What’s Really In Your Water?

April 4, 2022 | Blog

The human body is 70% water, making it even more important to our health and survival than food. Drinking water, from city plants or wells, that is not filtered, treated or purified can make you sick due to the harmful particles in it. Thankfully, we have many advanced water technologies, like water filters and water filtration systems, that can be installed in your home.

Denny Plumbing knows how crucial drinking pure, clean water is to living a happy, long life. Filtered tap water is better than bottled or standard water, so let’s take a look at what is in your water and how you can benefit from filtration.

Common Water Additives And Contaminants

The EPA, in partnership with the CDC, controls the standard of what our drinking water can contain after it is sent through treatment facilities. There, substances added to our water make it cleaner and beneficial to our health. Once water leaves the treatment facility, contaminants collected on its way to your home can lead to health issues, like headaches, fatigue or diarrhea.

Some common tap water contaminants are:

Lead (if your home or neighborhood has old pipes)
Sodium
Chlorination by-products
Pesticides
Fertilizer chemicals
Municipal sewage
Bacteria
Other heavy metals

If your water comes from a well instead of a city treatment plant, you should test it every year and before you first use it. Testing for hazardous material in your water is the best way to protect you and your family from serious medical conditions.

Benefits Of A Water Filtration System

Installing a water filtration system in your house is a great way to ensure you have access to clean water, benefitting you in the following ways:

More cost-effective than buying water bottles
Benefits the environment by reducing plastic waste and water used to produce plastic
Removes impurities through filtration but keeps healthy minerals
Smells and tastes better after removing dangerous contaminants
Boosts your health by supporting your immune system and mental health, resulting in better skin hydration, digestion and nutrient absorption
Low maintenance, durable, portable and easy to use

Types Of Home Water Filters

Softener (Ion Exchange)

Water softeners remove hard minerals from your water before it reaches your plumbing fixtures through an ion exchange process. They use resin beads to exchange magnesium and calcium ions with hydrogen ions to physically remove the unwanted minerals.

Reverse Osmosis

The reverse osmosis (RO) process uses water pressure to force water molecules through a semipermeable membrane. Any dissolved inorganic solid contaminants (lead, salts, fluoride, chlorine, nitrates, etc.) are then filtered out and flushed away.

RO filters are often multi-stage and use extra filters, making them more expensive than other methods, but they are the most effective at filtering contaminants.

Absorption

Absorption filters use carbon, which is very effective at capturing and absorbing water-borne contaminants. Its surface has many nooks and crannies, giving it a large surface area that is great at catching chemicals. Many substances can be used to create a carbon filter, but the most common is granular activated carbon (GAC), used in Brita filters.

Mechanical

A barrier that physically removes dirt, sediment and other particles makes up mechanical filters. This barrier can be a basic mesh, for large debris, or ceramic, for pathogenic organisms. A micron rating system (from 0.5 to 5 microns) helps you know how effective each filter is, based on the size of the particles it can remove.

Clean Water For Your Hill Country Home

Deciding which water filter is best for your home can be difficult and isn’t always straightforward. Even if you know what you want to be filtered from your water, things like flow rate, your water source, maintenance requirements and the number of people in your home impact your options.

Our experienced technicians at Denny Plumbing can satisfy any of your plumbing needs in San Antonio and the surrounding areas, including understanding whether a water softener or RO system is best for your home.