Limescale: An unwanted guest in your house

The regular maintenance and cleaning of the kitchen and bathroom so that household appliances look clean, constantly descaling your kettle or coffee machine - does that sound familiar? How do these problems occur? Limescale of course, or more specifically hard water!

Soft water areas usually have a value of under 60 ppm deposits in your water (parts per million – ppm) while a very hard water area would register more than 180ppm. The solution to the limescale problem is obvious: naturally softened water! You can easily get that with a Luxury Water System, such as the BWT Perla Silk.

Limescale is tough on installations and house appliances:

Too much limescale in the water does not only have effects that are visually unattractive. Limescale can also become a problem wherever water is heated or evaporated because heat favours the deposition of limescale. So for example, limescale can become a problem in flow heaters, washing machines, coffee machines, kettles, in boilers, hot water storage tanks, also in heating pipes and in the entire drinking water installation.

As such it means that appliances have to be regularly descaled, often with potentially aggressive, environmentally harmful products. Heating pipes damaged by limescale increase the energy requirement and the service life of water carrying devices is significantly shortened. If too much water settles in the water pipes, it can lead to higher repair costs and expensive new acquisitions. In addition, if the water is too hard, you will need more soaps and detergent, that’s an extra cost and is harmful to the environment.

Hard water: beauty and health can also be affected!

HHard water also has an impact on our body, water that is too hard can make hair seem dull, leave your skin feeling dry. In addition, limescale makes fabrics such as towels, clothing and bed linen, brittle and rough. Limescale deposits in the hot water circuit can not only impair the functioning of the building services but are also an ideal nesting place for bacteria such as legionella. As this can become a health hazard, it’s important to consider looking at getting sustainable limescale protection..

Why is protection against limescale more necessary today than it used to be?

The problem of hard water has become an issue in the past 30 to 40 years because our lifestyles have changed and the demands on technical comfort have also increased. In other words, building services have become more complex and unfortunately, as a result, have become more susceptible to malfunctions and problems. If you look at a modern boiler, for example, even the smallest deviations from the target state can have a negative effect on functionality and efficiency. One of these disruptive factors is undoubtedly limescale.

Two different ways of fighting against limescale and hard water

The terms ‘limescale protec­tion’ and ‘soft­ening’ are often used synony­mously or inac­cu­rately - but there are major differ­ences between these two terms. The tech­nolo­gies that are used for this are funda­men­tally different::

1. Alter­na­tive BWT limescale protec­tion systems
Phys­ical water condi­tioners do not radi­cally alter the water chem­istry but are easy to install and inex­pen­sive to run. They inhibit the forma­tion of scale by changing its phys­ical prop­er­ties and are ideal for protecting specific appli­ances at the point where the water flows into them. The advan­tage? These limescale protec­tion devices work entirely without regen­er­a­tion salt..

2. BWT Ion-​Exchange process
To actu­ally soften water, BWT uses the ion exchange method. The hardness-​forming magne­sium and calcium ions are replaced by sodium ions. This tech­nology largely removes the limescale builders from the water and turns hard water into silky-​soft Luxury Water - with all the advan­tages that Luxury Water brings with it.