Dishwashers and Water Hardness
When installing a new dishwasher the instruction manual may recommend settings based on the hardness of the water used by the machine.
Canberra’s water is soft, with a typical hardness value of about 40 mg/L as CaCO3.
In Australia the standard way to measure water hardness is in milligrams per litre as calcium carbonate (CaCO3). Many dishwasher manuals use different scales for water hardness. Below are some of the more common which may be of use to you in setting up your dishwasher.
| Scale |
Typical value for Canberra water |
Units |
Milligrams per litre |
40 |
mg/L as CaCO3 |
Millimol per litre |
0.4 |
mmol/L |
Millival per litre |
0.8 |
mval/L |
German degrees |
2.2 |
°dH |
French degrees |
4 |
°TH |
Parts per million |
40 |
ppm |
|