Okay, so the soap test was a little dramatic. Let’s get scientific—the kind of science you can do while watching TV. Boil a cup of your tap water in a clean glass pot and let it cool completely.
Pour the water out and look at the bottom of the pot. If you see a white, chalky residue that looks like a tiny desert landscape, that’s calcium carbonate. It’s the same stuff in antacid tablets, but now it’s haunting your cookware.
This residue is actually precipitated minerals. In super hard water areas, you can literally hear the water “sigh” as it leaves a crust on your heating elements. I’ve seen kettles that looked like they had a bad case of dandruff—gross but fascinating.
4 Ways to Test Water Hardness (Easy Methods)
