Drinking a big glass a water straight from the faucet isn’t as dangerous in the United States as other places, but there are still plenty of minerals and other contaminants, including chemicals used to purify the water, that can be harmful if they build up in your body.

You may have noticed that tap water tastes differently than bottled water. While bottled water usually has a clean, cool taste uncomplicated with treatment chemicals, tap water can vary from city to city. In some cases, you may notice that certain tap water tastes or smells like a swimming pool. That’s because to “purify” tap water, local water treatment plants use chlorine and sometimes fluoride into the water supply.

These chemicals do a great job of killing off any kind of bacteria and other living contaminants that can cause serious health issues in large populations. However, they can be harmful in large quantities over time.

Home Water Solutions frequently sends water treatment and testing specialists to clients’ homes to determine the benefits of home water treatment systems. These testers usually find chlorine levels several times higher than Environmental Protection Agency-recommended levels. That’s more chlorine in tap water than in a normal swimming pool. High chlorine exposure can eventually lead to health issues. But, chlorine isn’t the only thing you should know about your tap water. There are other minerals in tap water that can cause problems, too.

How Minerals Affect Your Tap Water

Does your shower look like this? Hard water may be to blame.

Most tap water in the United States comes from aquifers and reservoirs that funnel water to treatment facilities usually administered by local governments. As rain falls, water flows over hard minerals in the ground like magnesium and calcium. This is especially prevalent in water systems using aquifers for their supply, because the water comes from the ground. The water flows over rocks, wearing them down and taking a bit of their mineral composition with them. Calcium and magnesium dissolve, creating “hard” water, or water that is more difficult for the body to absorb than “soft” water, whose mineral makeup makes it easier for the body to absorb and use in the bloodstream.

“Hard” water is not only unhealthy to drink, it can affect how you wash your clothes and skin. Because of the minerals present in “hard” water, this type of water can’t dissolve many more agents than what is already in it. Think of this like a sponge or cloth that is completely saturated, unable to take on any more liquid. Home Water Solutions testers refer to “hard” water as “full” water.

Because this water can’t absorb soap and grime as easily, it takes more water to effectively clean clothes, often leaving behind trace amounts of detergent and grit that could hurt your clothes with repeated use. “Hard” water also dries out the skin and clogs your pores. You’ve probably heard warnings about showering in water that’s too hot because it draws the moisture from your skin and body. “Hard” water has an even more adverse effect on your skin and body than purified water.

Water treatment systems can save you money by giving you water you can use more efficiently to clean your clothes and leave your skin with more moisture than normal tap water. Customers with water treatment systems in their homes can use significantly less laundry detergent than they did with normal tap water because the purification system takes out more of the minerals that prevent the detergent from doing its job efficiently.

What You Can Do

Ready to start a conversation? Home Water Solutions to help you get the most out of your tap water at home. You’ll save money on this and many more inefficiencies by switching to a water treatment system for your home, and you’ll rid your tap water of that swimming pool taste.