The water in our house | Water filters in the USA | Replacing filters
The water in our house is what we drink and how it affects the body.
Water gives life. But not all. In some cases, this precious liquid, without which our existence is impossible in principle, can even cause harm, and a lot. And no, we are not talking about the "special composition" of water from polluted springs or some other scarecrow. We are talking about the water that flows from under the taps in the most ordinary apartments, because it is no secret to anyone, unfortunately, that it is not as clean as we would like and has a lot of harmful impurities.
Reasons for poor water quality can be very different. In some communities, its composition is initially not the best, or the number of production effluents exceeds all adequate standards, so that standard treatment technology is simply not enough. Somewhere, the reason is worn-out water lines and equipment or the chemical composition of the water bed that feeds the well.
There's a lot of options, in short. Sadness is sad, but what can you do? There is only one way out - if you need good quality, clean, and really drinking water, you should take the solution to the problem into your own hands. That is, to arm the filters and take care of its purification on your own.
When do you need additional water treatment?
Sometimes it becomes clear at a glance that water requires additional treatment - just pour it into a clear glass or a white cup to enjoy the most unexpected colors, fascinating processes of sediment formation, or other amusing metamorphoses. Only for some reason, when the water, which is prescribed to be clean, drinking and safe, "pleases" the most unexpected colors of the rainbow, muddy suspension, brown sludge, or something else just as appetizing, the thirst somehow subsides. It's checked.
In some cases, the presence of additives unintended by logic and the Ministry of Health can be determined by the smell - even visually clean and transparent, it may have a quite characteristic smell of chlorine, must or something no less "pleasant". If you want to conduct a small express test of tap water quality at home, try to put it in a container and leave it for 6-8 hours.
Defrosting the water is one of the proven ways to know what we drink, and part of the impurities can be removed in this way. Heavy metal salts and other impurities, if they are present in the water, will settle down during this time, and we will be able to assess the whole picture, and the water, at least a little, but will clean up, becoming a little safer than it was before.
How to choose a water filter?
Take Washington, for instance. There are several ways to solve the problem with poor quality drinking water. For example, you can take the path of least resistance and buy treated water - bottled or spilled. This method is simple because there is no need to bother with buying, installing, and replacing water filters in Washington, but it has a few disadvantages. Inexpensive water is very likely to be not mineral, but simply purified tap water, that is, the composition and taste may be far from our wishes and expectations. Not all customers trust the purified water that is sold for bottling, too - the bottles in which it is filled are not sterile, and during the filling process, the most unexpected substances and microorganisms can get into the water. Let's be honest - the chances of this happening, of course, not so much, but they do exist.
Bottled water delivery services are already more interesting in this regard. The bottles, disinfected, filled and sealed in factory conditions, will be delivered to the house and even brought into the apartment, but there is often a problem with the time of delivery - not all services bring the ordered water at a strictly agreed time. Some companies, by the way, have their own schedule of delivery to different parts of the city, and it is not always convenient for the customer. Bottled water can be both conventional purified and mineral - purified and softened. The latter usually costs an order of magnitude more expensive, but it is both tastier and healthier.
The third option is self-cleaning water at home. It is simple, convenient, and safe to do with the help of special filters - different manipulations with sedimentation, freezing, soaking of silicon, and transfusion of water through woolen strips, which can be found on the Internet, of course, interesting and informative, but not very effective. Yes, with the help of such operations can more or less purify tap water on their own, but with specific hazardous substances, they can not cope. Visually, this water will seem clean, but will you be 100% sure of the quality of water purified in this way, will you risk drinking it raw, not to mention giving it to children?
Water filters are more reliable in this respect and allow them to achieve really good results after treatment. Filter cartridges can be selected as universal or more narrowly directed, e.g. for water softening, manganese and iron removal, simple mechanical cleaning, or others. There are also reverse osmosis systems, which allow for maximum water disinfection and purification from 99% of all organic and inorganic impurities.
Installation of a water filter in most cases requires certain skills, knowledge, and effort - it requires plumbing, but there are also simple portable models. For example, a sinkhole filter is the easiest to use, most affordable, and affordable device. The compact pitcher made of translucent plastic hides a special cleaning cartridge inside, through which the water is poured into the container slowly but surely passes. This simple device allows you to remove most of the impurities from the water, soften it, and noticeably improve the taste. By the way, the sinkhole filter is very handy with its portability - you can easily take it with you on a trip, for example, to your cottage or hiking trip.
To determine the exact composition of water, you need to contact a special laboratory, which will analyze samples of water from your water supply systems and painted in detail, what it contains and in what quantity. But the presence of some impurities in the water can be identified independently, so we have prepared for you five useful tips that will help to identify the most common types of contamination of drinking water.
Signs of poor water quality:
Limescale formation on dishes: If boiling on the walls of the kettle and drinks prepared on such water has an unpleasant characteristic flavor, this indicates a high content of hard salts. These are ions of calcium, magnesium, and other alkaline earth metals. And hard water is harmful.
It is not recommended for drinking and cooking, as it has a negative effect on the body and can even cause urinary stone disease and other diseases. If it is used for bathing, skin, and hair rapidly deteriorate - they dry out. Hard water causes dandruff to appear, flaking can occur on the skin, especially on sensitive skin, and the curls lose their shine and elasticity, becoming brittle and splitting.
The smell of chlorine from the water: If tap water smells like chlorine, it's basically not bad - it's there, at least the water is decontaminated. Well, if not completely, then at least partially, because in untreated water contains a huge number of bacteria, viruses, and pathogens. But the obvious smell of chlorine signals the wrong proportions of substances used in the treatment of dangerous chemical reactions. Why is this happening?
 Before it gets into our taps, tap water passes through the treatment plant, getting rid of all kinds of dangerous impurities, but then it gets into the water pipes, which over time appear and oxides, bacteria, fungi, and much less pleasant. Chlorination of tap water makes it possible to destroy this critter, but here we are let down by the laws of chemistry. Not only is chlorine very harmful in itself, but it also reacts chemically with other substances contained in tap water, turning into toxic and carcinogenic compounds.
Water has a metallic flavor and/or smell. Metal flavor in water when it has a high iron content. Such water may look absolutely transparent, or it may be turbid and have a yellowish color - it depends on the state in which the metal resides.
It is the state of iron affects the appearance and properties of water. Iron in colloidal state makes it yellowish-muddy, and when the impurities are finely dispersed iron, the water will retain its transparency, but after a few hours of sedimentation will give a reddish-brown sludge. Water with coarse suspension also forms sediment, but it itself is initially muddy and with a reddish hue. The most unpleasant form of this metal in tap water is bacterial iron. It can be identified by the slimy sediment that accumulates in the pipes.
Water with a high iron content is harmful to humans and the only exception is mineral water. But they must also be used with care - little by little and for a short time. If you use mineral water with a high content of iron for a long time, the human body starts to work with failures. Digestive problems begin, thyroid function is disturbed, and irritations appear on the skin and mucous membranes. If the excess iron in the body remains for many years, it is possible to develop diabetes mellitus, arthritis, and nervous diseases.
The smell of rotten eggs from water: This unpleasant but recognizable smell of water gives hydrogen sulfide, which occurs during the decomposition of organic substances and is a product of life activities of anaerobic organisms. The sulfur smell is very unpleasant, and a person can always smell it, even if the concentration of hydrogen sulfide is very low. And water polluted with hydrogen sulfide is really dangerous - this gas is very toxic and has the property to instantly spread around the room. After breathing for some time such as poisonous vapors, you can get poisoning, and even more, you can not drink water containing hydrogen sulfide. Most often, this problem is faced by the owners of wells and wells - wells lose their tightness over time, during floods in aquifers can seep surface water, bacteria, remnants of organic matter, which leads to such a bad-smelling result.
The smell of gouache: If the water brings nostalgia to the art school you attended as a child, then we have not very good news for you - it's phenol. It can be in both the well and the tap water. How can phenol get into water? Well, there are several options. The source of water pollution by phenol may be enterprises located near the water source - paint shops, refineries, various chemical plants.
If there is nothing of the kind nearby, it is worth checking the water supply system in the house, as phenol may emit low-quality seals, sanitary sealants, and even pipes themselves. This is precisely the case when the owners of houses and apartments with old communications change the old water supply system to get rid of rust, and eventually, put a new beautiful, but "enriching" water with phenol.
If you find any of these signs of poorly treated water, contact the laboratory for water testing. Â Water filters in the USA will help solve the problem of poor tap water and give you peace of mind and confidence in your home's water quality.
Buy products in AquaHomeGroup website and read our article about "How does your skin react to poor-quality water?"