Explain the Slimy Feeling With Soft Water
Question:
Dear Mr. Timmons, You may have received questions similar to the one that I will pose to you from others, but I am quite confused as to what I have read on the internet. Please allow me to provide you with details. When I take a shower, I want to feel as if all of the soap, body oils, and grime will come off my body immediately. I do not mind if my skin comes out extremely dry after showering. I want to feel clean and I can always put on lotion if my skin is too dry. I have lived in southeastern Kentucky for many years and I have never had any issues while showering. I contacted my municipal water manager here in Hazard, Kentucky and he informed me that the water hardness of our town is usually around 180 parts per million and runs a range of 160-240 ppm at the extremes. The pH is usually around 7.4. During my college and medical training, I have lived in Lexington, KY; Louisville, KY; Cincinnati, OH; Cleveland, OH; Silver Spring, MD; and Burbank, CA. I have never had any problems while showering in those communities.
One time, we visited family friends in rural Iowa and taking a shower was an unpleasant experience. It felt as if the soap would not come off my body no matter how much water I used. When I visit my brother in Las Vegas, NV, it is the same problem with taking a shower - the soap does not feel as if it is coming off at all. I do not know if he has a water softener. When I visit my parents in New Tampa, FL the same situation as with my brother - I can't stand taking a shower as it feels that the soap will not come off no matter how much water that I use. I have read conflicting information on the internet. Some sources state that hard water causes the problems that I experience with showering in IA, NV, and my parents home in FL. Other sources say that it is probably a water softener used to lessen spots on dishes, etc., that cause that slimy feeling of not being able to get soap off of me during showering.
I read your article that states that it is actually a "silky" feeling. I respectfully disagree with your characterization of "silky" as it is a markedly uncomfortable feeling and I have noted that acne seems to be worse when I am visiting my parents as the oils are not effectively removed from my skin. My parents told me that they have a filter for their home, but I am not certain that it is "softening" the water and that is why showering is such an unpleasant experience. The reason that I am sending this e-mail is that I will be moving to the Tampa area to work. I will be renting an apartment in Brandon, FL and I am not certain as to whether I should get some sort of water treatment system or if I should just try the city water first. Most of the literature seems to point to "soft" water as the culprit for the markedly uncomfortable feeling while showering. Some say it is "hard" water. Please explain and advise.
Thank you very much. -G
The Water Doctor's Response:
Dear G, First of all, I will just deal with the facts. Whether the water is silky or slimy is a perception, not a fact. I know many people who feel it is silky and I know many who think it is slimy. Do you like Coke or Pepsi? That's personal taste - you can't say one is better than another to everyone - just you. I love baseball and another person may hate it, so when we go to a game together, he is bored and I am engaged. We are in the same place, so it is our own perception that changes everything. I just wanted to make that point.
Here are the FACTS:
1. Calcium and magnesium are “hard” minerals which combine with soap and form “curd” and suds.
2. This calcium and magnesium and soap curd does lodge in the pores of your skin in hard water.
3. Since there is no calcium or magnesium in soft water, the sodium which is a “soft” mineral, combines with the soap to form suds, without curd.
4. There is no calcium and magnesium in the water and no curd, and sodium does not stick in your skins' pores.
5. Use a pure soap like Ivory - wash one hand with soft water and rinse - it will fell slick - then wash the other with hard water - it will feel “squeaky clean.” Then taste both hands. You will taste soap only on the hard water side. Therefore the soap is gone.
6. Many people with sensitive skin break out when they bathe in hard water. I have seen people with eczema-like skin problems have clear skin after a few days with soft water.
7. There is no soap residue left when you shower in soft water.
8. There is soap residue left on the skin when you shower in hard water.
9. I cannot say why acne would occur in soft water unless the skin is stimulated by the lack of calcium and magnesium in the pores to produce oil.
10. Some people love the slick feeling - others hate the slimy feeling - it's all about perception!
11. With soft water, you get the following benefits over hard water:
b. 30% saving on water heating energy.
c. Dramatically increases the life of all water using appliances and plumbing appliances.
d. Delivers spot-free dishes in the dishwasher.
e. Cuts cleaning time in showers and sinks. Those are the facts.
This is why we offer traditional salt based water softener solutions as well as salt free water conditioners
135 Comments
Hard water contains calcium and magnesium ions. Water softeners remove those ions by exchanging them for sodium or potassium ions.
Two factors contribute to that slippery-when-wet feeling you get after soaping up with soft water. First, soap lathers better in soft water than in hard water, so it’s easy to use too much. The more dissolved soap there is, the more water you need to rinse it away. Second, the ions in softened water lessen its ability to ‘stick’ to the soap molecules, making it more difficult to rinse the cleanser off your body.
That statement came from the website below.
https://sciencenotes.org/why-its-harder-to-rinse-soap-off-in-soft-water/
I also disagree that all the soap gets rinsed off. If you have soft water, when your just about done with your shower and have that slimy feeling on your hands, take them out of the water and rub your palms back and forth applying decent pressure for about 15 seconds. When you pull them apart and look at them you should see bubbles. I always do anyway. Unless my natural oils cause bubbles I agree with the soap is harder to rinse off.
So, you just surf the web and find something that meets your view and post it as truth? If you start at the bottom line and work backwards when you do your taxes, you might go to jail for tax evasion. What you are quoting was written by Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.d and while she may have a great resume, I submit that she doesn’t have a lot of experience in this arena. I say that because her assertion that “ions in softened water lessen its ability to ‘stick’ to the soap molecules, making it more difficult to rinse the cleanser off your body,” runs counter to the facts. Why do carwashes, restaurants with dishwashers and any cleaning operation that uses water work better with soft water? Unequivocally, soft water will rinse off more soap (I can’t say 100%, because 100% of anything is usually impossible) than hard water. Anyone who says otherwise is either unschooled or dishonest. I do not believe Ann Maries is either. Soft water absolutely rinses off more soap that hard water in EVERY case.
One thing that you dishonestly left out of your argument is that soap combines with calcium and magnesium to form “curd” which lodges in the pores of your skin. As you rinse the soap and you feel “squeaky clean” the soap curd is still in your pores. If you took a hard water shower with soap and hard water and then followed it up with a soft water rinse, you would still feel that slick feeling. But since you didn’t use any more soap, where did that come from? Your own natural body oils feel slick after washing off the soap curd out of your pores.
Wash a load of clothes in hard water and then wash them again in soft water. You will usually get enough suds to wash them in the soft water without the soap because soft water pulls all of the soap out of the clothing that the hard water left. It’s EXACTLY the same as your skin. Many people with eczema and other skin conditions respond immediately to soft water as it rinses nearly all the soap out of the pores of their skin. If it doesn’t get 100%, it’s close… and with hard water, you may leave 10 to 20% on your skin, but hey, you don’t have that slick feeling and if that’s what you want, then, by all means, go for it.
Just don’t twist the facts! They are not on your side. I can’t say you will love soft water, any more than I can say you will like Brussel sprouts, but I can tell you the facts.
The only reason I found this discussion was he just had a water softener installed a few days ago. The house we previously rented for 7 months had a water softener (and tankless water heater, if that matters), and our current house is roughly 4-5 miles away. It was our first experience with softened water in many years (> 20?).
At first, we noticed the slimy/silky sensation to the water, especially when showering. We got a sense that we could not rinse off our body enough. It doesn’t help that the owners of the rental were using rain shower heads. That, in combination with water flow restricters, made it seem like we couldn’t rinse off completely.
The place we lived prior to the rental for over two decades had moderately hard water, but nowhere near our current location. But it was enough, even with annual maintenance, for our water heaters to fail every 9-10 years. It also didn’t help that the water smelled chemically much of the time, mostly chlorine.
When we first moved into our current house (which we own), the water was awful in showers. My legs would itch after drying off, and my hair was not much better. A basic test of the water showed a water hardness of 14 grains per gallon (gpg). That’s pretty hard. There is a lot of limestone in the region.
So, we went ahead and had a water softener installed. Testing the cold water line indoors after the installation, we were seeing 0 gpg. But here’s where it gets interesting. We are not experiencing the slimy/silky feel at all. We are using less soap/hair product in the shower, but they suds up well, and there isn’t any stickiness after toweling off. I re-tested the indoor cold water line just to make sure if was being softened. Still 0 gpg.
Much like that was commented on earlier, we felt the slimy/silky feeling in the rental house, but we don’t have that sensation at all in our current house. The balance is very close to ideal. Not slimy/silky, nor drying. Maybe we needed to experience the hard water in the area first to appreciate softened water. I really don’t know.
I have nothing to add.
Interesting reading here. I do have a few questions.
We just had a whole house system installed (yesterday actually). We recently built a new home and are now on a well and needed filtration and softening (we have sediment and somewhat hard water). I have grown up on city water my entire life so am not used to well water and definitely not used to softened water). I am one of those who thinks it feels slimy….but I think I could get used to it. The question I have though is how can I actually tell when the soap is truly rinsed off of anything? I was washing dishes last night and everything was super slippery (just like in the old days of hard water), except the slipperiness never went away. I actually had to smell each dish to see if it smelled like soap to make sure it was rinsed. So….how can one tell that something is truly and thoroughly rinsed if there is no tactile evidence??
So just to be clear, are you saying that the silky (slimy) feeling does not indicate there is some kind of something in the water that is adhering to ones skin and leaving a residue…is that correct? And that it’s the exact opposite really…the skin is “completely” rinsed with no residue?
Most new refrigerators have water filters. Do those internal fridge filters normally remove sodium? If not, are there easily accessible products that can remove the sodium from softened water going through refrigerator ice makers and water dispensers?Your skin has oil and the soap is gone. Things that are wet are slippery. You can wash with soap in the shower and if the water is hard, the shower door will be cloudy from the accumulation of soap. With soft water, you can rinse it off. What more proof do you need?
Fridge filters do not remove sodium. Only reverse osmosis does that.
We are forced to force water softeners.
In the same way, lawn mowers, which disfigure the grass, reduce the oxygen production by grass, steal our time, were imposed earlier.
I find soft water itself does not leave leave a slimy feeling and peoples’ description of so is misleading. It depends on the soap you use. I live in the south of England, a very hard water area. To me the feeling is no different from using some of those moisterized soaps like Dove (with hard water)
Taken from another site:
“Where the slippery feeling comes from……When you take out all the fancy perfumes, moisturizers, and other unnecessary ingredients, old-fashioned basic soap is simply a combination of lye, or sodium hydroxide, and triglycerides, most commonly known as plain OLD FAT, typically from either plant oils or animal fats. The chemical name for soap is sodium stearate. Now, when you soap up with hard water, the sodium in the soap molecule is kicked out and replaced by the calcium/magnesium, since they have a stronger bond to the stearate side of the soap molecule than sodium. calcium stearate and magnesium stearate are known to you by a more familiar, uglier name: soap scum, or the ring around the tub. With have soft water, there is more sodium or potassium in the water than calcium/magnesium, which makes it much more difficult for soap scum to form, keeping soap it its original dirt-fighting form!”
I’d like to think that the soap and cleaning agents are rinsed off … and that slippery feeling is just the residual oils left over which by the way people put on themselves all the time anyway (creams and moisterisers)
Isn’t there a happy medium ?
I thought I recalled my moms softener going through a slimy phase and when adjusted correctly ..just nice soft water !
Anyway . Here is my issue .
The water tests that the water guy does are showing the water is soft .
I used a pool kit and it said the same .
But it FEELS hard !
Laundry not getting clean .
Deposits on bathroom fixtures .
My skin is sticky , breaking out . Hair feels heavy .
Are there other minerals that might not show up on a hardness test ?
Help
You may have a cross-connection somewhere, or the water really isn’t soft.
I would suggest getting a bottle of these and testing the hot and cold water throughout the house and back-to-back-to-back days:
https://www.uswatersystems.com/water-works-total-hardness-testing-strips-50pk-12166.html
The water can’t be soft and creating deposits on fixtures.
I’m in the same boat, my water felt silky when we moved in, but it does not now. my skin and hair are squeaky in the shower. the test strips all show that our water is soft. I’ve had out well guy come out an service the soft water system and it still feels hard. Any ideas?
The strips are not always accurate. Send us a sample and attache a note to a bottle of water and we will test it.
This is better than “SNL”! I’m going to keep this blog. Let them have it Mr. Mark; I got your back. ??Lol! ?Whoop! Whoop!
Mr.Mark ?don’t tell them to get their water tested. If you do then I wouldn’t have anything to laugh at! Hold on for a minute……… I had to go get some?. Hey Marge, Mr. Mark is try to educate people who don’t want to listen again. She’s on her way.
Keep up the good work!
Soap, detergents and shampoos do not wash off easily in hard water as the minerals present in the water form a soapy curd and if it remains stuck on your body will cause severe itching. It is best interest to soften the hard water supply by using water softeners.
I also don’t like the slimy feeling with soft water. How can I bypass the system and just use the city water.
Thank you