Why You Need a Home Water Filter

You use water for almost everything. Cleaning, cooking, and, of course, drinking. But few people can honestly say they know what’s in their water. Often homeowners will use their tap water to cook and shower with, but won’t drink it due to the taste. If you have noticed staining in your sink or shower, a bad smell or taste in your tap water, or your municipality has a known water purity issue, then you may want to consider a home water filtration system.

How They Work

There are three main types of filtration systems:

1. Activated Carbon:This option is low-cost and the most common. Most personal-sized water filters use activated carbon. These units are usually small enough to install under a sink, but one of the drawbacks is that they normally only service one water source at a time. This would require multiple units throughout the home if you needed more than one output.
2. Ion exchange filters (water softeners): If you’re interested in removing harmful chemicals and hard earth metals from your water, this is a great option. Magnesium and calcium are two of the most common substances that water softeners remove. They aren’t necessarily harmful to you, but removing them drastically increases the life of your plumbing system and fixtures. However, Barium is harmful to your internal organs, and water softeners can filter it out. Positively-charged ions are used to attract and remove the negatively-charged ions in barium, magnesium, calcium, and countless other chemicals and metals. One of the down sides to using a water softener is having to re-fill it with softener salt, and finding a place to keep the salt reservoir.
3. Reverse Osmosis: Considered one of the most effective types of water filtration systems, reverse osmosis uses air pressure to force the water molecules through a semi-permeable membrane. The membrane allows the water molecules through while filtering out any foreign chemicals or materials. This method uses a system of between 5 and 7 stages to filter the water, and can produce between 50-90 gallons per day. While highly effective, these systems take time to produce large amounts of safe water.

How They Work

As you’ve seen already, there are many chemicals, metals, and foreign substances that can make it past your local water treatment plant. Some are added as a way of treating the water, such as fluoride and chlorine. In fact, one of the most common complaints about tap water is the chlorine smell and taste.

Many contaminants can even make their way into your water after the water treatment plant. Lead is a common problem since it was used in plumbing extensively in the 1800s-1900s. Even if you’ve had your piping replaced with non-harmful materials, the connection to the municipal water system could still contain lead. It is most harmful to developing children and pregnant mothers. Experts all agree: there is no “safe” level of lead.

While the most important reason to get a filtration system is obviously your family’s safety, taste is a huge plus! Most water filtration systems improve the taste of the water by simply removing all of the chemicals that cause the poor taste or smell in the first place. Beyond that, there are systems that introduce minerals into your drinking water just to improve taste!

Improving the taste and smell of your water is enough to sway most homeowners. But if you’ve been using up hundreds of plastic water bottles every year, you can also save money and make a positive impact on the environment! Millions of plastic water bottles end up in our oceans and waterways every year. If more people make the switch to home filtration, it could drastically improve the plastic waste situation.

The added benefits are endless: improving your plumbing system’s health, preventing water stains and hard water marks, and even relieving dry or irritated skin!

How to Get One

If you’re thinking “why have I waiting so long”, ONE call, we can do it all! ONE Service pros has expert plumbers to help you make the right choice about your home’s water filtration. There are dozens of options available that can be overwhelming to choose from. Make an appointment with one of our Pros today!

ONE call, we can do it all – Plumbing, HVAC, and Electrical – Call 865-351-0241 today!

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