A good share of the houses we visit north of the Parkway are on well water, and well water in this part of New York is generally hard. That is not a health problem. It is an appliance problem, and it is the single most predictable one we see up there.
Scale is an insulator
Every time water is heated, some of the dissolved calcium and magnesium comes out of solution and settles on the hottest surface it can find. In a dishwasher and a washing machine, that surface is the heating element. Scale conducts heat badly, so the element has to run hotter to push the same energy into the water. Hotter means shorter life, and the problem when it comes is sudden.
The same deposit narrows spray arm jets, blocks inlet valve screens and coats the sensors that decide when a cycle is finished. So you tend to notice a performance problem first and a breakdown second.
What it looks like from the outside
- Glasses coming out of the dishwasher cloudy in a way that does not rinse off.
- Cycles getting longer without anybody changing a setting.
- A white crust visible around the spray arm holes or the door seal.
- Laundry feeling stiff, and detergent that seems to have stopped working.
What to do about it
If the house is on a well and has no softener, a softener is the answer and everything else is a delay. Short of that: run a descaling product through both machines twice a year rather than annually, use the rinse aid reservoir and keep it filled, and take the dishwasher filter out monthly and rinse the scale off it rather than only the food.
On a washing machine, drop the wash temperature where you sensibly can. Scale precipitates fastest at high heat, so a machine run mostly at 105 degrees scales far more slowly than one run mostly at 140.
If an element has already gone, it is a repair rather than a replacement in almost every case, and the starting prices are on our pricing page. Call 914-527-5055.
