What is the water hardness in Spain? Is hard water bad?

What is the water hardness in Spain? What is the hardest or softest water? Why is the water hard? Is hard water bad for your health? Why does hard water often taste bad? How does water hardness impact limescale?

When we turn on the tap, it’s not magic. It comes from somewhere. The quality and the taste of the tap water depends on that somewhere including the source of the water treatment. In theory water treatment plants can change the content of the water completely. But to turn hard water into soft water is expensive, a waste of healthy minerals and bad for the environment.

We’ve collected data on water hardness for over 1000 locations in Spain and other places in Europe and made it available for free. Check out the water hardness where you live here: water.backup.tappwater.comm

Why is the water hardness hard?

Hard water is water that has high mineral content. Usually this is cause by water passing through deposits of limestone, chalk or gypsum which are largely made up of calcium and magnesium carbonates, bicarbonates and sulfates. These are all essential minerals for humans so from that perspective we are fortunate if we have hard tap water. But not everything about hard water is good as you will see below.

How is water hardness measured?

Seawater is considered to be very hard. Typically seawater’s hardness is 5000-7000 ppm. In contrast, drinking water hardness in Spain ranges from 15 to 1000 ppm.

What are the negative aspects of hard water?

Water with high levels of hardness may be frustrating when you wash your hands as it can stop a soapy lather forming. Very hard water might also have a salty taste. Hard water can create other issues, such as imparting an unusual flavour in tea and causing a build-up of scale minerals in hot water appliances and water pipes.

Another issue seldom talked about is that hard water combined with chlorine causes poor taste. This is why the tap water along the coasts in Spain including Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante, Murcia and Malaga have such poor tasting tap water.

Thankfully this is easy to fix with a high quality water filter such as TAPP that will remove the limescale.

Hardest water in Spain

What is the highest water hardness reported in Spain by the water companies? We checked our database to find our and the top 3 is.

1. Jaén 600
2. Ciudad Real 600
3. Barcelona 580

Note: Unit is in mg CaNO3/L or ppm and water hardness varies during the year so may change by us much as 300 ppm between highest and lowest measurement.

Softest water in Spain

This is a slightly more challenging question as many water providers simply state that the water hardness is soft or below a value of 50 ppm. But among the softest water we found in our study the top 3 were:

1. Avila 50
2. Madrid 50
3. Segovia 50

Note: Unit is in mg CaNO3/L or ppm and water hardness varies during the year so may increase at times.

Water hardness and limescale

One of the biggest challenges with hard water is that it often causes limescale. This is the white stuff that forms in the tea kettle, coffee machine, dishwasher, washing machine, glasses, around the faucet and many other places. Scientifically there is nothing dangerous in limescale in terms of your health but it can be really annoying. Despite this there are many common myths that hard water and limescale causes kidney stones and other health related issues.

To get rid of limescale from tap water use a special water filter such as TAPP that breaks down and remove the limescale.

Summary

To find out more about the water hardness where you live visit water.backup.tappwater.comm.

Sources

https://www.livescience.com/54521-tap-water-tastes.html – why does my water taste weird?

Water quality reports for:

Madrid
Barcelona
Valencia
Girona
Seville
Zaragoza
Málaga
Murcia Casco Urbano
Palma de Mallorca
Bilbao
Alicante
Córdoba
Valladolid
Gijón
L’hospitalet de Llobregat
A Coruña
Vitoria-Gasteiz
Granada
Elche
Oviedo
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Badalona
Cartagena
Terrassa
Móstoles
Jerez de la Frontera
Sabadell
Alcalá de Henares
Fuenlabrada
Leganés
Almería
Getafe
Castellón de la Plana
Burgos
Alcorcón
Albacete
Salamanca
Logroño
San Cristóbal de La Laguna
Huelva
Tarragona
Lleida
Marbella
León
Dos Hermanas
Torrejón de Ardoz
Parla
Mataró
Cádiz
Santa Coloma de Cervello
Santa Coloma de Gramenet
Alcobendas
Jaén
Reus
San Fernando
Cáceres
Las Rozas
Roquetas de Mar
Lorca
San Sebastian de los Reyes
Cornella de Llobregat
Rivas-Vaciamadrid
Pozuelo de Alarcón
Guadalajara
Toledo
Chiclana de la Frontera
San Baudilio de Llobregat
Torrevieja
Mijas
Torrente
Coslada
Coslada
Vélez-Málaga
Arona
Fuengirola
Palencia
Manresa
Orihuela
Valdemoro
Alcalá de Guadaíra
Ciudad Real
Majadahonda
Paterna
Torremolinos
Benidorm
Sanlúcar de Barrameda
Benalmádena
Villanueva y Geltrú
Castelldefels
Estepona
Viladecans
Sagunto
Ponferrada
El Prat de Llobregat
Collado Villalba
Zamora
Aranjuez
Mérida
Alcoy
San Vicente del Raspeig
Ávila
Linares
Sardañola del Vallés
Arganda del Rey
Cuenca
Adeje
Elda
Molins de Rei
Villarreal
Colmenar Viejo
Utrera
Calviá
Granadilla de Abona
Rincón de la Victoria
Puertollano
Rincon de la Victoria
Esplugues de LLobregat
Gava
Vich
Mairena del Alcor
Sant Feliu de Llobregat
Mislata
Alhaurín de la Torre
Aldaya
La Rinconada
Marrachí
San Adrián de Besós
Lluchmayor
Montcada i Reixac
Petrer
Sant Joan Despi
Manises
Coria del Río
Arcos de la Frontera
Burjasot
Alacuás
Rota
El Campello
Catarroja
Sant Adria de Besos
Camas
Cártama
Paiporta
Adra
Alboraia
Armilla
Barbate
Maracena
Moncada
San Juan de Aznalfarache
Las Gabias
Picasent
Alfafar
Alfara del Patriarca
Marchena
La Zubia
Albolote
Silla
Atarfe
Sant Just Desvern
Begues
Churriana de la Vega
Santa Fe
Benetúser
Ogíjares
Santa María del Camino
Godella
Montgat
Huétor Vega
Alcalá del Río
La Carlota
Puebla del Río
Picaña
Palleja
Peligros
Andrach
Vegas del Genil
Meliana
Sedaví
La Mojonera
Algarrobo
Agost
Aguas de Busot
Albalat dels Sorells
Albuixech
Alcácer
Alfocea
Almácera
Beniparrell
Bonrepós y Mirambell
Buñola
Busot
Cerdanyola del Valles
Chirivella
Cuart de Poblet
El Garrobo
El Papiol
El Puig
Emperador
Esporlas
Foyos
Garrapinillos
Jijona
Lugar Nuevo de la Corona
Masalfasar
Masamagrell
Masanasa
Monforde del Sid
Muchamiel
Museros
Peñaflor
Puebla de Farnals
Puerto Venecia
Puigpuñent
Puzol
Rafelbuñol
Rocafort
San Antonio de Benagéber
San Juan de Alicante