of metal particles dragged through plumbing, with some of it staying behind, building up, and causing extensive (and expensive) damage. Although hard water can be safe to drink, it’s murder on water heaters, other appliances, and plumbing. That’s because those metal particles love to gather into rock-hard piles of gunk in the worst possible places, where sooner or later they’ll cost you money.

 How a water softener softens water

For those who are into physics, suffice it to say that water softeners remove hard water particles by means of an ion exchange. For those not into physics, here’s the plain English version. Inside every water softener tank are tiny beads made from specially treated resins. When the resin beads and hard water meet, a trade takes place. The water trades its calcium and magnesium particles for a small amount of salt from the resin beads. Unlike hard water particles, the tiny amount of salt in soft water is friendly to your water heater, washing machine, dishwasher, other appliances, plumbing, showerheads, shower walls, dishes, laundry, and skin and hair. It causes no problems because it stays dissolved and doesn’t pile up. Once the resin beads have given up all of their salt and collected all of the hard water particles they can hold, the water softener flushes them clean. That’s why you need to add salt from time to time to your water softener.

For more on how water softeners work, or to schedule water softener installation, speak to the pros at Kinetico today.

How Water Softeners Work

technician

As a homeowner or renter, chances are you’ve heard a lot about hard and soft water. These are definitions that describe the content of hard minerals in a given sample of water, with “hard” water referring to samples with higher quantities of these minerals and “soft” water referring to samples with lower (or absent) quantities.

At Kinetico, we offer the best water softener solutions around to turn tough, hard water that may aggravate the skin and cause several other issues into soft, clean water that’s both healthier and more comfortable for basic bodily use. Let’s look into the details of how a water softener works once you’ve had one installed in your home or business.

Hard Water Definitions and Statistics

The thresholds for hard and soft water are measured using the levels of hard water minerals in milligrams per liter of water. For water to be considered soft, it must contain less than 17.1 milligrams per liter (mg/L) of hard water minerals – anything above is considered some form of hard water.

Hard water varies in its definitions, however. Water in the 120 mg/L range is moderately hard, but becomes fully hard at about 180 mg/L. Anything above 180 is considered “very hard” water.

The prevalence of hard water in the United States is greater than many are aware of. Roughly 85 percent of US households are in hard water areas.

Ion Exchange

A water softener works using a process called ion exchange. The water softener contains resin beads that hold ion of either sodium or potassium – when hard water is passed through it, this resin captures dissolved rock ion (the hard particles we’re trying to eliminate). The resin then uses the sodium or potassium as a substitute, exchanging it for the dissolved rock ion.

Recharging

When all the resin in the water softener has picked up dissolved rock ions, it is now saturated. From here, the saturated softener is “recharged” with a saline rinse, which washes dissolved rock ions down a given drain and starts the process over again. The resin resets with fresh sodium or potassium, and is ready to soften water once again.

For more on how water softeners work, or to schedule water softener installation, speak to the pros at Kinetico today.