Hint – it has nothing to do with liquid fabric softener.
If you long for soft, fluffy laundry but are left with stiff or dingy garments at the end of laundry day, don’t despair. The solution is simpler than it seems. While many products on supermarket shelves today make big promises about improving this common laundry issue, they often make the problem worse. The key to your laundry woes comes down to your water quality.
How Does My Water Quality Affect My Laundry?
If you don’t already have a whole home water purification system, odds are your home has hard water. Hard water contains extra minerals, such as calcium and magnesium. These extra minerals prevent your laundry detergent from working efficiently. Rather than lifting the dirt out of your clothes and rinsing it away, the extra minerals bind and trap the detergent within the fibers of your clothes. When you dry a garment with traces of detergent, the result is a stiff or unclean feeling. With each wash, you trap more minerals and soap residue within your clothes, meaning your detergent can’t properly penetrate the fabric. Over time, this trapped residue will weaken the fibers, causing thinning or even holes in your favorite pieces.
Liquid fabric softener, scented softening beads, or specialty laundry sheets won’t fix this problem. While they are designed to help the fibers in your laundry stand upright and have a fluffier feeling, they too are impacted by the presence of hard water. Just like detergent, the chemicals from these products will get trapped in your clothes and do more harm than good.
Long Term Damage to Your Machine
In addition to the cost of replacing damaged garments, unmitigated hard water can also cause damage to your washing machine and pipes over time. Hard water prevents your washing machine from working efficiently. The harder your machine works, the faster it breaks down. In addition, the excess calcium and magnesium can build up in the internal components of your machine and the surrounding plumbing. This means you’ll need to replace your washing machine more often than if your home did not have hard water.
The Solution?
White vinegar is a long-held solution for battling the impacts of hard water in laundry. The acidity of the vinegar breaks down the excess minerals and helps the detergent to work more efficiently, producing softer, cleaner laundry. In addition, vinegar has some odor-fighting properties, helpful for a load of dirty towels or gym clothes. However, it is not recommended to use vinegar in every load of laundry as the acidity in vinegar can also cause damage to the rubber gaskets and hoses inside your washing machine.
If you want reliably clean and soft laundry, the solution is to make sure pure, clean, softened water is running through your washing machine. A whole home water purification system will remove these common excess minerals and can even be customized to meet your home’s unique water challenges. Installing a whole home system will make a noticeable impact in your laundry room, kitchen, and bathroom, allowing your laundry detergent and household cleaning products to work effectively and efficiently.
Want to take the first step? Schedule a FREE in-home water test today to find out exactly what’s in your water, how it’s affecting your home, and how a whole-home system can help.
