The higher the concentration of these minerals, the harder the water. White spots and deposits form when hard water is heated or evaporates and the minerals are left on the glassware or in your water heater. Hard water is safe to drink. However, you can reduce the effects of hard water by adding powdered or granulated water softener to your laundry when you add the soap or detergent. Also, you can add a small amount of detergent rinse to the rinse cycle of your dishwasher to help the water drain from glassware prior to evaporating.
Water softeners can be expensive to install and maintain.
You could buy a lot of powdered water softener for the price of a softening unit. From a health standpoint, most softeners replace calcium and magnesium in the water with sodium that can add to the concerns of high blood pressure and heart patients. If you do plan to install a water softener, it's a good idea to have it installed only on the hot water, leaving the drinking water alone. This has the added advantage of using less salt for maintenance, thus saving money and protecting the environment. Occasionally my water tastes and smells like bleack.