Compiled by Alison with the help of fellow Jangloers.
hey y'all.. i got just a couple of very helpful responses on the hard water/washing machine/calgon heated debate.. thanks so much to those of you who answered! but i ended up getting tons of requests for responses.. so i figured it was easier and more helpful to repost them back to the group.. so here they are:
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The filter that attaches to the water inlet hose isn't a filter at all. It's a fake. It does nothing except separate you from some money. It is only a weak magnet causing the water, entering the machine, to flow quickly through a weak magnetic field. There is no way that this can change hard water to soft.(I am a retired physics teacher.) Repairmen who sell this fake don't understand the physics involved, and therefore usually believe that this "filter" actually does something. To know the truth would cost them the money that they make from sales of this scam. ----- Calgon does work as does vineger. They don't have to be used all the time, only periodically. I have never seen research which has determined how often. My guess would be only every 20th wash. When I asked Janglo how much vineger to use, the replyers said all amounts, fom a cup to a bottle. I also asked three repaimen. All recommended vineger, but differed on the amounts. What do I do? Every two months or so, I dump a bottle of the cheapest vineger directly into the drum (nothing else in the machine) and run the machine through a complete wash and rinses cycle. Then I do the laundry. For years I did nother about washing clothes is Israel's hard water. I didn't have problems then either. I do know that the hardness of the water shortens the life of the electric water heating element and also the drain pump. By how much ? Probably not much. It may or may not be worthwhile to be concerned about the "dangers" of our hard water. It depends on how much of a bother it is to do something about it.
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Re: washing machine. My washing machine died after 20+ years. Hard water and all. If you want to try one of the options, fine. But it's not an absolute necessity.
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i also asked a bunch of my friends who all said that they have had washing machines for tons of years, and have never used anything.. filter, magnet, calgon, etc.. so it seems like this is maybe a less huge deal than we are being told.
good luck to all! :)
alison
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