Why you need a water treatment system even if you are on city water

Is your city water safe?
Is it contaminant free?
Is it hard the way well water is?

In a lot of major municipalities, water is piped in, chemically treated and sent to homes totally unfiltered! Is this the quality of water you and your family want to use for drinking, cooking and bathing? Municipal water treatment cannot always control for the outbreak of dangerous bacterial contaminants in tap water. On top of that, even in the municipalities where water is filtered and treated, it then has to go through a series of pipes before it even gets to your house. In many part of the nation, aging urban infrastructures mean that residential water pipes face a risk of corrosion. Impurities from surrounding soils may seep into corroded, leaking pipes. Pesticides, herbicides and other chemicals are found in most municipal water sources. Parasites that can cause intestinal and digestive problems can be found in water that has not been treated properly.

In fact, there are over 2,000 contaminants in unpurified drinking water. Among them are chlorine, chloramines, fluoride and heavy metals, which can aggravate skin conditions such as psoriasis and eczema, especially in children. An EPA study found that 500,000 cases of learning disorders annually are connected to lead residues contained in unpurified water. Several types of cancer can be attributed to the presence of toxic materials in drinking water.

The only way to ensure pure, contaminant-free drinking water is through the use of a point-of-use water filtration system. This is just one reason a whole house water filtration system is a great investment in your health. Water filters also remove elements that cause drinking water to have an unpleasant taste and smell, such as lead, chlorine and bacteria. A home water filtration system will improve the overall purity, taste and smell of your drinking water. It also lowers the pH level of the water that you drink.

Another reason to look into a system is that here in SWFL, all tap water is “hard,” whether it’s well water or city water. Hard water has a high mineral content, mainly calcium and magnesium. Hard water is not bad for you, but it is bad for your house.

Hard water can cause devastating effects on plumbing, hot water heaters, dishwashers, washing machines, and the water and ice makers in refrigerators. Hard water reduces the life span of your plumbing systems and contributes to problems such as rusting, reduced effectiveness of cleaning agents, and scale buildup in your pipes. Stemming from the buildup, lime “scale” accumulation can result in your water heater and plumbing systems using more energy, in turn costing you more money in the long run. Scale can clog pipes, decreasing, the life of flushing units by 70% and water taps by 40%.

In the home environment, hard water requires more soap and synthetic detergents for laundry and washing. It takes half as much soap for cleaning with conditioned water. Hard water and soap combine to form “soap scum” that can’t be rinsed off, forming a “bathtub ring” on all surfaces, and it dries leaving unsightly spots on dishes. Using soap on the body in hard water can cause the formation of a scum often referred to as “curd.” The formation of scum and curd is caused when calcium and magnesium form insoluble salts found in soaps. This curd remains on the skin even after rinsing, clogging pores and coating body. This can serve as a medium for bacterial growth, causing nappy rash, minor skin irritation and skin that looks dry and continually itches. Similarly, the insoluble salts that get left behind from using regular shampoo in hard water tend to leave hair rougher and harder to untangle.

Finally, if a natural disaster befalls your SWFL community, (such as a hurricane) and your public water system temporarily ceases to function well, then the availability of an excellent high quality water filtration system may enable your household to purify its own water more easily during an emergency. Boiling water for 20 minutes to purify it may not prove easy after a hurricane, for instance.

At West Coast Plumbing and Water Treatment, we have a number of water treatment options for you. For example, the WCP Dual Treat Whole House System is a unique two-tank system requiring only one control valve to treat city water for your entire house. The WCP Dual Treat Whole House System is ideal for city water applications; where hard water is an issue and chlorine taste and odor removal is desired. Our Dual Treat System includes our Matrix Series Valve which will backwash the carbon media & resin bed based on water quality and usage, not time, to reduce salt consumption and conserve on water.

Give us a call at 239-340-8224 to find out more about our water treatment options and which would be best for your house!