Hardness of the water

pet2

Hi,

What is hardness of the water in Cork?

Irish Water: Alex

Hi pet2,

As hard water has no associated health risks, we would not carry out tests for it and would be unable to provide information for Cork.

If you would like to get your water tested to check if you have hard water, you can find a list of accredited testing facilities at www.inab.ie/Directory-of-Accredited-Bodies/Laboratory-Accreditation/Testing.

Thanks,
Alex

pet2

pet2 wrote: »

Hi,

What is hardness of the water in Cork?

Cork City tap water wouldn't be considered hard
No issue with scale etc etc

pet2

Augeo wrote: »

pet2 wrote: »

Hi,

What is hardness of the water in Cork?

Cork City tap water wouldn't be considered hard
No issue with scale etc etc

Thanks Augeo, 

I need to set up new dishwasher and the settings depends on the water hardness. I think that even for soft water, the water hardness can be measured. In all supermarkets in Cork they are selling salt for dishwasher, so I assume that spite of soft water in Cork, the water still should be softened for the machine to operate properly.

  

Indeed, the hardness of soft water can indeed be measured. I used to do that as part of a job I had years ago. I might be able to dig out a Cork City water softness value for you at the weekend  

Is it defo the Cork City tap supply you are on?

PMBC

Augeo wrote: »

Indeed, the hardness of soft water can indeed be measured. I used to do that as part of a job I had years ago. I might be able to dig out a Cork City water softness value for you at the weekend  

Is it defo the Cork City tap supply you are on?

Ring the city council water services and they should be able to tell you approx. Check as well the dishwasher instructions and it should give you an idea of the hardness scale that they are referring to - on was 'the Clarke scale' so that you can ask for hardness figures in that scale. If water services don't know they might refer you to the water works in your area.

Alun

PMBC wrote: »

Ring the city council water services and they should be able to tell you approx.

I tried that here in Bray, and they hadn't a clue. All that they could tell me was that it was "quite soft" or something vague and woolly like that.:D

We shouldn't need to get our own water tested if it's coming from a large water treatment plant such as we do here in Bray, i.e. Vartry Reservoir, it should be regularly tested, and the results made public on Irish Water's website like it is in pretty much every other civilized European country. It really isn't rocket science.

PMBC

Alun wrote: »

PMBC wrote: »

Ring the city council water services and they should be able to tell you approx.

I tried that here in Bray, and they hadn't a clue. All that they could tell me was that it was "quite soft" or something vague and woolly like that.:D

We shouldn't need to get our own water tested if it's coming from a large water treatment plant such as we do here in Bray, i.e. Vartry Reservoir, it should be regularly tested, and the results made public on Irish Water's website like it is in pretty much every other civilized European country. It really isn't rocket science.

If from a surface  reservoir it is soft water and you wont have to worry about it for machines such as kettles etc. that heat water as part of their 'work'.
Hardness in water/hard water is associated with groundwater i.e wells, boreholes etc where the hardness relates to the rock formations. IMHO hard water is 'tastier'/'livelier' as it contains these dissolved minerals such as Calcium and Magnesium. It should be better also for bone formation but I have no knowledge on that.
Regarding (water) treatment, in Ireland public water supplies are not treated for hardness or softness as it is not a health issue. Groundwaters are usually only disinfected and fluoridated while surface waters require additional treatment of removal of suspended and dissolved particles as well as screening to remove debris.

blade1

Irish Water: Alex wrote: »

Hi pet2,

As hard water has no associated health risks, we would not carry out tests for it and would be unable to provide information for Cork.

If you would like to get your water tested to check if you have hard water, you can find a list of accredited testing facilities at www.inab.ie/Directory-of-Accredited-Bodies/Laboratory-Accreditation/Testing.

Thanks,
Alex

It is associated with health risks.
My mother got scalded when the shower went from cold water to spitting out boiling water due to lime scale build up.
State of the water in my area is a disgrace.
Can't even wash something with it, just leaves white blotches on everything.
Even cups of tea look disgusting with blotches floating around in them.

TheChizler

Boiler should only be set to 65 °C, if the water is coming out boiling something is seriously wrong with your setup.

blade1

No settings on boiler.
Only happened when shower head got clogged with lime scale.

frisket

blade1 wrote: »

Irish Water: Alex wrote: »

Hi pet2,

As hard water has no associated health risks, we would not carry out tests for it and would be unable to provide information for Cork.

If you would like to get your water tested to check if you have hard water, you can find a list of accredited testing facilities at www.inab.ie/Directory-of-Accredited-Bodies/Laboratory-Accreditation/Testing.

Thanks,
Alex

It is associated with health risks.
My mother got scalded when the shower went from cold water to spitting out boiling water due to lime scale build up.
State of the water in my area is a disgrace.
Can't even wash something with it, just leaves white blotches on everything.
Even cups of tea look disgusting with blotches floating around in them.

The wooly BS from Irish Water is a typical dereliction of duty. They should be the first people to be able to tell you exactly the hardness (in a real scale, like mg/l of calcium carbonate) for anywhere in the country. It should be their duty and pride to know this stuff. Instead, we get a load of plámás about health risks and how they don't test the water. What a bunch of lazy, ignorant, bone-idle shirkers and no-hopers. It's clear that Alex didn't even know that Cork has very soft water...what on earth is s/he even doing working for them not to know this kind of thing?

Alun

frisket wrote: »

The wooly BS from Irish Water is a typical dereliction of duty. They should be the first people to be able to tell you exactly the hardness (in a real scale, like mg/l of calcium carbonate) for anywhere in the country. It should be their duty and pride to know this stuff.

I agree. In most other civilized countries you can simply log on to the local water supplier's website and it'll just tell you.

Whether it's a health risk or not is utterly irrelevant, it's an important thing to know when, for example, setting the water hardness setting on a dishwasher for the water softener.

For example, where I used to live in the Netherlands ...



How hard (no pun intended) would that be?

Valid points..... when I worked in water treatment we'd measure softness of incoming city water routinely..... twas just what one does when in the water game

Baffling Irish water don't do so.