Hard water hates soap the way cats hate cucumbers. It refuses to let soap foam, leaving you with a sad, watery film instead of a mountain of bubbles. Grab your favorite dish soap and squirt it into a glass of tap water. Then, shake it like a polaroid picture.
If you get a thick head of suds that lasts longer than a TikTok dance trend, your softener is a hero. If the bubbles vanish instantly—poof, gone—your water is hard. Surprising fact: you actually need more soap to clean hard water, which is why your dishwasher detergent budget might secretly be funding a small country.
