Solving Hard Water Laundry Problems
Don’t you just love the feeling of pulling your laundry out of the dryer and feeling a warm, fuzzy towel against your skin? Well, if you have hard water, that’s a sort of fantasy, since the minerals in your water supply will cause your towels and other types of laundry to feel dry, scratchy, and downright dingy.
The good news is that there are plenty of ways you can solve hard water laundry problems and get your towels and clothing feeling as soft as the day you bought them.
For Hard Water Stains
Besides making your laundry feeling scratchy, hard water can sometimes leave white or grey streaks on your clothing or cause your fabrics to turn a shade of gray or yellow. It takes a bit of effort to remove these stains, but it can be done! Just follow these steps:
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- Add four times the normal amount of detergent you normally use as well as one cup of water conditioner to your water machine.
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- Let the machine run using the hottest water safe for your clothes and just long enough for the clothes to get wet.
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- Allow your clothes to soak there for at least 12 hours or overnight.
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- Drain the basin and spin your clothes without agitating them.
- Lastly, run the clothes through your washer as you regularly would, just without detergent.
We’re sure, by now, you’ve read that and noticed that it takes a lot to reverse the damage hard water makes on your laundry. Not only do you have to use a lot more detergent, which means buying more of it, but using more hot water and running your washing machine more often means high utility bills.
So, what are you supposed to do? There has to be an easier way to solve hard water laundry problems, right? Luckily, there is.
Solving Hard Water Laundry Problems
The easiest and most efficient way to solve hard water laundry problems is installing a water softener. When you have a system that softens your water, your laundry will be cleaner and softer with just regular washing — no extra effort. Hard water exists in 85% of American homes, and if you’re experiencing scratchy or discolored laundry, it sounds like yours is one of them. Time to give the professionals a call! In the meantime though, here are a few additional steps you can take to prevent towels from prematurely deteriorating due to water hardness:
- Add 1 cup of ammonia — and no detergent — to your towel load and wash it on the hottest setting. This can help remove stubborn deposits.
- Stop over-stuffing your washer to make cleaning and rinsing easier on your machine.
- Less is more when it comes to detergent. Using more won’t make your towels and cleaner, but quite the contrary, can damage or wear them down them instead.
- Give them a quick shake before going into the dryer. This helps preserve the fluff factor!
At Aquarius Water Conditioning, we analyze water closely, examining for a variety of contaminants and conditions that detract from the best water you can have. We provide purified water and the most advanced water softening via Kinetico’s state of the art systems. For the best water in Minnesota and Wisconsin, give us a call at 888-741-9025.