Water quality and your appliances

Canberra’s water is defined as soft, containing approximately 43 mg/L CaCO3*. Refer to the table below for common conversions of this water hardness figure across different manufacturers’ settings.

Water hardness is an indicator of the ability to obtain a lather using soap, whereby hard water is more difficult to lather than soft water. Hard water is also more likely to cause scaling and is affected by calcium and magnesium salt content.

In Australia, water hardness is measured as the concentration of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) in units of milligrams per litre (mg/L). Different manufacturers of household appliances may refer to water hardness within instruction manuals due to the effect on the performance of their equipment.

Table 1. Water hardness conversion chart data for Canberra's water supply*

	Country of manufacture					Other methods of measurement
Unit of measurement	Australia (mg/L)	USA (ppm)	Germany (°d)	England (°e)	France (°f)	International Unit (mmol/L)	Physical Unit (mval/L)
Average hardness level for Icon Water customers	43	43	2.41	3.02	4.3	0.43	0.86

*based on 2021-22 data