I have been in homes with hard water, but its not my day-to-day life.
I usually use a $15 kettle, and no lime precipitates when I typically use a boiler. I can see that lime eventually builds up in the kettle, but as described earlier: a bit of vinegar removes those deposits without much issue.
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Honestly, I can't say that I've ever seen water so hard that it'd precipitate visible amounts of lime in a kettle. I usually see that sort of stuff on humidifiers or distillers. Not really a kettle.
I mean, everything eventually has lime buildup ("soft water" isn't free of lime/calcium, it just has 1/2 the calcium of hard water). Knowing how to clean that stuff off is important.
I had no idea how bad hard water could get until I moved to London.
I get limescale on everything. I descale my kettle every week or two (almost daily if not using a Brita filter), shower head monthly. I pour citric acid down the toilet weekly. My taps actually form little calcium stalactites over a few months. Thermostatic shower cartridges are an annual replacement item because the limescale gets them too.
I keep demineralised water around for sensitive equipment like humidifiers.
I usually use a $15 kettle, and no lime precipitates when I typically use a boiler. I can see that lime eventually builds up in the kettle, but as described earlier: a bit of vinegar removes those deposits without much issue.
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Honestly, I can't say that I've ever seen water so hard that it'd precipitate visible amounts of lime in a kettle. I usually see that sort of stuff on humidifiers or distillers. Not really a kettle.
I mean, everything eventually has lime buildup ("soft water" isn't free of lime/calcium, it just has 1/2 the calcium of hard water). Knowing how to clean that stuff off is important.