We have a pot on the wood stove. We don't wash it, just steam off gallon after gallon of water. There is now a thick crust of white stuff in the pot. It is flaky, tastes salty, and is crumbly. We have "chity" water, not well water. Besides calcium (?), anyone know what the white stuff might be? I reckon this is the same stuff that gloms up hot water heaters . . . .and hot water plumbing... SCA
city water doesn't strip the minerals out. You could probably get on the city water web site and see their chemical breakdown of whats in the water and how much. I use RO water on the stove top and humidifier to keep that crust to a minimum
Cities do routinely soften water, i.e. remove minerals, and then add minerals back. Many cities add minerals to prevent lead from leaching into the water since the minerals bond with the lead to keep the lead as a solid (see the news stories for MI city water). Potassium is one mineral choice for cities plus a few more more. CT would have old enough pipe to have lead joints. My family owned a small water utility 50 years ago and lead was used to seal large pipe joints, 4"+ diameter, as lead sulfate. I still have a small scar from a small spill of molten lead sulfate (i.e. the joints were "hot" sealed). If the joint seal cracked then lead sulfate crystals would grow and reseal the joint. We never used lead pipe. Soft de-mineralized water leaches lead because pure water is slightly acidic. Our family owned utility switched to synthetic rubber seals for large pipe at the same time as every other utility because the pipe joint shape changed slightly to hold the rubber seal in place. Many people have water softeners in their house to remove the minerals added by the water utility after the original water was softened by the utility. Actually, a house ion exchange type water softer would also be a source of minerals in a pot after evaporation. One mineral is swapped for another in ion exchange with the new mineral being softer, sodium is one example. The memories, at 18 I laid 20'x8" ductile steel pipe solo week after week (rubber seals, hot poured seals requires two people). Me and a Ford 5500 backhoe...
No. We could not hire anyone with a clue. I NEVER had problems while working alone. I was VERY methodical and careful. I hated screw ups. Too much work to clean up a mess. Yes, you would not like to work with me. I ate lunch walking the job and planning everything, step-by-step. Felling trees alone is dangerous (I never drop trees alone).
As the pot is concentrating the minerals along with any other contaminates in the water and air I'd recommend refraining from the licking.
Tin, but it's got one of those non stick toxic whatever coatings. I wouldn't use it for cooking. (cleaned or not). I just tasted the edge, no chewing. Lickety-kisses, like a cat licking your hand . . . .
There's a [long] list of minerals in water - they are what gives water <taste>. The two biggest components left behind from evaporating water is carbonates - calcium and magnesium. IIRC, most of things like chlorines/chloramines and derivatives that city/town water works add to help keep it free from harmful (and probably less than harmful) bacteria living in the dlivery pipes get boiled away and leave no traces behind. Carbonates/minerals are what build up on washed glasses/dishes that rinsing agents are supposed to help with. Googling <minerals in drinking water> should yield (at least the woke) list of typical minerals in drinking water.
