Clean Drinking Water at Home

Is My Drinking Water Okay?

Imagine that you’re at the tail end of a summer afternoon gardening session. You’ve spent hours weeding, pruning, watering, and digging in your backyard. As you’re giving one last look over your handiwork, you’re only thinking about one thing: that celebratory glass of water. You shake out the dirt in your pockets, head to the kitchen, fill up a tall glass of water from the tap, take a big swig and…something’s not quite right. Your tap water tastes terrible.

While many of us expect our city drinking water to be consistently free from impurities and imperfections, the reality can be much different. At any given time, there are several factors that can affect the quality of your drinking water, ranging from your public water supply’s source to the quality of the plumbing that your drinking water travels through to reach your tap. These factors can affect the taste, appearance, and even the safety of your home’s drinking water if not addressed. Regardless of the cause, bad tasting and bad looking drinking water can make us wary when filling up a glass from the tap and make us ask the question: Is my water okay to drink?

Municipalities regulate and treat their water supply for contaminants and impurities, but recent news stories about the failures of some public works can make trusting the quality of our drinking water that much more difficult. What steps can we take to make sure that we’re consuming the highest quality, safest drinking water we can?

Alternatives to the Tap

Maybe you get the majority of your drinking water from the dispenser in your fridge or use a water filter pitcher before consuming water from your tap. Both of these solutions advertise taste and odor free water with very little cost and maintenance besides replacing the filter. In both cases, an activated carbon filter is used to attract and remove certain contaminants, including the ones that affect the look and taste of your drinking water. This leaves behind a seemingly clear and perfect glass of water.

Even though this water might look clear, it may not be completely absent of contaminants. While these filters often work well with removing the taste and odor from some water, most are not able to capture and remove certain harmful contaminants. The relatively short amount of time that the water spends passing through these smaller carbon filters may also not fully eliminate all odor and taste issues, especially on more difficult water.

Replacing or supplementing your home’s drinking water with bottled water is another solution, but the cost, inconvenience, and heavy environmental impact of discarded plastic bottles makes this a less than ideal fix. In addition, bottled water regulations are about on par with the EPA’s standards on tap water, meaning that your favorite bottled water brand might be using water very similar to what you can find in your home’s tap. Those images of crystal clear, glacier-fed artesian water sources on water bottle labels are far from the truth. Many bottled water brands have even been subject to recalls due to safety concerns of E.Coli or high arsenic contamination.

The Reverse Osmosis Solution

The perfect home solution for the best, most convenient drinking water comes in the form of a process called reverse osmosis (RO). A reverse osmosis treatment unit “polishes” water through a multi-stage filtration process that reduces bothersome contaminants that affect the smell, look, and taste of your water. In addition, an RO unit also reduces more harmful contaminants, such as lead and arsenic.

Much like a fridge or pitcher-style water filter, an RO system includes carbon filters to reduce contaminants. These filters are much larger than the ones found in your fridge and water moves more slowly through them, giving the carbon enough time to do its job properly. In addition, a unique membrane filter catches any remaining impurities at the microscopic level. This is the stage where contaminants like lead, arsenic, nitrates, and cysts are removed.

A reverse osmosis unit has a small footprint and can be installed easily in most homes. It is often installed beneath a kitchen sink or in a discrete and accessible location and is connected to its own dedicated faucet. These faucets come available in a large variety of colors and styles and are designed to match and compliment your kitchen. Once installed, you and your family will have quick and convenient access to the high quality, pure drinking water that you expect in your home.

In addition to providing pure water for drinking, the taste and odor free qualities of reverse osmosis water is ideal for using in cooking or in hot or cold drinks. Even the slightest water impurity can affect the taste of a new recipe or your morning coffee. Using reverse osmosis water ensures that you’re using the purest, cleanest ingredients you can.

If you find yourself questioning the water that comes from your tap or if you simply want better tasting, better-looking drinking water for your home, the first step is calling a professional to test your drinking water. Depending on the results of your water test, WaterCare offers an innovative line of reverse osmosis systems that provide pure, refreshing and high quality “polished” water that treats the base problems in your home. To get started, call us today!