WATER

Even though Susan and I grew up in Perth there are some things that we don't remember or didn't notice. And it's about water which is somewhat ironic as that's the reason we came back - the water of the Indian Ocean, pool water. We remembered the bore water and the orange marks on paths and building from our childhood but we hadn't remembered that Perth water is notorious because it's hard and mineral-rich. And I certainly didn't realise what that meant for glass shower screens. The result is white mineral deposits causing cloudiness, streaks and in some cases even etching as soap residue clings to the glass and captures the minerals. I just couldn't work out why the cleaners (yes - we have succumbed and now have fortnighly cleaners) didn't seem to do a very good job of washing the glass screens in our en-suites until I realised just how hard it was to get off. 

Leighton Beach

We tried every hack in the book (aka youtube) from professional products to combinations of vinegar/alcohol/bicarb/lemon/salt. We managed to clean them a little but not enough so we enlisted some professionals. I was somewhat surprised by size of the quote for cleaning two showers but then I watched over hours and hours and hours as they tried to clean the glass without destroying the screens. And on one screen (mine), they almost gave up because the mineral deposits had etched so heavily into the glass.

We now have perfectly see-through shower screens, covered by a special product that will prevent the build up in the future. But now I wonder what that water is doing to me, the two shower a day person? If that's what it does to glass, what's it doing to my hair? My skin? But maybe I'm now too old to care?

It appears that different suburbs have different water quality. Our water supply comes from groundwater, desalination plants and surface dams and the mineral issue comes from the high percentage of water that flows through limestone undercround formations, absorbing calcium and magnesiumoalong the way. Joonadalup in the north has very high hardness. Rockingham in the south has strong groundwater mineral presence. Midland in the east has higher sediment from older pipes. Fremantle and Cottesloe have a higher desal blend with a sharper cholrine 'bite'. I haven't been able to get an exact measure for Willagee and I have to confess that "water hardness" wasn't on my check list when we were looking for a house. 




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