The water in Peacehaven is hard. Here’s why.

If you live in Peacehaven, you’ll know that the water is hard. But why?

The reason is the type of soil in the area – primarily comprising chalk. Chalky soil contains an abundance of hard water causing calcium and magnesium minerals. Whenever it rains, these minerals get to work and make the water hard.

This isn’t great news for our skin and hair, since hard water washes the living daylights out of everything. That’s why skin can look dry, hair can look limp and laundry starchy. And you get through gels, shampoos and detergents like there’s no tomorrow.

Worse still, hard water causes limescale, which is impossible to keep away from water-collecting areas, like kitchen and bathroom surfaces. Keeping them clean and shiny is an uphill task.

And beware if you have hard water running through your central heating system. Within a few months, limescale build up will start to seriously downgrade the boiler and clog up the water tank. This means you spend far more on your heating bills than you should. Also, the boiler’s lifespan could be cut in half – from the normal 15 years of good use to around seven.

The easy, long-term and economic solution is to have a water softener fitted. Once you’ve covered the initial investment, you’ll see big savings on energy costs and potential repair bills. Above all, softened water is simply a pleasure to have in the home. Your skin and hair will be living proof.

The water hardness measurement for Peacehaven is 276 parts per million (ppm). Anything over 200ppm is considered hard – so Peacehaven is at the high end of the scale. A Scott Jenkins water softener will reduce that reading to virtually nothing.

Peacehaven – an Overview

Annual rainfall: 37.2 inch or 946mm.

The East Sussex town of Peacehaven lies on the coast above the chalk cliffs of the South Downs on the A259 road, six miles east of Brighton city centre. It’s also the point where the Greenwich meridian crosses the English coast. Neighbouring Telscombe Cliffs merges virtually into Peacehaven and the 2011 population was recorded as 14,067.

Although Peacehaven was established as recently as 1916, a Bronze Age burial mound near the cliff top shows evidence that the area was occupied 3,500 years ago. The town was originally going to be called New Anzac on Sea (to commemorate the Battle of Gallipoli) but became Peacehaven by 1917.

Since the late 1990s, the town has been popular with incomers seeking somewhere quieter to live and with easier parking facilities than Brighton.