hard water differences

My warranty inspection client asked me why his water was considerably harder than his next door neighbors. Of course the neighbor does not have a softener or any other device installed. They live in a typical suburb neighborhood, still under construction, with city water.

How does he know this?

Where both homes tested at the same time, on the same day, utilizing the same type test kit/strip, from the same manufacturer, using the exact same procedure, etc… ???

If not… that’s why! :wink:

If so, are the homes situated in a way that they could be receiving their water from different watertowers/wells??? In my area, a next door neighbor could be 1/4 mile or more away, and easily served by different wells.

Thanks Jeff…

It all depends on who did the testing. When we moved into our home 23 years ago it had a private well. I wanted information so I called around to various places for testing. Each came back with… "You have extremely hard water and need a water softener system. Here is our best deal.

Something felt fishy. I called the County and they gave me the number of an independent testing lab that does the majority of well testing in this area. They came out, pulled a sample and lo and behold, I had some of the softest water in the area. 220 feet deep, ice cold and the aquifer is right off the Nisqually glacier on Mt. Rainier. No issues other than a typical long term vacant home coliform count.

Independent testing is the only way to know.