Hardness ?

There are a squilion and one different scales that measure water hardness. (ppm, German, French, grains per litre Clarke and others) We cognoscenti usually use degrees German when discussing hardness. There is a calculator on this site which gives us 3.135^o (You just divide by 17 point something or other).

OK, your hardness level is 3 degrees German. Now how do you convert this to "hard" or "moderately soft". Well, again, there are a squillion and three different ways of doing this, picking one from Wikipedia:

Classification	hardness in mg/L	hardness in mmol/L	hardness in dGH/°dH	hardness in gpg	hardness in ppm
Soft	0–60	0–0.60	0.3-3.00	0-3.50	less than 60
Moderately hard	61–120	0.61–1.20	3.72-6.75	3.56-7.01	60-120
Hard	121–180	1.21–1.80	6.78–10.08	7.06-10.51	120-180
Very hard	≥ 181	≥ 1.81	≥ 10.14	≥ 10.57	> 180

Your level of 3 falls into the "Soft" or "Pansy" end of the spectrum, my water for example, at 17dGH falls into the "Well Hard" range (Get it "Well Hard" "water"... never mind). 

These ranges are very much illustrative, but whichever conversion ranges you pick, your water at 3dGH will be soft, or even "Very Soft"

Thanks very much, that helps a lot.