Is water treatment necessary? The short answer is: Yes.
Did You Know?
The quality of your water plays a vital role in various aspects of daily life, impacting everything from taste and odor to the quality of your cooked meals and the health of your skin and hair? In some cases, poor water quality can pose a health threat to you and your family.
And because water touches nearly every room in your home, it also affects how long your appliances, fixtures, and plumbing last. So how do you know if your water is safe for you and your family and home?
Here are 13 signs that your home water needs a treatment system:
1. Your Water is Not Clear
In most cases, all it takes is a visual assessment to determine whether your water needs treatment. While water is typically perceived as clear, it can sometimes exhibit a slight blue tint even when pure. However, unusual colors like yellow, brown, green, or red are signs of potential contamination or water issues.
If your water doesn't appear clear and instead has a cloudy or discolored appearance, it could indicate the presence of contaminants. This may result in unpleasant tastes or odors. A water treatment system is designed to remove these contaminants, enhancing the quality and taste of your drinking water.
2. Your Water Tastes Bad
Quality water should not have a strong taste. If it tastes “off,” we suggest doing a water test to determine the mystery ingredient. Here are some of the most common flavors users of untreated water have reported:
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“Like pool water” – If you feel like you just chugged the water from your swimming pool, that taste is likely coming from chemical disinfectants that are added to the public water supply. Chlorine or a mixture of chlorine and ammonia (called chloramine) is often used at water treatment plants, and these same chemicals are also used to disinfect swimming pools—hence why even in small amounts, they can be present in your water, affecting the taste.
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“Metallic” – If your water tastes metallic, it's likely due to high concentrations of metals such as zinc, iron, and manganese. While these elements are typically found in drinking water at safe levels that pose no health risks, their presence can still affect the taste of the water, giving it a metallic flavor.
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“Moldy” – If your water tastes fishy, earthy, dirty, moldy, or otherwise musty, it might be due to algal blooms in the source water. While municipal water is treated to remove algae, the taste is known to linger. Alternatively, another source for this unpleasant flavor could be bacterial growth within your own sink.
You know what good water tastes like. If the water that comes out of your taps tastes strange, it’s because there are contaminants inside of it that are altering its taste. You should be especially cautious of water that taste like chlorine, metal, mold, grass or dirt.
3. Your Water Smells Bad
If there is a weird odor coming from your faucet or shower-head, something is definitely wrong. Pure water is not supposed to give off any particular smell. Sulfur, chlorine, algae, copper, iron and lead are just a few known contaminants that can make your water smell bad, and they should be removed by a water treatment system.
For example, if your water has a rotten egg scent, you may have a higher-than-normal level of hydrogen sulfide gas, which is often caused by the metabolism of a non-harmful bacteria that reduces sulfates. While the presence of hydrogen sulfide gas is not a life-threatening health issue, it dramatically reduces your quality of life.
4. Your Water Feels Sandy
A gritty feel in your water often indicates the presence of silt or sediment, which can be an annoying presence in the quality of water. It might also be an indication of a crack in a water line, allowing surface water to infiltrate your water supply. Depending on the contaminants present in the soil surrounding your pipes, sediment in your water could indicate a problem and a potential health risk.
5. Your Dishes, Clothes and Surfaces are Stained
Your dishwasher and washing machine are supposed to make your dishes and clothes cleaner, not add stains to them. But if your home has poor water quality, contaminants can stain anything you put in those machines.
Certain water contaminants like iron, manganese, and sulfur can produce stains on surfaces that come into frequent contact with water - these stains can appear on clothes after a washing machine cycle, dishes and silverware cleaned by a dishwasher, and surfaces like toilet bowls, bathtubs, and sinks.
Water stains on clothes and dishes are often caused by mineral buildup or impurities in the water. While a liquid water-softening detergent may curb the unwelcome stains on your laundry, its effect on hard water may be limited.
Hard water might affect how dishwashers clean your dishes, especially if you notice spotty plates, streaky silverware, and cloudy glasses. This is because hard water does not lather well with cleaning products like dishwasher soap.
A water softener as an addition to a water filtration system is the perfect solution to these staining issues—and most importantly, you’d be improving the efficiency of your water-using appliances.
6. Your Household is Often Getting Sick
Certain water contaminants can make you and your family sick, especially after long-term exposure. To make matters worse, many of the contaminants that affect people’s health have no taste or smell. If anyone in your family gets sick often and there is no obvious explanation, the problem might be your tap water.
Certain contaminants lurking in your drinking water can lead to stomach illnesses for you and your loved ones, especially after long-term exposure. Given that many of these harmful substances have no taste or smell, it is important to have a reliable water filtration system.
If your household has at least one person who is a child, elderly or immuno-compromised, exercising extra caution is paramount.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warns about waterborne pathogens that may be present in contaminated water sources, such as giardia, cryptosporidium, shigella, e. coli, viruses, chemicals, radon, and more. Symptoms of gastrointestinal distress resulting from contaminated water include diarrhea, abdominal cramps, nausea, and vomiting.
If you or your family experience any of these symptoms, we strongly recommend consulting with your primary care physician.
7. Your Skin and Hair Feel Dry and Irritated
Hardness minerals and chlorine are two of the most common contaminants that cause your skin and hair to dry out, stripping your skin and hair of natural oils. If your skin and hair often feel dry, especially after showering, your water might be to blame. A water treatment system can help improve your water, leaving your skin and hair feeling smoother and more hydrated.
8. Your Home Has Noticeable Scale Deposits
Ever notice those white crusty substances around your shower head and faucets? Those are caused by hard water. Hard water is detrimental to plumbing fixtures and surfaces. It can also shorten the lifespan of any appliance that uses water, like your washing machine, dishwasher, and coffee machine. This unwanted buildup is called “limescale”—and it can be hard to remove. Our water treatment system and softener bundle can soften your water and prevent scale buildup, extending the life of your fixtures.
9. Your Home Has Frequent Plumbing Issues or Appliance Corrosion
While plumbing issues can arise from various factors, poor water quality significantly increases the likelihood. Certain water contaminants can lead to drain blockages, while others can corrode pipes, potentially causing bursts and extensive damage.
For example, contaminated or acidic water can accelerate corrosion in plumbing pipes and appliances, which can be a threat to your home. Installing a water treatment system is crucial as it can neutralize acidity and eliminate harmful contaminants, thereby reducing the risk of corrosion.
If you find yourself frequently tackling issues like low pH levels, clogged pipes or limescale buildup, it may be attributed to the presence of hard water or other water quality concerns. Investing in a water treatment system is an effective solution to address these challenges by removing contaminants and treating your water supply, thereby safeguarding your plumbing system and appliances.
Don’t know if you have hard water? Use our hardness by zip code tool to find out!
10. Your Home’s Age is Old
Older homes may have outdated plumbing systems or lead pipes which may leach contaminants into the water supply. Installing a water treatment system offers peace of mind, safeguarding your water from harmful contaminants.
11. Your Water Bill Is Expensive
If you've noticed a significant increase in your water bill, it could be because of factors such as water leaks, inefficient appliances, untreated water, or other water-related issues. If it’s due to mineral buildups in your pipes and household appliances, it can cause your plumbing system to work harder. Investing in a water treatment system can enhance water efficiency, minimize wastage, and ultimately lead to lower water bills over time.
12. Your Water Contains Contaminants
High levels of contaminants in water, such as lead can pose serious health problems, especially for young children. If you live in an area with known lead or heavy metal contamination, you should be concerned about the safety of your water. A water treatment system can remove lead and a wide range of harmful impurities, ensuring that your water is safe for consumption.
13. Your Water Quality Result is Poor
Lastly, the easiest and best way to know you need a water filtration system is to do a water test. When performed by a professional, water tests can give you key information about what’s going on every time you turn on the tap. More importantly, whether any contaminants or other issues are present in your water supply, and at what levels those contaminants occur. These results will help guide you toward the best water filtration system or solution.
If you notice any of these signs in your household water, it might be time to consider a water treatment system to ensure cleaner, safer, and better-tasting water for you and your family.
What Are The Benefits Of A Water Treatment System?
Overall, a water treatment system can offer numerous benefits for your health, home, and the environment. It can help remove undesired minerals, chemicals, and contaminants from your water. The benefits of adding a water treatment system to your water supply are:
- Safer drinking water
- Improved hair and skin
- More efficient appliances
- Reduce maintenance costs
- Long lasting plumbing
- Softer, cleaner laundry
- Shiny, spot-free dishes
- Improved taste and clarity of your water
In other words, a water treatment system is a small investment that can prolong the life and efficiency of all your appliances that rely on water, make your skin and hair feel and look better, allow for cleaner clothing and dishes, and improve the health and safety of you and your family.
If you have any questions about the signs that you need a water treatment system, or if you’d like to learn more about our water softener, water treatment systems and our best-selling filtration bundles, contact us!
