Very Hard, Nearly Everywhere

Nebraska is not a state where hardness depends much on which town you live in. It is very hard across the board, thanks to the High Plains and Ogallala aquifer system that supplies most of the state. That groundwater is rich in calcium bicarbonate, and it delivers hardness in the range of 10 to 15 grains per gallon statewide. Omaha sits around 11 gpg and Grand Island around 15 gpg, so even the softer cities here are well into scale-forming territory.

The Ogallala Signature

The Ogallala aquifer is one of the largest groundwater reserves in North America, and as it filters through calcium-bicarbonate-laden formations it loads the water Nebraskans drink and heat. Because so much of the state taps the same broad system, the hard-water experience is remarkably consistent from place to place, unlike states split between soft reservoirs and hard wells.

Scale and Your Water Heater

At 10 to 15 gpg, scale is not a maybe, it is a when. Heating this water precipitates minerals onto the hottest surfaces of your heater every time it runs:

• Tank heaters build a hard sediment layer over the burner, which causes rumbling and forces the unit to run longer and hotter.
• Tankless heaters collect scale inside their tight heat-exchanger channels, where buildup restricts flow and can trigger faults.

Keep the efficiency rule in mind: roughly a quarter inch of scale means a 25 to 40 percent loss in heating efficiency. At Nebraska's statewide hardness, that layer forms briskly, so getting ahead of scale is worth doing sooner rather than later.

A Note for Well Owners

Plenty of Nebraska households draw directly from wells, and that groundwater can bring iron along with its hardness. Since a salt-free conditioner does not remove iron or existing hardness, test your well for iron first and address it separately if it shows up in a stain or a lab result.

Realistic Expectations

The units offered here are salt-free scale conditioners rather than softeners. They will not remove the calcium and magnesium from your very hard Nebraska water, they will not remove iron, and they cannot dissolve scale already inside your heater. What they do is help prevent fresh scale from bonding to your heat exchanger and tank as water flows through.

Here's the right-sized salt-free scale protection for your Nebraska water heater:

Salt-free conditioners reduce and help prevent new water-heater scale; they are not softeners and do not remove existing hardness. Free U.S. shipping. See our hard water guide.