Water quality is a critical concern for many homeowners, directly impacting health and well-being. In recent years, Americans have spent billions of dollars on bottled water due to concerns about the safety and quality of their tap water.
Contaminants such as lead, chlorine, pesticides, and bacteria can pose significant health risks if not properly managed. Ensuring good water quality in your home protects your family’s health and enhances the taste and safety of the water you consume daily.
Let’s explore the essential steps you can take to maintain and improve water quality in your home.
Water Testing
To begin with, the EPA recommends annual water testing to check pH levels and identify coliform bacteria, nitrates, and total dissolved solids. These tests are crucial as they help ensure that the water you and your family consume is safe and clean. You can have water tests performed as part of a home energy audit, which you should conduct every several years to maintain optimal home health.
Professional Plumbing Maintenance
Next, you should schedule an annual plumbing inspection. One important reason for this is your water heater, which requires annual flushing even if you have soft water. During this inspection, your plumber will check the sacrificial anode rod and replace it as needed.
Additionally, your plumber can check your main water and sewer lines and, if applicable, your water filtration and softening systems. This proactive approach helps you identify water quality issues as early as possible. If you have a well system, this is also an opportunity to disinfect your water supply, ensuring it remains free of contaminants.
Homeowner Plumbing Maintenance
Moreover, as a homeowner, there are several maintenance tasks you can perform yourself. You should clean your faucet aerators after six months and replace them after a year. If you have a whole-home water purification and/or softening system, have it inspected and cleaned once a year. During that appointment, your plumber will change filters as needed.
If you have point-of-use (POU) filtration, those filters need changing every three or six months depending on the brand and model. This regular maintenance helps keep your water clean and your systems running efficiently.
Whole-House Water Filtration
When it comes to filtration, point-of-use (POU) water filtration is affordable in the short term. However, point-of-entry (POE) water filtration is superior on a number of fronts. It’s more effective and provides filtered water throughout the entire home. POE filtration is also more affordable over the life of the equipment.
Most POE water filters will have two stages: a sediment filter and an activated carbon filter. The sediment filter removes sand, silt, rust, and even cysts if the filter is fine enough. The activated carbon filter absorbs chlorine, chloramine, and other chemicals.
As an alternative, you can opt for a reverse osmosis (RO) system. RO systems can be expensive but are very effective for filtration, as they remove everything from the water!
Water Softening
Additionally, hard water is an issue that affects 85% of Americans. It affects the taste and smell of drinking water and isn’t ideal for cooking. It makes showering less pleasant. Hard water also makes water heaters less efficient and reduces plumbing and appliance lifespan.
In fact, the Department of Energy (DOE) estimates that the average household of four spends $800 annually on cleaning supplies due to hard water. If you have hard water, you should invest in a POE water softening system. An RO system is an alternative, but it removes all minerals, which means you’ll need a remineralization filter too.
Choose WaterSense Products
Furthermore, when selecting appliances and fixtures, consider choosing WaterSense products. WaterSense is a program through which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) certifies products. A core focus of this program is helping consumers choose water-efficient appliances, but that isn’t the only purpose. The EPA also tests these products as applicable for water quality, ensuring they help maintain clean and safe water in your home.
Your Local Water Quality Pros
If you need help maintaining your water quality, Plumbing & Cooling Nerds is here for you. Our company serves Southwest Florida and has offices in Bonita Springs, Cape Coral, Fort Myers, and Naples. We perform home energy audits. Our plumbers perform repairs and are on call 24/7 for emergencies. Our team pipes and repipes gas lines, main water lines, sewer lines, and interior plumbing. We also hook up appliances and install water heaters, well systems, leak detection, water filters, water softeners, and much more.
Call us today or contact us online to learn more about our other services and to schedule an appointment.
