We are lucky that we don’t live in hard water area, though I still feel that we are affected. I de-scale our kettle every week using soda and lemon because we don’t want to lose another kettle in less than a year. Hard water gives plenty of scale that has the ability to give those flaky white stuff that comes out of the kettle. I also feel that our clothes are not properly cleaned because the drain is clogged. I sometimes mix soda in our detergent just to lessen the scaly effect, but I would wish to use water softeners in case the level of water hardness changed.