Thread: Water Hardness determines EVERYTHING

I was stationed in Groton, CT for a while and my ex-wife was from the NYC area...hands down the best pizza I have ever tasted. Argue the water issue all you want, but you can't fool these taste buds ;-)

HA! I've got the same problem. The water where I live has 250 ppm dissolved solids, and ph 8. I've never had good luck with soaps; creams lather much better for me.
The work-around I've come up with is to add aprox. 5 to 10 mL regular drug-store brand glycerine to my lather bowl before lathering. Too much can kill your lather, but a little helps to improve it's glide.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Old bakers tales.

Most of the stuff you mention just either uses differing prep techniques or the ingredients are different. It has been said Coors has the best possible water for beer brewing.

Ergo good water makes crap beer?? For hard water areas could you not get a water purifyer fitted to the relevant sink or water system? Aside from the cost it would seem like the answer to me. Hard water wouldn't be the best to drink I don't think, but I'm no expert on the stuff, And I drink any water, even the stuff from the creek so long as it's boiled, and I have added tea or coffee to taste. Most tap water here (Aust) is quite drinkable, unless your out woop woop somewhere.
I've long known that hard water is difficult to get soap working having come from said woop woop/back of beyond/outback/the sticks/boonies etc.


Mick

Try a Britta filter and pitcher. I live in the Miami Valley of Ohio and the water is pretty crummy. Our local water plant holds the water in settling ponds, then a silo type filtering & settling device. They have to haul away the "milk of magnesia" looking stuff they get out of the water.
We have had a Britta pitcher in the fridge for years. One day it dawned on me to try the filtered water since I have such a helluva time getting good lather.
I'd guesstimate about a 40-60% improvement over the tap water, and I now can try some previously used soaps and creams that didn't do so good in my tap water.

Originally Posted by MickR

Ergo good water makes crap beer?? For hard water areas could you not get a water purifyer fitted to the relevant sink or water system? Aside from the cost it would seem like the answer to me. Hard water wouldn't be the best to drink I don't think, but I'm no expert on the stuff, And I drink any water, even the stuff from the creek so long as it's boiled, and I have added tea or coffee to taste. Most tap water here (Aust) is quite drinkable, unless your out woop woop somewhere.
I've long known that hard water is difficult to get soap working having come from said woop woop/back of beyond/outback/the sticks/boonies etc.


Mick

It depends how you define quality water.

Hardness is the 600lb Gorilla in water quality and gets blamed for everything. You can actually have many issues that can affect water quality. Some you can sense and some you can't. You can have things like iron or too much chlorine and lead and Hydrogen Sulphide and Radon even gasoline as examples.

Most simple filters are carbon and make the water taste better by removing chlorine and a few other things. Softening only removes the calcium and magnesium ions. Really Reverse Osmosis probably takes out most of the nasty stuff though there are some other methods out there these days.

Water softeners can be had for as little as a few hundred bucks and reverse Osmosis about the same but as with everything else there are deluxe models that cost way more.