Getting rid of Hard Water

Hard water is not hazardous to our health. In fact, hard drinking water generally contributes a small amount toward total calcium and magnesium that a human dietary needs. In instances that dissolved calcium and magnesium were very high, water could be primary contributor of calcium and magnesium to the diet.

But not everybody knows that it must be softened. Majority of the households might wonder why clothes washed in hard water often look dingy and feel harsh and scratchy. Yes, this is due to the hard minerals combined with some soils to form insoluble salts, taking them difficult to remove. Thus, continuous laundering in hard water can damage fibers and shorten the life of clothes by up to 40 percent.

Not only has that, bathing with soap in hard water left a film of sticky soap curd on the skin and in washing dishes, especially in a dishwasher, hard water may cause spotting and filming on your crockery. And these definitely posed a serious problem to each and every household.

Hence, it would be ideal solution to leave the calcium in the water, but alter its state so that it couldn't form lime scale. And definitely, the solution is either to filter the water by distillation or reverse osmosis to remove the calcium and magnesium, or to use a water softener. Filtration is definitely expensive to use for all the water usage in a house and therefore a water softener is the most affordable solution that every household has to consider.

So what can water softener do? The idea on how a water softener works is really simple. Sodium ions will replace the calcium and magnesium ions and the problems on hard water is eliminated because sodium does not precipitate out in pipes or react badly with soap. Thus, to do the replacement, the water in the house shall run through a bed of small plastic beads or a chemical matrix.

Soft water is definitely safe for drinking because softened water still contains all the natural minerals that each and everyone needs. It’s only the calcium and magnesium ions which were taken off and some sodium is added during the softening process. It is likewise advisable that softened water contains only up to 300mg/L of sodium. Thus in areas with extreme hardness the softened water must not be used for the preparation of baby-milk, because high sodium content after the softening process has been carried out.

Breaking free from classic diamond and gold

Through the years, jewelries have been part of the human evolution. History tells us of extreme demand for costly gems which set the style for an extravagant use of gold mounted with diamonds, pearls, jades and rubies. With the emphasis on lavish display and the intrinsic value of precious stones, the craftsmanship on the metal settings was neglected and became inferior. Today, trends shifted to sculptural or architectural ingenuity using pretty much cheaper silver.

But what can simple silver do? Yes, for some people over 40’s this really sounds bitter. But for those who were born not later than 70’s, this is really fashion. You can’t even miss a thing specially hanging out on conspicuous places. People even claimed this craft never goes out of style.

Cheap and simple

Unlike diamonds and gold, almost everybody can easily acquire silver works. The cost is reasonable compared to the elegance it offers. Throughout history, it has been associated with purity. It is quite soft, and malleable for use in jewelry. Since it comes with variety of styles, there’s no need to mount any traditional jewels, rather than using it a pure metal of 100%. Some metals, namely copper, are added to a molten mixture of 92.5% in order to produce the resistant, high polish whitish metal alloy known as “sterling silver”. This “925” label is often stamped in order to reliably note the fineness of the silver jewelry.

Artistic and freestyle

Stylistically, silver is like a “chameleon” that may impart a sense of age and antiquity with its blackish coloring and it can also morph into a contemporary piece of sophisticated jewelry with gem stones and it can also be plain and understated and worn daily like with many of the pieces of plain, unadorned and unaltered pieces of fine silver jewelry. Thus, you can really appreciate the uniqueness of its design. For artists, it has showed their freedom of expressions. The designers even modeled tattoos for their crafts.

Tarnish ability

It's a little known fact, but a pure of silver does not tarnish in pure air and pure water. It’s pollutants in air and water that cause it to tarnish, specifically trace amounts of sulfur gases in the air and hydrogen sulfide in water. Light speeds up its tarnish ability process. For this reason it's a good idea to store it in a zip-lock bag and keep it out of the sun.