When residents move out of cities and into regional areas, their water quality changes drastically, with much different stresses than urban water. While city water systems experience large, centralized treatment with a consistent and high level of testing, regional systems fluctuate, town to town, and home to home. Some regional property owners have town water that runs through decades-old piping and treatment from the local municipality. Others rely upon bore water or tank water that hasn’t been tested in years.
Hard water shortens the life of hot water systems and other appliances quicker than people realize. Mineral-heavy water clogs showerheads and causes the worst stains. Iron-rich means white clothes become orange, coffee tastes disgusting, and these problems become compounded with time. While new faucets may work perfectly when installed, four years later they’re corroded, and residents would have paid good money to do something about it had they only known the quality of their water beforehand.
Unfortunately, most residents recognize their water quality problems at the last moment—appliances fail or plumbing issues arise. However, knowing what the water is like in any given location helps prevent extra work—and stress—and costs down the line.
Knowing What’s in Regional Water
Regional water faces problems that urbanized towns never understand as part of their stock. Even town water in regional places comes from different sources than others. Sometimes its bore; sometimes its surface water from small rivers or dams. Treatment facilities in these areas are often smaller, older and less well-funded than their urban counterparts.
Whereas bores present other problems—health within the ground can be specific to different regions. Some bores are drilled for miles with no positive outcome to what ends up coming from the tap. Other homes have potable conditions; others have water that’s so hard or laced with minerals that systems die before even being out of warranty.
Tank water presents other challenges. Rainwater catchment systems can produce amazing quality of water for homes, but so often tanks are improperly maintained or the catchment systems aren’t reliable. The first flush after heavy rains can create debris-carrying, poor quality taste that stains everything and turns everything tacky at best.
Those with consistent water problems should call in the experts. Local professionals, like a plumber in Barossa Valley SA, knows the region and can counsel on appropriate protection systems and treatment ones for what’s available in the area and what problems are most commonly found there.
Seasonally poor or fluctuating quality of regional water surprises many new homeowners, too. Bore water can be hard one year and soft another depending on rainfall; town water can be seasonal depending on what time of year treatment plants get into certain bores or reserves.
How Poor Water Quality Damages Home Systems
Hard water is probably the most debilitating aspect of homes in these areas. Dissolved minerals = calcium and magnesium—which will build up within hot water units, dishwashers, washing machines and whatever else requires heating elements—and decreases efficiency.
Hot water systems suffer first. Electric components get bogged down in mineral-heavy residue (which acts as insulation), compelling them to work harder than necessary. They fail sooner rather than later. Gas hot systems suffer from scale build up within heat exchangers that also promotes failure as their efficiency decreases. Storage tanks see sediment develop atop hot elements that fades their value and continues corrosive pressure.
Washing machines and dishwashers also get less effective—with clogging parts working against them to make clothes dirty instead of clean—and shortened lifespans making soap scum residue build up even worse than it was before.
Any plumbing fixture shows signs of poor water quality—showerheads get clogged, taps get stained with build-up, toilet bowls become permanently ringed beyond recognition for cleaning products to make a difference.
Knowing Prevention is Worth While
Water testing is an absolute must for prevention for a plethora of reasons. Knowing exactly what’s in your system helps assess the pH, levels of minerals and any other dissolved particles or issues that could create decreased operational efforts in all manners of effective appliance needs as well as make someone sick.
Many regional users operate far too long without ever knowing what’s in their water.
Softening systems help prevent hard water by taking the minerals out altogether; modern designs are much more efficient than those when softeners first became popularized, and they help prolong lifespan efforts for appliances while making them more efficient for inside household needs; if it works for your better good, then chances are what you’ll invest initially will pay out dividends when you realize you don’t have to buy new appliances every other month.
Filtration can help get rid of excess BS—iron filters can help negate that metallic taste certain bore systems have; carbon filtration allows taste improvements and subtracts chlorine as well as chemicals used in treatment; UV sterilization provides ultimate protection against bacterial uptake.
Regular maintenance keeps everything running smoothly—from checking salt levels in softeners to making sure filter cartridges replace at intervals equal to manufacturer recommendations—sometimes they’d work better uninstalled if you didn’t put anything on them—but a half-ass approach provides negative results quicker than one might assume.
Simple Maintenance Solutions
Maintenance habits exist without dedicated treatment plans by simple efforts to mitigate big-time mistakes down the line.
Flushing hot units once a year prevents accumulation and extra corrosion that could make a system giant months before its actual time developing all sorts of performance concerns like heating to capacity.
Cleaning recommendations help prevent natural changes per age as well. Additional treatments help washing machines/dishwashers run their cycles properly to keep drum and filtering parts essentially clean when all those element parts need pre-calibrated setting timers meant for interior circuits but essentially equal new replacement parts every few months instead.
Taking note of constant pressure can expose mistakes long before they happen—reduction in showerheads/tap flow can mean buildup once seasons pass through active use—and getting someone in before more expensive damage occurs helps resolve what’s certain sooner rather than later.
Regional homes rely heavily on ongoing problems, too. Bore systems that smell clear often turn brown during the wet seasons; sometimes tanks help keep things airtight but when they flush systems all is lost unless catchment was private after heavy pressure drove everything where it shouldn’t have gone.
When You Should Call The Professionals
When problems persist through DIY efforts it’s best to call a pro. It’s not worth investigating something yourself only to troubleshoot complications beyond what’s your expertise.
Professionals assess valuable input processed through feedback like anecdotal workings from pros who’ve assessed what’s wrong in ultimate focuses away from just what’s obvious at first glance.
Treatment options exist since common themes provide relative standards for what’s making your home sick.
Systems operating balky reliably through substitutes burn out faster than you’d presume from summer usage at reduced costs.
Tastes, smells and discolored particles warrant concern whether it’s a bad DIY effort gone wrong or untreated situations gone south—if you can’t figure it out it’s only going to hurt your health/trust down the line when you keep waiting for it to get better instead.
Understanding your regional situation helps determine what’s best for your home from investment purposes down to personal efficiency; those who choose to invest proper channels decide what’s worth it for quality of life so both appliance investment and treatment options up front help all those behind know they’ve made the right choice all along!
