My home is equipped with a water "softener" which as many of you know strips out Calcium and replaces it with Sodium, resulting in water with a GH of near 0.

After calling around I found I plumber who works for the company that manages my home's association, and he told me that the cold water feed to the kitchen sink is required by law to be unsoftened.

So, I went to test the cold water and lo and behold, the water has a GH of 24 degrees according to TetraTest GH test.

By contrast my upstairs bathroom's cold water has a GH of 2 or 3 degrees.

I am posting this in case anyone else finds themselves in this unfortunate spot. Check your kitchen sink's cold water.

Now I will buy a 30 gallon drum for my pantry and fill it up with cold, hard water and let it warm to room temp. for the week before my weekend water change!

I am very happy and wanted to share the discovery!

Maybe I should post this in shop and swap, but do you want to trade wives?? Mine would be looking for a shotgun if I tried to do that!

Well, she certainly isn't cheering me on, but she's surprisingly tolerant of my little obsession.