877-780-8260

How a Whole-Home Water Treatment System Can Help With Your Spring Cleaning

From deep-cleaning your floors to reviving your garden, spring home improvements start with your water. So why wouldn't you use the best?
Posted in Bad Tasting Water, Contaminant, Culligan Solutions, Drinking Water, Drinking Water System, Hard Water, Healthy Body, Healthy Home, Healthy Life, Home & Health, Reverse Osmosis, Tap Water, Total Home System, Water Filtration System, Water Problems, Water Softener, Water Treatment
High-quality water is an essential component to a healthy life and vibrant home. Make sure yours is up to par with a free water test from your local Culligan water expert.
FREE WATER TEST
There's nothing like a good spring cleaning to give yourself and your home a fresh start after a long winter. This season, clean more thoroughly by switching up the water you use.
In this blog, we'll explain how three types of water - hard water, soft water and reverse osmosis (RO) filtered water - can affect your spring cleaning. That way you can make the right decision for your home.
First, here's a quick run-down of each type of water:
  • Hard water: "Hard" water is high in dissolved minerals, specifically calcium and magnesium.
  • Soft water: "Softened" water is free of hard water minerals that cause buildup and scale.
  • Reverse osmosis (RO) filtered water: The RO process purifies water by separating out contaminants.
Are you using the right water for your spring cleaning tasks? Let's find out.

Interior Home Improvements

We'll go through the best type of water to clean different areas in your home, starting at the source.

Sinks, Tubs and Pipes

If your household water fixtures are stained or discolored, it's likely that the water itself is an issue. Hard water, contaminated water or a mixture of both can cause stains in your water fixtures.
You can look at the stains for clues. If the stains below sound familiar, we recommend getting a free Culligan water test:
  • Rust-colored stains, limescale deposits and white film suggest that you have hard water.
  • Reddish-orange, brown, black or blue-green colored stains could indicate water contamination*.
If you do have hard or contaminated water, no amount of scrubbing will keep these stains from coming back time and time again.
So, what's the solution?
Installing a water treatment system would keep your sinks, tubs and pipes clean for good. After completing a water test, your local Culligan water expert can help you determine next steps for treatment.
Depending on what you observe in your water, as well as your testing results, you can explore the different treatment systems available to address your concerns.

Floors, Counters and Other Surfaces

A good spring cleaning calls for thoroughly wiping down all surfaces. Including everything from the kitchen counters, appliances and dishes to the hard-surface floors throughout your home.
Cleaning with hard water can leave residue and cause mineral buildup, which is the opposite of helpful. Additionally, when you add soap to the equation, the calcium minerals in hard water can cause soap scum to form.
It's especially important to avoid hard water on hardwood floors. Hard water could not only leave a layer of film, but can potentially cause damage to the hardwood that would require sanding, refinishing or replacement to fix.
For a spotless shine on all of your surfaces, use soft water.

Laundry

Spring home maintenance also calls for laundering all the fabrics that don't make our normal washing cycles, like curtains, area rugs and guest bedroom linens.
Like with the surfaces around your home, using hard water to wash your laundry could actually add grime rather than get rid of it.
Whether you use a washing machine or do your laundry by hand, the minerals in hard water react with detergent and prevent it from doing its job. The reaction between minerals and detergent forms laundry "curds" that can clog machines and stick to fabric.
The result is dingy-looking linens that still feel dirty after being washed. The residue on the fabric will even attract and hold more dirt.
So, again, soft water is the way to go.

Exterior Home Improvements

Home improvements aren't limited to inside the house. Here's how to streamline your outdoor projects with treated water.

Windows

It's so frustrating to see streaks and water marks after cleaning your windows. Because these marks are caused by water impurities, they show up no matter what cleaning product you use. So, how do you fix it?
It shouldn't come as a surprise at this point that hard water is not the best choice. And while soft water is better, it's not the best. Softened water still contains minerals, so some easy-to-clean spots may occur.
Professional window cleaners use RO technology for squeaky clean, 100% spot-free windows. RO-filtered water has virtually no mineral content, meaning that any unwiped water droplets will eventually dry without leaving spots.

Gardening

If you're starting or reviving a garden this spring, it's best to use RO-filtered water. That said, using hard or soft water from time to time is not the end of the world.
Below is a breakdown of what soft water, hard water and RO-filtered water do to plants.
  • Soft water: Soft water in small doses is fine for plants. The reason we don't recommend it long-term is that the sodium chloride in soft water can cause a gradual sodium buildup in garden soil. This could lead to plant growth problems.
  • Hard water: It's okay to water most plants with hard water. However, be mindful of diverse or delicate plant life. If you use hard water on your plants, keep an eye out for damage caused by alkaline water or high levels of minerals.
  • RO-filtered water: RO-filtered water is ideal for outdoor gardens. It allows precise control of the nutrient flow, so you can better care for delicate plant life.
Want soft water in your home but not in your garden? No problem. Your local Culligan water expert can easily create a bypass for outdoor spigots, so you'll only get soft water where you want it.

Get Started

Before you dive into this year's spring cleaning, call on Culligan to check out your water quality and help you find the right water treatment solution.
Making the switch to soft water or reverse osmosis will give your home the better, deeper spring cleaning it deserves. By the time summer rolls around, your house will be shining from the inside out.
Schedule your free water test today!
*Contaminants may not be in your water.