Pro Handyman Blog

Here is the desert we get many unique plumbing problems. The water here is harder than a tax collectors heart. Many of us here have water softeners to make getting out of the shower less itchy.

Lots of people have water softeners (aka water conditioners), but don’t know or can’t tell if they are working. To me it’s pretty easy to tell if I have soft water, but I can understand how some people can’t tell.

You can perform a simple test to determine if you have soft water. You need a small container with a lid ( a baby food jar works great), water, and 1 drop of liquid soap. That’s it. As far as the container, if you don’t have a baby food jar, you could use a canning jar or something along that size or less but it must have a lid.

Fill the jar half full of water and drop in 1 drop of liquid soap. I like dishwashing soap, but you can also use hand soap in a pinch. Use water from a bathtub or shower and not the kitchen sink, as water softener loops are typically plumbed to avoid the kitchen sink. Screw on the lid tightly and shake the jar like it owes you money. If you have suds in the top half of the jar you have soft water. If your water settles back down with no soap suds you have hard water.

This is what I would call an “acid test”, in that it is not going to tell you the degree of softness, but rather an unscientific determination of whether or not you have soft water.