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Have you ever felt that your clothes are losing their colours or feel rough on your skin after washing?
People often blame their detergents or the fabric softener they use, but often forget the most important element – water hardness. Yes, it could be the Hard Water to blame!
Hard water roughly affects 60% of the UK, affecting an even greater number of homes. It contains minerals like calcium and magnesium in amounts that cause limescale build-up affecting your kitchen appliances, bathroom fixtures, as well as your laundry.
When you use hard water for your laundry, it can make your clothes lose some of their softness while the bright and vibrant colours tend to fade after fewer washes than you might expect. The reason is the calcium present in the water combines with the dirt and soap to create scum making your detergent less effective than in soft water so you end up using more detergent and longer rinses to get your clothes clean. It not only affects the fabric and feel of your clothes but can also irritate sensitive skin.
4 Simple rules to help keep your laundry feeling soft
- Detergent Dose: When using detergent, it is best to follow the instructions stated by the manufacturer about the detergent dose (usually mentioned on the product label) for the best results and to ensure that you are using the right amount for your laundry.
- Washing Machine Load: Don’t overload your washing machine. Your washing machine works best when the clothes can tumble freely, and the water can pass through the fabric easily. Making sure you do not exceed the maximum load of your machine while doing laundry helps your washing machine to work effectively and efficiently.
- Drying Conditions: Drying in the open air is both eco-friendly and good for your clothes when you follow this simple rule. Avoid extremely hot weather and direct harsh sunlight Instead dry your towels in a light warm wind.
- Hard Water: Hard water contains excess minerals like calcium that result in limescale deposits within your washing machine as well as on the fibers of your clothes. This in turn affects the fabric of your clothes, one of the main reasons behind your hard laundry and towels.
Effects of Hard Water on Your Laundry
You might have purchased a good quality washing machine or have invested in expensive detergents and fabric softeners. But all these things will have to work harder to help keep your laundry soft, fluffy, and colourful, if your water is hard.
The minerals in hard water are notorious for hampering the lathering of soaps and detergents, and for creating annoying hard to remove scum. In your washing machine things get no better as the minerals combine with your detergent and become less effective, allowing the minerals and scum to cling to the fibers of your clothes, making them more difficult to rinse away. This can leave your clothes and towels feeling a little less soft than you might hope. Adding more detergent and conditioner or raising the temperature of your wash might help. But delicate fabrics and colours do not respond well to hotter water and excessive chemicals. The result? Vibrant colours can become muted and clothes start to feel harsh to the touch.
Maintaining expensive and delicate clothes like silk and cashmere becomes more difficult with hard water. And sometimes people end up spending more money on maintenance than the actual cost of the material. Or end up with damaged clothes with fabrics weakened or worn out.
Test Your Water Hardness
Before you invest in buying a high-end washing machine or expensive detergents, it is important to figure out the real problem first as the reasons could be numerous. So, start with testing your water hardness!
Hard water testing kits are readily available and will help you test the hardness of your water almost instantly. Â Knowing the hardness of your water can help you make informed decisions saving you money and helping you select the right products to protect your weekly wash.
To order a hard water test kit, you can visit our website and order yourself a FREE Hard Water Testing Kit by using the code HWTK1 at the checkout and pay our standard P&P or add to a qualifying order for free delivery. We also offer a wide range of water softeners designed to treat hard water, resulting in soft, silky smooth water ideal for your everyday lifestyle.
Softened Water – For Softer, Fluffier Laundry
1. Your laundry feels cuddly soft and colourful
Softened water helps you protect the fabric of your clothes during every wash. It doesn’t matter whether it’s T-​shirts, baby rompers, towels, or bed linen, softened water makes fabrics feel softer and fluffier.
Since softened water has no or very little amounts of calcium, there are no minerals  to cause any limescale formation. It is perfect for your washing machine maintaining its efficiency and performance. It also prevents your clothes from losing their softness and colour. Which means your coloured clothes look colourful and white clothes look white and shiny, plus the fabric stays in good condition.
Softened water also eliminates the need for using fabric softener or expensive detergents that you might previously considered to maintain the quality of your favourite clothes. With the right detergent dose, correct drying method and soft water you can easily maintain and protect your laundry from unnecessary damage. You can feel the difference every time you wrap yourself in your fluffier towels or warm bathrobe.
Softened water is the perfect solution to keep your clothes fluffier and softer.
2. Less use of detergent – To protect the environment & Save money
With softened water you can typically use up to 50% less detergent, washing powder and conditioner helping the planet and your pocket.
Excessive use of detergents means more chemicals being released into the water, which eventually finds its way into our rivers and oceans thus polluting the planet. While more detergent consumption means more expense.
Those who wash their laundry with softened water need as little as half the detergent of those people using hard water and can in some cases totally skip using fabric softener altogether. This is not only good for the environment, as it helps you save money. But also, for your washing machine meaning no limescale deposits on the heating element and no scum around the drum.
In other words, you don’t need to buy expensive descaling chemicals or spend money on expensive repairs. Softened water is ideal for you, your home and for the environment!
BWT Water Softener – The Ultimate solution for hard water
If you live in an area with hard water, then it is most likely that you are already a victim of hard water or have experienced its effect in a lot of ways – limescale build-up within your appliances or rough, hard laundry.
To treat hard water and prevent your home from its inevitable effects, it is best to install water softener such as a BWT WS Luxury Water Softener. It provides you with soft, smooth Luxury Water across your home that has many benefits– no limescale deposits, no water marks on cutlery and dishes, no scum in the bathroom, and it’s good for your skin, hair and for your laundry.
BWT water softeners work on the ion exchange process that takes the calcium out of the water and turn it into silky, soft luxury water. BWT water softeners can be easily installed by one of our trained installers or partners for a hassle-free service and for your peace of mind. For more details you can visit our BWTShop or get in touch with our team.