Ontario Water Hardness Levels

An instant hot or tankless water heater is extremely efficient.  The system relies on its advanced heat exchanger to quickly heat up water.  Scale and Lime tend to build up faster when water is heated, so to combat this problem a tankless is usually installed with flush valves, which allow vinegar to be pushed through the system dissolving the build up and returning the tankless to its original efficiency level.  This build up is exponentially increased as the grains or water hardness increases in communities and towns throughout Ontario.

Hard Water Causes Inefficiency

Below is an extensive list of Ontario cities and the corresponding water hardness that is present in the water supply.  The higher the number of grains the harder your water is, which, in turn produces more scale and deposits in your water heater, on shower heads, around faucets, and so forth.  A conventional water heater will become much less efficient with time in a hard water situation, and it can’t be cleaned. For this reason we recommend a tankless system that can be cleaned with a vinegar solution, restoring efficiency.

Quick Hard Water Exercise:

1. Lookup your city and see if you have hard water
2. Think about how old that 40 gallon hot water tank is in your house
3. Know that in on average at 7.5 grains of hard water a regular tank loses 2% efficiency a year to due scale build up
4. That 2% doubles to 4% at 15 grains and so on…..
5. After you do the math a tankless that is able to be cleaned of all scale becomes very economical

It’s always a good idea to have your water tested to determine not only water quality but water hardness and this list should be considered just a rough guide.