Is My Whole House Filter Really Making My Water Safer To Drink-
Is my whole-house filter system genuinely improving the quality of my drinking water? Owning a single whole-house filtration unit likely doesn’t ensure your water is fit for consumption or cooking, as these systems typically target only a few contaminants, mainly for purposes like bathing and cleaning. While they can enhance water safety, only a reverse osmosis (RO) system can guarantee water that’s truly safe to drink. Nevertheless, your whole-house filter provides some level of protection, offering an advantage over untreated tap water. To assess the effectiveness of your filter, you need to identify the pollutants in your water source, comprehend your system type, and recognize its strengths and limitations.
Water testing and analysis are key to evaluating water quality. Users of municipal water should receive an annual report from their supplier outlining detected contaminants and their levels, along with the EPA’s guidelines for pollutants. These reports generally contain the EPA’s limits for pollutants, so you should verify that contaminant levels are within these standards. A visual and olfactory check or a professional lab analysis of a water sample, particularly important for well water users in spring, can also provide detailed insights into water condition changes, albeit at a higher cost.
It’s vital to know what your system is capable of treating. Regular salt addition suggests you might have a water softener, which does not filter most contaminants, even though it removes scale and certain minerals. Water softeners do not eliminate unhealthy chemicals, bacteria, heavy metals, or chlorine by-products and actually add salt, which diminishes water purity. To determine your whole-house filter type, examine the filter housing or consult an online water company for a complimentary evaluation. Sediment and activated carbon filtration systems offer superior contaminant removal compared to water softeners, eliminating common tap water chemicals like chlorine and chloramines, which can cause skin irritation and health issues even at low concentrations. While chlorine and chloramines can control microbial contaminants like e.coli, they may still affect drinking water quality. A whole-house catalytic activated carbon system or UV light treatment can effectively tackle these problems.
When it comes to ensuring pure drinking water, an RO system is the gold standard. Whole-house filters are designed to target specific contaminants for bathing and cleaning, reducing chemical and microbial exposure but not producing water suitable for drinking. An RO system, capable of filtering down to 0.0001 microns with up to 99% contaminant rejection, provides water quality equivalent to bottled water. It represents the most efficient technology for water treatment, often used in conjunction with whole-house filters for complete home water purification.