Hard water can be a real pain in the glass and shower, laundry machine, and personal grooming. Today we are going to look at what causes this grimy little nuisance. WHAT IS HARD WATER? Hard water is water that has a significant amount of dissolved minerals, mainly calcium, magnesium, and sometimes iron. As you may know, the composition of water is two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. When these atoms bond with carbon dioxide they form a very weak carbolic acid. Groundwater then flows over or through limestone dissolving very small amounts of minerals as it passes. These alkaline minerals then become held within the water, increasing the pH of the solution, creating hard water. Issues with hard water are problematic for many homes throughout America. SIGN’S THAT YOU HAVE IT! Hard water is kind of like annoying in-laws, you can always tell when they’re around. Except instead of constant nagging, hard water usually makes itself known in other ways. For example, pipe