Maintaining the quality of drinking water is crucial to living well. Follow these signs to know when you should start filtering water for home use.
It is imperative that the drinking water you get from the water line be safe from contaminants. But the question that should be on everyone’s mind is the water safe to drink at home??
There are over 90 common contaminants discovered in the water that we drink. These contaminants include heavy metals, chemicals, and bacteria. The majority of these are regulated to safe levels for humans to consume, but sometimes the source of your water can change its quality, making it unhealthy.
Here are the top signs when you should start filtering your home’s water.
1. The Age of the House
The quality of the water depends largely on your surroundings. Environmental conditions such as leaky plumbing systems, old lead pipes, and being situated near an industrial runoff may indicate the need for you to install a water filter.
These conditions can lead to pollutants leaching into your water supply and making the water contaminated. Houses constructed prior to 1986 mostly have lead faucets, pipes, and soldering, increasing the chances of water contamination.
Lead can seep into your water through corrosion, enabling it to reach your tap. It’s highly toxic and can accumulate in your body over time, posing a greater risk to pregnant women and children.
As lead does not have any taste or smell, it becomes more difficult to identify its presence in the drinking water.
If you live in an old part of town where homes were constructed prior to 1986, installing mineral water filter systems can help eliminate lead from your home drinking water.
2. You Get a Bad Smell or Taste from Your Tap Water
The easiest way to determine the quality of your drinking water is by using your senses. The way your water smells, looks, and tastes will tell you whether there are excessive quantities of pollutants and chemicals in it. This does not apply to water from the tap, though, and you cannot rely on sense alone to detect all harmful chemicals.
Through water pipes, contaminants, chemicals, and pollutants find their way into your tap water. The smell and taste of this water, which is regulated through the water utility of your city, may cause you to become disinterested in drinking it.
Some common causes of bad taste or smell in your water are heavy metals, chlorine, and sulfur.
Heavy Metals
You need to get your water tested if it has a metallic smell or aftertaste. Metals such as chromium, arsenic, lead, and mercury are among the more common ones to make their way into community water systems.
These metals can cause adverse effects on the human body if they are present at high levels, making them very toxic.
Chlorine
By sanitizing the filtered water, chlorine is used to destroy microorganisms in a normal water filter system. Countertop or under-sink water filters are the most common filtration systems used.
The primary goal of this chlorination procedure is to purify cold drinking water. In the process, it leaves an aftertaste or smells that are not pleasant. It is also known to leave behind harmful by-products.
Hydrogen Sulfur
Sulfur, also known as hydrogen sulfide, has a rotten egg odor that you don’t want in your drinking water. Remember that the presence of sulfur in the water does not necessarily indicate a problem. But it is good to get it tested for nitrates and bacteria.
3. The House Was Built on a Water Well
You need to take extra precautionary measures if your house was built on a water well. Many people receive their drinking water from private wells, and this water must be tested annually for nitrates, bacteria, varying pH levels, and other pollutants.
If you are one of those receiving your water from a water well and it is near any industrial operations or agriculture, gas stations, or landfills, it can be contaminated by runoffs that enter the well.
You can try to drain the surface runoff by creating a slope around the good area. Or you can install a sanitary well seal or cap to prevent anything from getting into it.
If your well is near agricultural grounds, you should avoid using any fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides near the well.
4. You Are Constantly Scrubbing
Many people enjoy having a tidy home, however, if you must scrub your shower, sink, or tub constantly to remove dull soap scum stains, your home water is harder than usual.
Hard water will not be able to rinse away the soap due to the high concentrations ofmagnesium and calcium present. There is thus a soap residue that is persistent in the fixtures. This makes them look unappealing and dull.
If you can choose the best water filtration system for the whole house, it’s the best solution. This will make cleaning your fixtures a breeze by filtering out the minerals in hard water from your water.
5. The Tap Water Is Staining Your Clothes
You need to check for changes in your dishes and clothes after you have washed them, as your clothes can get stained if there are certain chemicals present in your home water.
Metals such as copper, iron, and manganese can leave a rusty look on your clothes. After doing your laundry, check for any stains that could indicate that the iron levels in your water are high.
You can get a metallic taste from drinking your water if it has copper in it. It also stains your clothes with a blue-green tint. Your clothes will get a dark brown or black stain if there is manganese in the water, which will also cause a bitter, metallic taste.
If you see any discoloration on your clothes, you should have your water checked. Choosing the best water filter is ideal in such conditions to remove any metals contaminating it.
Conclusion
Having clean and pure drinking water for your home is essential and not something you should compromise on. We have listed a few signs that indicate when you should start filtering your home’s water.
So don’t delay once you see any of these signs. Invest in a good water filter system for your whole house to always get safe and pure drinking water.
