Water System for Your Home – The Benefits
Do you need a whole house water system or just something for your drinking water?
We’re living in a city, in a country, which by all accounts, does a terrific job of providing clean water to its citizens. Local municipalities have water treatment plants that filter, clean, and sanitize the water that comes into our homes and businesses. Most of the time, this sanitization is done with the use of chlorine. The question arises, “what impact does chlorinated water have on the pH of the water, and on our health?”
First let’s look at what chlorine does to the pH of water.
How does chlorine affect pH in drinking water?
What is the pH of tap water?
EPA guidelines state that the pH of tap water should be between 6.5 and 8.5. Still, tap water in the U.S. tends to fall below that — in the 4.3 to 5.3 range — depending on where you live.
But here’s the bottom line. If your water tastes or smells like chlorine then it might be time to think about installing
a water system that can give you clean, healthy drinking water.
What is the pH of water? And will a water system change that?
Most city water or commercial uncontaminated bottled water won’t make you healthier or sick due to its pH. Depending on the source and processing, most bottled water stays between a pH of 5 to 8.
Your body likes to stay at around a blood pH of 7.4, which is almost neutral. The pH of your body depends on how well your kidneys are doing their job. If your water is too “acidic” or too “basic” — meaning it’s been contaminated with caustic cleaners or acids — your pH can be thrown off, which could make you very sick, damage certain tissues, or even kill you.
A few bottled water brands run almost toward a pH of 8, but slightly more alkaline water doesn’t mean you’ll get additional health benefits. There isn’t any solid scientific evidence that says eating more alkaline foods or drinking alkaline water helps keep a person more disease-free than someone who doesn’t.
With all that said, that doesn’t mean that removing contaminates will change the pH. That depends on the contaminates. However, changing the pH of the water and removing contaminants can improve the taste of the water. Using a water softener or conditioner and then a reverse osmosis system under the kitchen sink for drinking water can dramatically improve the taste and quality of your water.
History of the the Water System and the Desire for Clean Water
As far back as 1500 BC, starting with the Egyptians the idea of procuring cleaner water was beginning to be considered. By 500 BC we can find in Sanskrit writings that many methods were being used to purify water including:
- filtering water through sand and gravel
- and/or boiling water with heat from the sun.
In 460 BC Hippocrates developed a cloth sleeve that filtered water, understanding the importance of water to the human body. Then the Romans developed miles of aquaducts supplying water to a much larger population. When the dark ages arrived that development was put into retrograde. However, we begin to see things moving forward when, in 1670, the development of microscopy allowed micro-organisms to be seen in water.
In the mid 1800’s, the cholera outbreak was seen to be less pervasive with people who lived in areas where their water was being filtered through sand. In 1903 experiments began to show that there was a system called ion exchange that could dramatically clean water compared to other options. Chlorine was also beginning to be used.
The 1950’s saw the beginning of domestic water softeners. These units has an electric timer and could regenerate themselves with a salt solution. Nowadays many people use magnesium chloride instead of sodium chloride to clean their water softening units.
How can I tell if my water is already soft?
Each city in your area puts out a yearly water report. In addition, you can also buy a hardness tester at your local hardware store. Simply dip them into your water and then use the color meter to see how hard your water is. Anything over about 8-10 is hard water and you’ll do well to get it softened with a residential water softener. Another quick test you can do on your own is to put a little more than a cup of water into a bottle with a bit of Ivory soap then shake it. If the result is water that looks milky rather than having buoyant, bouncy, bubbles, you have hard water.
If you would like to enjoy the many benefits of soft water and a drinking water system like:
- Soft, silky hair
- Smoother skin
- Less mineral buildup in your showers and sinks
- Water appliances that last longer
- Plumbing fixtures that last longer
- Using less soap – a lot less soap!
- A better tasting, and perhaps healthier water for drinking and cooking
…then call Mitch Clemmons Plumbing at (562) 246-9778. We can help you pick out a softener or conditioner, along with an under-the-sink system that works with your budget and lifestyle. We’ve helped hundreds of families discover how great really clean water can be.
There are some very noticeable benefits that people receive after installing a water softener system:
Most softeners use salt to recharge the ion base. However, there are some systems that offer a “salt-less” alternative. These came out about 20 years ago and became quite popular. Some look to this option due to concerns with sodium intake. The issue is, they’re really not what they’re billed to be. A salt-free “softener” uses other methods to deal with some aspects of the hard water, rather than the traditional ion exchange method. This type of water softener is actually more of a water “conditioner” rather than true water softening. Or what some call descaling. It may stop minerals from forming or staining surfaces that the water comes across but it doesn’t truly remove the hard water minerals.
