Yeah the cold water side will look dramatically better. It certainly will have deposits accumulating but it's not going to be anything close to the amount of de

Yeah the cold water side will look dramatically better. It certainly will have deposits accumulating but it's not going to be anything close to the amount of deposits that form inside of a water heater. Heating up hard water will chemically alter the water going through it. It's not that those calcium carbonate molecules were in solution before, it's pretty insoluble in water, it's that they were chemically formed when the water was heated. I'm not suggesting that those deposits are going to kill you or anything, but if things go wrong and the water isn't heated enough those deposits make a great substrate for harmful bacteria to grow. Ideally you shouldn't use hot water for consumption even though normally it's safe. It also tastes different than cold water because of the change.