Mineral deposits clogging up piping in northern part of Singapore

Hi Chen Ko,

I stumble upon your blog while looking for information on hard water in Singapore.

Not sure if you will be able to shed some light on what we have encounter.

Here is my story..

We moved to northern part of Singapore 3 years ago.

Within 6 months, we start to experience shower drainage clog.

Brought the plumber and got it clear.

And, we were careful to clear the hair and dirt so it will not flow down the drain.

But the problem came back repeatly.

And finally, we got to know what really cause it to clog is the the mineral deposits.

The last time the plumber came the flakes of those chalk like deposits surface.

We notice the main pipe drainage too had the limestone thing forming on the surface of it.

This makes me concern about our drinking water. 

We do not use any filter at present.

I don’t understand about this hard water thing.

I lived in the northeast area for decades and have never had this kind of issue.

Appreciate if you can help us to understand more on this.

Thank you.

Regards,

CH


Hi CH,

This is very strange as SG tap water is supposed to be 'soft', meaning that it should contain a low level of hardness. For those new to hardness, it refers to the amount of calcium and magnesium salts in the water. (Though other metals can also cause hardness, these 2 are  usually the main culprits.) And I can't imagine any other sources of hardness in the distribution network.

For those folks using alkaline water, it does indeed contain elevated levels of hardness. But they are suppose drink that stuff and not pour it down the drain. CH here mentioned not having a water filter but do you have alkaline water at home?

A couple of suggestions:

1. Get a DIY kit to measure the hardness level in your tap water. The level should not go above 75mg/L calcium carbonate.
    
2. Then again the mineral deposits may not be due to hardness. Scrap some off and send them for chemical analysis. However, this may not be cheap so try the above DIY test first.

In other countries e.g. USA, hard water is common in some communities and households are expected to install a water softener (not the laundry detergent kind) to manage this problem. 

Do let us know the outcome and good luck!

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