Water Quality (Hardness/Softness)

[PoshRichM]

Hey, everyone, first post in a while.

I've been shaving and shaving and shaving, and generally getting great results with just my SMF brush, HD Classic and the assorted creams and soaps in my arsenal, but there's an issue I really need to deal with in order to get the most out of the soaps I have (QED, Tabac, Col. Conk, L'Occitaine, even some custom melt & pour I made myself).

That thing is water quality. I live in quasi-rural Alabama (Alabaster, if anyone heads out this way), and our water is hard, as in scrub-the-razor-weekly hard, as in wash-the-brush-in-Dawn-monthly hard, or soap scum gets everywhere, preventing things from functioning well. My Hot Pot has actual scales in the bottom from all the calcium deposits! My poor brush will actually repel water and lose bristle flexibility if I don't get the deposits out frequently enough.

Anyway, all this is to make the point that I have to use a lot of cream or soap to get decent lather, and often I can get very little lather out of premium soaps like my Tabac or QED Lavender, even with copious water and swirling, leading to frustration in keeping lather shave-viable, and even a few terrible shaves from horrible lubrication (tough to achieve with QED, but I've managed).

What do the others out there do about hard water? Will a commercial softener do the job? Salts of some kind added to the hot pot?

-Rich

[mike]

Rich, Nice to hear from you again. I too have hard water in my home. I use a couple of teaspoons of baking soda to my water. It seems to help. Good luck.

[Rik]

Hey, everyone, first post in a while.

I've been shaving and shaving and shaving, and generally getting great results with just my SMF brush, HD Classic and the assorted creams and soaps in my arsenal, but there's an issue I really need to deal with in order to get the most out of the soaps I have (QED, Tabac, Col. Conk, L'Occitaine, even some custom melt & pour I made myself).

That thing is water quality. I live in quasi-rural Alabama (Alabaster, if anyone heads out this way), and our water is hard, as in scrub-the-razor-weekly hard, as in wash-the-brush-in-Dawn-monthly hard, or soap scum gets everywhere, preventing things from functioning well. My Hot Pot has actual scales in the bottom from all the calcium deposits! My poor brush will actually repel water and lose bristle flexibility if I don't get the deposits out frequently enough.

Anyway, all this is to make the point that I have to use a lot of cream or soap to get decent lather, and often I can get very little lather out of premium soaps like my Tabac or QED Lavender, even with copious water and swirling, leading to frustration in keeping lather shave-viable, and even a few terrible shaves from horrible lubrication (tough to achieve with QED, but I've managed).

What do the others out there do about hard water? Will a commercial softener do the job? Salts of some kind added to the hot pot?

-Rich

Hi Rich,

We'd have the same problem if it weren't for our household water softener. In our neck of the woods it is a must have item. I just assumed everyone had them. Without it we'd be lucky to get 3-4 years life out of our water heater. As it is, I still need to change the anode rod once a year.

It's tied into the hot water system upstream of the water heater. The cold water goes untreated.

The few times I've forgotten to add salt to the system, I might as well have shaved without water and would've gotten less irritation.

For your hot pot, add some "Bar Keepers Friend" and wipe it out. This stuff is pretty amazing.

[Austin]

Rik, is right. A water softner will help tremendously.

[PoshRichM]

Dang, doesn't look like water softener units are cheap. Here's hoping I've got one that's just in need of a salt charge.

-Rich

[PoshRichM]

Well, after some research into exactly what water-softening units look like I can say with some certainty that I do *not* have a WS unit.

However, I have tried adding a teaspoon of table salt to my hot pot for the past two mornings, and it seems to be making a big difference! I do still have to wet the visage with hard water, and rinse with hard water from the faucet, but I soak my brush in soft stuff now, and use soft water in my lather.

In short, the lather (I've only tried with creams so far, but soap will come with the new week) now comes together easier, my shaves have been noticeably better lubricated by the soft-water lather, and the scaling in my hot pot and the mineral deposits in my brush are beginning to dissove and should eventually vanish!

I highly recommend we make the salting-hard-water point for any newbies in the future who have lather trouble.

-Rich