Kitchen Renovations: Don't Try to Do It All Yourself

When you invest in new kitchen appliances, you want to know that they will last for many years before they need to be replaced. So, if you have hard water and want to invest in a new dishwasher and/or refrigerator with an ice maker and water dispenser, there are a few things that you should do to ensure the hard water doesn't decrease the length of time the appliances work well.

What damage do you have to worry about?

Hard water contains high levels of calcium and magnesium, among other contaminants. Over time, the hard water could cause scale to build up in the plumbing and inside the appliances themselves. This can cause the plumbing to clog and/or decrease the amount of water reaching the appliances and eventually damage some of the components in the appliances. For example, the heating element inside your dishwasher could become caked with scale and stop heating the machine as it should.

What can you do to decrease hard water damage?

A Water Softener

The best thing that you can do is invest in a whole-house water softening system. This system will remove contaminants from the water before it enters your water lines. If you already have a water softener and still have hard water, keep reading. There are further preventative measures that you can take to improve the quality of water before it enters your appliances.

The Ice Maker and Water Dispenser

Choose a refrigerator with a good filtration system before the water reaches the ice maker and water dispenser. Some refrigerators have filtration systems in them, but the filter is inside the unit which makes it more difficult to change the filter often.

The filter should be located externally so that you can change it out often. If your water is very hard, consider installing a secondary filter on the water source.

The Dishwasher

Focusing on filtering the water before it enters your dishwasher is very important. If hard water is used in a dishwasher, the machine itself will be damaged, as well as your dishes. The contaminants in the hard water will clog the jets, cake onto the heating element and clog up the water lines.

Invest in an under-sink filtration unit. This unit will filter all of the contaminants out of the water before it enters your dishwasher.

Clean your dishwasher often. This can be done by simply pouring 2 or 3 cups of white vinegar into the bottom of the dishwasher and running it through a wash cycle while it is empty. The white vinegar will break down any built-up scale in the machine and keep it running well.

Talk with someone at a business like Arnold's Appliance to learn what appliances will do well with hard water and what you can do at home to prevent the water from damaging your big investments.