Water Hardness

[Cathar Tours]

Not really a DIY question so I decided to put it here. Just bought a new Dishwasher and it is asking how hard my water is. How do I find out the Water Hardness Value of our water in deg E? Is there a website?

[mint]

If you put "carte de calcaire" in google, you'd find lots of info.  I'd do you a live link but there is other information besides just maps of France with pretty colours.

Hope you find what you need.

[Cathar Tours]

Hi, thanks for that.

 

Unfortunately the French use a different way of measuring to UK English. They call it "f" (not to be confused with Fahrenheit) and the UK uses E. What the difference is I don't know, science not being my best subject. Anyway fortunately I have instructions in just about every language so I can look it up on the French instructions and transpose it across to the UK one. I have owned a couple of dishwashers and never had to set this up before. This time I bought the Which recommended Bosch (SMS88TW02E), they say this was the best dishwasher ever made at the time (2015) until Samsung bought their new model out which is not currently available in France.

 

For anyone who is interested I found the following government website where you can type in your commune and get the latest test results.

 

http://social-sante.gouv.fr/sante-et-environnement/eaux/article/qualite-de-l-eau-potable

 

Select your region from the map then you can enter your commune.

[mint]

Is the link here any good to you?

[url]http://www.unitedutilities.com/documents/WaterhardnessFactSheet.pdf[/url]

[Cathar Tours]

Because I can cross reference the French to English instructions I am OK. If I were not able to do that then the "Drinking Water" table in your link would be very helpful. It might also be helpful for others.

[Judith]

Our mairie puts the regular test of water quality on their web site ... I cannot remember if it includes hardness.  As it happens, I have another route to the information as a very good French friend is in charge of technical services for the locality, with water his special concern, so if needed, I can get the info straight from the horse's mouth, as it were.  And he speaks good English as well, so no problem of understanding, even if we occasionally both struggle to find the correct word in the other's language!

[Pierre ZFP]

All I know is that the water in my region is incredibly hard.

As the late great Terry Prachett said

'Too thick to drink, too thin to plough'

[YCCMB]

Our water is also very hard. Sort of "One lump, or two?" hard.

[mint]

[quote user="You can call me Betty"]Our water is also very hard. Sort of "One lump, or two?" hard.[/quote]

Strangely enough, it would have to be three lumps in our old house but only two lumps here and the two houses are only about 45 minutes apart by car.

[Gardengirl]

We have hard water here in the Gard as well as as in the south of England. I always use too much soap, shampoo etc when in soft water areas and end up covered in lather and bubbles, which happened during a recent visit to Scotland.

It's said that hard water is better for health, although I don't know if there's proof of that; there ought to be some compensation for the extra outgoings for all the various products we need to buy.

I know some on here will say we don't need to buy shampoo, but I couldn't stand more than 3 or 4 days without washing my hair when I tried that method; my scalp itched dreadfully and my hair looked several shades darker than its usual fair/blonde colour.

[Gardengirl]

Oh dear, that big laugh symbol was meant to be where I said about compensation for products we have to buy! Sorry, I can't seem to change it.......

[mint]

GG, I understand that hard water is better for the heart and arteries and not good for the kidneys (stones, etc)  But, it's not something that I have bothered to learn more about.

The non-poo thing, you've got it wrong![:P]  It's NOT about not washing your hair, you wash it as often as you like (probably twice a day in the summer for me) you just don't use shampoo.

[cajal]

..........and end up covered in lather and bubbles,

Any possibility you could post a photograph?  There is a Photography or a Wildlife/Nature board.

regards

cajal

[Gardengirl]

Mint, I did wash my hair using just water, but it just didn't work - I know I probably didn't give it long enough for a fair trial. I definitely didn't like the itchiness or the darker hair.

Do you think it works for somebody with greasy hair who is fair/blonde? Or maybe only those who have ungreasy dark locks?

Cajal - 'Oh, you are awful - but I like you!' - Dick Emery.

[mint]

I don't know about the type of hair, GG.  I was a fanatical hair washer, always had thick hair but the constant washing (and shampooing) seemed to make it greasy and so it was a bit of a vicious circle, wash and shampoo everyday and the need to wash and shampoo everyday increased and so on.

Now hair still nice and thick but no, hasn't got darker like yours has, if anything it is just generally greyer........ha, ha!  But I don't mind the grey because I think it looks quite nice[:)]

Edit: forgot to say that I didn't stop using shampoo because of problems with my hair but the hard water where we were was making my skin very dry and the constant hair washing with shampoo cascading down my back made my skin itchy and dry and I developed eczema on my back.

[itxjohnlee]

Yes you can find all the information here or watersoftenershub.com

[pomme]

Our recent Siemens dishwasher came with a kit containing free samples of tablets, softener, etc. but also a few colour-changing strips which could be used to check the water hardness.

You can buy kits - just search for "test de l'eau de dureté" e.g. From Amazon https://tinyurl.com/qqcxpjz (the cheapest will be from China and could take a month or two to arrive)