Thank you, B.L., for your inquiry.  The  WaterWorks Total Hardness Test Strips (480008) CAN get used to test pool water.

Importance of Water Hardness in Swimming Pools

Pool owners should test for water hardness for several reasons including:

• Soft water (low hardness) can act in a corrosive manner and 'pull' elements out of pool surfaces resulting in liner damage and/or pitting of pool surfaces.
   
• Hard water (high hardness) will not allow other chemicals such as chlorine tablets and powders or pool water balancing chemicals to dissolve in the water.
   
• Very hard water may leave tough-to-remove calcium deposits on pool surfaces.
   
• Improper water hardness balance in pool water can result in other chemicals not functioning properly.

What is Difference Between Calcium Hardness and Total Hardness?

Total hardness readings include concentrations of calcium as well as magnesium where as calcium hardness readings include only dissolved calcium concentrations.

What is Considered Hard Water and What is Considered Soft Water?

For drinking water, tap water and well water purposes:

• Very Soft Water: 0 - 40 ppm total hardness
   
• Soft Water: 40 - 120 ppm total hardness
   
• Hard Water: 120 - 425 ppm total hardness
   
• Very Hard Water: Greater Than 425 ppm total hardness

Grains per Gallon vs. Parts per Million

Depending upon where you look, water hardness gets reported as grains per gallon (GPG) or parts per million (PPM).

To convert between the two measurements, simply divide your parts per million value by 17.5 to get grains per gallon or multiply your grains per gallon value by 17.5 to get parts per million.

"Hi, I recently purchased a 12 year old home in Central Indiana that came with an water softener (waterboss model). The owners claimed it to be working during the closing. When we moved into the house, we filled the softener with salt and allowed the softener to regenerate. Then we tested the water from several faucets and sinks using a standard water softener test strip and it shows that the water is hard (between 180-250 ppm). However, at the same time the water feels quite slippery, esp. after washing with soap and the dishwasher absolutely leaves no scales. Also I used the common test suggested in the web : taking a bottle, filling it halfway with water, adding dishwasher liquid and shaking to check for foam. That seems to wok pretty well too, the mixture foams up quickly and stays like that. Should I replace my water softener ? Any other tests to check ? Just want to ensure that it is not working before buying a new one. Any pointers will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!"

We hear somewhat conflicting information in your inquiry, so we find ourselves at somewhat of a loss for clear response. 'Slippery' feeling water and the ability of water to generate soap suds easily plus no evidence of scaling or deposits leads us to believe the water softener functions as it should, but the fact that the standard water softener test strip still showed 'hard water' leaves us a bit puzzled.

You may wish to do one (or more) of several things at this point:

1) If you have not done so already, you should consider testing your water before it goes into the softener and after it exits the softener using the test strips you currently have. If the strips show you have hard water during both tests, then either the strips do not work or the softener does not function properly.

At that point we would suggest re-testing the water (before and after the softener), again, but this time using a different brand of water hardness test strips. If the water reads equally 'hard' both times then you can probably rule out the test strips as the problem.

2) Since you expressed other water quality concerns, you may want to re-test using a more comprehensive drinking water test kit such as the SenSafe Water Quality Test Kit, WaterSafe Well Water Test Kit, or COMPLETE Water Test Kit which all test for water hardness plus other important water quality parameters.

3) Contract with a well water specialist to come out and look at your well's integrity, test the water, and look at various aspects of your water softener such as valve integrity. Over time the seals in some valves may wear down and allow untreated water to mix with softened water.

How long after the expiration date will they work?

We recently posted an article on the topic of short shelf life test strips on this site because we get asked this question a LOT. You can read that article here: Do Tests Strips with Short Shelf Life Still Work?

To answer the question directly, though, we have this to say: “If properly stored since the date of manufacture the products should still work, but no one will guarantee the product’s accuracy beyond the date stamped on the bottle.”

The answer above actually applies to pretty much ALL products that come with expiration dates if you think about it. But, in order to hedge off lawsuits from potentially disgruntled consumers with really old or poorly stored products, manufacturers do have to put a time limit out there.

Are WaterWorks Total Hardness Test Test Strips the right product?

Regarding the matter of ‘is the WaterWorks Total Hardness Test Strip the best product for you, that would all depend on what you believed you needed to test — since this product detects only Calcium and Magnesium.

If looking just to make certain your water softener functions as expected, meaning it reduces calcium and magnesium hardness as described by the unit’s manufacturer, then we believe WaterWorks Total Hardness Test Strips should work just fine for what you want to do.

Now on the other hand, if you have curiosity about other potential water contaminants (i.e. lead, nitrates/nitrites, coliform bacteria, arsenic, etc.), then this product will not cover all those bases and you will want to consider a product that perhaps includes total hardness test strips as well as test for the other items you would like to test for.

If the latter situation sounds more like your situation then we suggest you consider a multi-parameter water test kit like the SenSafe Water Quality Test Kit, WaterWorks COMPLETE Test Kit, or the WaterSafe City Water Test Kit.

Each of the those kits offers slightly different water testing options and each comes with easy-to-follow directions that make testing one’s water for a number of critical water quality parameters a painless process.

So, with that in mind, we would like to thank DodgeGirl for having the courage to ask a question about water hardness that many other folks may also want the answer to.

What does total hardness include?

While it may sound reasonable, and possibly even logical in many ways, that water hardness would include ‘hard’ substances like iron, copper, chromium, zinc, and various other water metals, a total hardness reading includes only a combination of the following two elements: Calcium & Magnesium.

Testing for total hardness?

Several methods for total hardness testing exist and the easiest method, dip-and-read total hardness test strips, usually take less than a minute to use, do not require the use of potentially dangerous or hazardous reagents, and cost very little — usually less than $10 for a bottle of 50 tests.

Testing for iron?

Earlier in this article we posted an image that will take you to our online store where you can purchase the WaterWorks Total Iron Visual Test Kit which, as its name implies, allows you to visually determine the amount of total iron in your water source — unlike a number of other iron tests which detect only dissolved iron.

Our well water before filtering was high hardness according to the builder when we moved into our new house and we saw that the first time dishes got done. We had SPOTS on all the glasses plates and cups. Then the bathtub junk started and we had lots of scummy caked on stuff that we had to clean out of the showers a lot. SO we put a water filter in and the scummy junk all but disappeared… but water now feels slippery and like it dowes not get all the soap off us when we shower. Is that normal?

After doing a bit of research we found conflicting answers regarding why softened water feels slippery to the touch.

• We read in a Culligan Water (Mid-Missouri) article that soft water does not have ‘scum’ (calcium & magnesium ions bonded to soap particles) that gets deposited on your skin and since your skin therefore has no ‘scum’ on it to cause friction, water then feels slippery.
   
• On a Collective Science Q & A Site we read that the slippery feeling comes from the depositing of soap ions that would ordinarily have bonded with the calcium and magnesium that the water softener took out. Apparently in the absence of those metals the skin’s weakly positive charge becomes a magnet for negatively charged, free-floating soap particles. Therefore, the deposits on skin make water seem slippery.

Which do we believe? Although both answers seem somewhat plausible, we believe that the first answer has a lot more merit. Why do we believe that? Quite simply, since soft water fails to leave deposits on other surfaces that possess weakly positive charge, why would it selectively leave deposits on the skin?

Testing for water hardness (aka: total hardness)

The simplest water test method for hardness involves using a dip-n-read testing product such as the WaterWorks Total Hardness Test Strip. Just dip the indicator test pad into a water sample, remove it, and match the developed color to a corresponding color on the product’s color chart.

Will too much or too little hardness hurt me?

We have yet to hear of any cases where overly hard water negatively affected the health of a person and, coincidentally, we have also not heard of a case where softened water negatively affected a person’s health.

Hard water WILL, however, shorten the life expectancy of plumbing, water heaters, refrigerator ice makers, washers, and any other devices that use (or transport) water in your home. Oh, and it will increase the amount of cleaning you will have to do in the shower stall to get the ‘soap scum’ off of, well, pretty much every surface.

With that said, today’s inquiry came to us from ‘Cass’, a concerned woman from North Carolina with concern over the origin of high hardness in her drinking water.

Hi. Can you explain why water has hardness in when it when it comes out of a well? If rain water becomes well water wehere does the hardness come from? Shouldn’t the water just be water?

Thank you for the question, Cass. When droplets of rain water form in the atmosphere they contain nothing but good old hydrogen and oxygen with no dissolved minerals. In that state the water has a tendency to react with pretty much any and everything it comes in contact with and our atmosphere contains quite a bit of carbon dioxide.

As the water mingles with atmospheric carbon dioxide a weak acid (carbonic acid) forms. That acid makes the water slightly more aggressive and once the water reaches the ground it then filters down through soil, rock, bedrock, etc. where it has a chance to dissolve and then absorb tiny amounts of each of those materials.

The more aggressive the water becomes on its trip down through the atmosphere and/or the more contact the water has with the ground as it makes its way through the Earth and into an aquifer, the more dissolved minerals (i.e. calcium, magnesium, metals, etc.) the water will contain when pulled up by a well for use in one’s home.

Testing for water hardness?

While wet chemistry titration test kits have provided reliable water test results for many years they do not have the same monopoly on accuracy, reliability, affordability and ease of use that test strips such as WaterWorks Total Hardness possesses.

The WaterWorks Total Hardness test strips allow interested parties to perform total hardness in water testing in under 15 seconds and get results they can depend on each time.

Perils of hard water?

Too much dissolved calcium (or magnesium) in water can result in increased soap/detergent consumption for washing machines and dishwashers, lackluster performance of shampoos & conditioners, dry skin, dish (water) spots, bathtub rings, clogged plumbing, and a host of other problems — some of which cost a lot of money to fix!

For more information on the effects of hardness (dissolved calcium & magnesium) in water and/or how to soften, treat or otherwise condition hard water, please check out the articles in Water Testing Blog’s Hardness Archives and Water Softener Archives.

Popular articles in those archives include:

• Water Softener That Does Not Use Salt?
• Is Soft Water Salty?
• Converting Grains per Gallon (GPG) to Parts per Million (ppm)
• What Should You Test if You Have City/Municipal Water?

If after testing your water for hardness you determine that you need (or would like) to purchase a water softener, we suggest taking a look at the products offered by Filter Water, a leading online retailer of traditional ‘salt-based’ water softeners as well as the more modern and environmentally friendly ‘salt-free’ water softeners

Hi, I hope you can help me with a problem I’m having in my restaurant. I’m getting ridiculous amounts of buildup clogging the prefilter things on the hot water line of my dishwasher and tell the truth I’m sick of replacing the d#amn things. Not that they cost a lot, but it’s a pain in the #ass to get to them and one day I’m afraid I might strip the fittings and then I’ll REALLY have a problem. So do they make filters for hot water lines? All the filters I’ve seen in stores work for cold water lines only. Thanks. ErnieB_121

Thank you very much, Ernie, for a colorful email. Ha ha. We can totally understand your frustration with having to replace hard-to-reach inline filters.

We believe you may find a filter housing and filter for your application at WaterFilters.Net, an online retailer of commercial and residential water filtration products. When last we checked they carried three different styles of housings for hot water filters and a good assortment of filters to go in them.

One thing you failed to mention Ernie… Where does the residue clogging your lines come from? What does it consist of? Calcium? Iron? Manganese? Radioactive sludge from the planet Mars? Not poking fun at you, just trying to make a point: you need to test your hot water — after it cools — and find out what sort of deposits you have so you can purchase the correct filter for your needs.

The links below will take you to products you may find useful when attempting to determine what contaminant(s) you have in your hot water line:

As with any water quality investigation, if you have reason to suspect contamination of your water supply with potentially harmful compounds and/or chemicals, we highly recommend having your water tested by a certified water testing laboratory such as National Testing Laboratories.

If you have a green thumb, or at least TRY to have a green thumb, then the following information about water filtration products for gardening applications may benefit you.

First of all, determine if you have excess water hardness coming out of your garden hose using a test kit such as the WaterSafe Chlorine & Hardness Test Kit pictured on the left.