water hardness
Sign in to saveAlso known as hard water
degree of mineralisation (content of multivalent cations) of water
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- physical property
- Subclass of
- physical quantity
- Has part
- carbonate hardness
- Image
- Complexometric titration.jpg
Show 1 more fact
- facet of
- hard water
via Wikidata · CC0
~22 min read
Encyclopedic overview
A bathtub faucet with built-up calcification from hard water in Southern Arizona Hard water is water that has a high mineral content (in contrast with "soft water"). Hard water is formed when water percolates through deposits of limestone, chalk or gypsum, which are largely made up of calcium and magnesium carbonates, bicarbonates and sulfates.
Drinking hard water may have moderate health benefits due to the mineral content. It can pose critical problems in industrial settings, where water hardness is monitored to avoid problematic limescaling in boilers, cooling towers, and other equipment that handles water.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “water hardness” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.