Water is vital to your home and health. You rely on it for cooking, cleaning, washing, bathing, drinking, and nourishing. Learn why a new water filtration system is good for your family.

When you think about all of the ways water touches our lives, you see why it’s so important that we make sure that water is as clean as it can be. Identify your common home water problems.

Hard Water

Hard water is easy to spot; it leaves a bathtub ring made up of hardness minerals and soap. This scum collects on shower walls, clings to hair, clogs skin pores, and makes house cleaning difficult. Hard water deposits also can clog pipes, cause water heaters to operate inefficiently, and increase maintenance on water-using appliances.

Hard water is created when water passes through rock formations and picks up calcium and magnesium.

Water hardness is corrected by the use of a water softener/conditioner. The hard water passes through a tank containing resin beads holding “soft” sodium ions. The “hard” calcium and magnesium ions are exchanged for sodium ions, thus softening the water. When the beads have trapped all the hardness they can hold, the unit is regenerated (recharged) with salt brine to replace the hardness ions with sodium ions. The unit is then ready to soften water again.

Iron Water

Iron water is easy to detect; it may leave iron stains on sinks, clothing, and linens, or it can form scale in pipes and water-using appliances that make water look and smell bad.

Iron water is created when water passes through iron-bearing rocks in the earth. It can also be caused, usually temporarily, by water standing in iron pipes. There are several types of iron: Clear water, red water, and bacterial.

Small amounts of clear water iron can be corrected by a water softener. Red water iron and larger amounts of clear water iron can be controlled by running the water through a filter containing an oxygen-rich mineral. The mineral oxides the iron into solid particles that can then be trapped in the filter and washed down the drain. Extreme amounts of iron are best controlled by using a chemical feed system that puts chlorine into the water to oxidize the iron. To treat bacterial iron, the well and water system need to be “shocked” with heavy chlorination and then maintained by a filter or feed system.

Tastes and Odor

Tastes and odors in water do not normally cause physical problems in the home but can be very objectionable. In its purest state, water is colorless, tasteless and odorless. Poor tasting drinking water is one of the most common problems people experience with their drinking water.

Tastes and odors are caused by many things including chlorine, chlorine compounds, decaying organic matter, and dissolved gases or minerals. The presence of hydrogen sulfide, which tastes and smells like rotten eggs or sulfur, is caused by decaying vegetation and oil deposits beneath the earth’s surface.

It is also one of the more frustrating water problems. Even the slightest metallic, salty, sour or bitter taste in your drinking water can be a big problem when you’re using your water for cooking, making ice, brewing coffee and especially drinking.

So, if your water tastes or smells funny, you owe it to yourself to find out why.

Turbidity

Turbidity is simply dirt or other suspended materials in water. You can detect turbidity by visual inspection. In addition to being unpleasant to look at, it can clog small water-bearing openings and cause wear on valves, seats, and washers.

Turbidity is caused by dirt and sand getting into wells, or by run-off of other organic matter into your water supplies.

Suspended materials in water can be trapped in a tank filter containing a bed of filtering media. Small amounts of turbidity can be handled with a cartridge filter designed for removing sediment from a water supply.

Acid Water

Acid water cannot be detected by the water’s appearance, feel, or odor. Its symptoms, however, are very apparent in the home. Acid water, in conjunction with copper fittings and fixtures, can cause blue-green stains on plumbing fixtures, and eat away chrome faucets, fittings, and pipes. It can etch china and glassware, and corrode water-using appliances.

Acid water is caused by water passing through extremely hard rock such as granite or marble. Water, by nature, wants to dissolve materials through which it passes. If it cannot dissolve the materials, water comes into the home in a “hungry” state and starts eating away everything it touches. The degree of problems experienced will be determined by the pH levels which measures acidity on a scale of 1 to 14. Water registering below 7 is acidic, at 7 is neutral, and above 7 is alkaline.

Slightly acidic conditions can be controlled by running water through a filter tank containing a neutralizing compound. More extreme conditions can be controlled using a chemical feed system that injects a liquid neutralizer into water. Also, a phosphate feeder can be used to coat all water-bearing surfaces with a film that helps eliminate acidic damage.

Contaminants

Drinking water contaminants cannot be detected except by professional testing.

Drinking water contaminants are either naturally occurring or man-made. Depending on the type and amount of contaminant, there are various methods of treating water, including sediment filters, taste and odor filters, chemical contaminant filters, lead reduction filters, reverse osmosis drinking water systems, and distillers.

Learn more about the common water problems that affect your family’s water. Ask your Dayton Sofwater service technician to analyze your water and recommend the right solution to bring you filtered, clean water!