Jomovodin — Home Water Quality Guide | jomovodin.online
Four bands, three units, and what each band looks like in an ordinary kitchen.
Water hardness is classified in mg/L of CaCO3: soft 0–60, moderately hard 61–120, hard 121–180, very hard 181 and above. These four bands are the backbone of every test result you will read, whether it comes from a strip bottle or a utility report.
Soft water, 0–60 mg/L, leaves no scale in the kettle and no film on dishes. Moderately hard water, 61–120 mg/L, shows a visible film on dishes after a wash cycle and a light ring in the kettle over time.
On narrow screens, swipe or scroll the plate sideways.
Hard water, 121–180 mg/L, builds a scale ring in the kettle within weeks and coats heating elements over months. Very hard water, 181 mg/L and above, puts thick scale on heating elements and narrows pipes, which is why the filter family you choose matters at this end of the scale.
Hardness is reported in several units: mg/L (ppm), German degrees (dH) and grains per gallon (gpg). Keep your own figure in mg/L of CaCO3 so that it lines up with the bands above, and convert dH or gpg when a package or report quotes one of those scales instead.
Hard water forms when water percolates through limestone, chalk or gypsum deposits that consist largely of calcium and magnesium compounds. The same mineral load that produced 20 cm of deposit along the walls of the ancient Roman Eifel aqueduct after about 180 years of service is what settles on your kettle element today.
Further reading