Are Water Filters Necessary Outside Of Contamination?
If there hasn't been a chemical spill or some other kind of soil/water contamination in the area, what's the point of adding water treatment? Just because your home isn't surrounded by radioactive slush doesn't mean you can't improve on the water quality, and if you've mostly had bad water in your life, it's difficult to make an informed decision on how to improve. Here are a few water improvement points to help you understand what you're missing--or what you need to get rid of--in your water supply.
How Can You Confirm Water Safety?
Never assume the quality of your water. It isn't just about taste, smell, or appearance; there are times when colorless, odorless, and tasteless substances can still have a harmful effect, and you'll need a water test to get an accurate answer.
Water testing is best performed at independent laboratories with accurate scientific and medical credentials. Although government-supported water testing is a good option in most cases, there are always exceptions, such as the Flint water crisis and cover-up. If anything, choose a government water test and a non-government, private water testing firm.
Kits with simple pH strips are not enough; if you can't identify certain substances without the aid of a color changing strip, you can't accurately confirm the quality. Your answer must include the water content in parts per million, and you'll need to figure out what to do with that information.
Home-based filters can't remove everything. Some filters are effective at removing nearly 100 percent of specific substances, such as lead, moderate salt content, or chlorides. If you're the first to discover a truly hazardous material in high content in your area, you may need more than a filter. Thankfully, most situations can do well with a water filtration system to thoroughly clean and deliver the water.
What Does Filtering Do Outside Of Safety?
Taste is one big factor when it comes to adding water filters. Local water supplies may have certain substances that can be reduced but not thoroughly removed. Swamp water or well water can add additional flavors because of plant material, excessive minerals, or dead bacteria.
The treatment process can be just as harsh on the taste. Chlorine/chlorides of different concentrations, as well as other treating agents can affect the taste of water during initial treatment. Every town/treatment facility is different, and some areas deal with chronic miscalculations of treatment substances. Sure, it's "safe" in many cases, but it doesn't taste great.
Don't get used to bad water. Drinking water systems professionals can bring you a sample of ideal drinking water from nearby sources and test your local water to see what their systems can do. Filtration can be calibrated on-site to perform a lot better than department store filter pitchers or faucet pitchers and can handle higher volumes of water without needing replacement.
With any filtration system, you can add in beneficial minerals to replace what you lose. One problem with most tap water is that in order to be safe, the water becomes less beneficial as certain minerals are extracted with the harmful substances.
Substances in mineral water additive systems include calcium, magnesium, bicarbonate, and sulfates. Vitamin enrichment is also possible, but you should consult a doctor to figure out what vitamins you may be deficient in or have a surplus of to avoid having too much of a good thing.
Contact a company like S G Water Conditioning to discuss water testing, system installation, maintenance, and additional features.