There is a large percentage of the United Kingdom that suffer from something hard water, with the houses in the south East and the midlands have hard or moderately hard water. The hard water situation occurs due to a very large concentration of minerals such as magnesium and calcium naturally found in the water in these areas. The symptoms can be scale formations on appliances like the kettle and showerhead. It can also stop soap from properly dissolving away. Hard water that is left to dry, perhaps on something like kitchen working surface, leaves a salty crust in its place which is scale when heated.Should scale form in a domestic boiler or hot water cylinder it leaves a layer of insulation which can stop the heating process. This is a waste of effort on the boilers part and creates high fuel consumption. A pipe blockage will also occur eventually. East London Plumbers are trained in this field.You can limit this problem:1). Control the hot water temperature (Scale forms at temperatures higher than 60 degrees C).2). Add scale inhibiting crystals that are suspended in the cold water cylinder, but the crystals require changing on a 6 monthly cycle. An East London Plumber can advise on all installations in your home.3). Costing a lot more would be to install a water softener into the rising water main-beyond the kitchen tap with a branch to a tap outside. The process will still leave hard water for drinking purposes. It would not be worth softening water for use in the garden.4). The last option would be to plumb in something that appears to be high tec, called a magnetic water conditioner. This is plumbed into the rising water main above the main stopcock. Once fitted this piece of equipment will allow water to pass through a magnetic field and in doing so the field will, through a reaction process alter the structure of the scale forming salts. The salts change into fine particles that will flush through the pipes freely instead of forming a blockage. This equipment requires an onboard filter that requires cleaning every 6 months.