Water constitutes 75% of our bodies. It is the main and vital ingredient of the human body. All other body constituents – dry bones, muscles, skin – represent the other 25% of our body.
It’s no wonder that we have to continuously replenish the water in our bodies. Health authorities recommend that we drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water per day; that’s about half a gallon.
A single person uses from 80 to 100 gallons of water per day. (Source: United States Geological Survey)
We might be drinking half a gallon of water per day. However, the majority of water we use in a day accounts for taking showers, washing dishes, toilet flushes, and baths. These activities primarily affect our:
- Skin (personal).
- Body (personal).
- Internal piping (household).
- Home appliances (household).
Having hard water, for example, can lead to a limescale build-up in internal piping.
Houses with water softeners gain in market value because the future owners have some indication that the piping throughout the house is not damaged.
Here at Waternity lab we are dedicated to educating everybody about the importance of water and the risks associated with hard and/or unfiltered water. By implementing just a few good practices – such as installing water filtration systems and using low flow faucets – you can do a lot to protect your home, yourself, and your loved ones.
Here’s the truth about our water:
Most water sources can guarantee us 99% pure water. This is crystal clear water, comprised only of H2O water molecules. The challenging part is that the other 1% part that consists of impurities, minerals, and even bacteria and viruses.
Water Quality (99% Pure Water, 1% Of Unwanted Impurities)
It would be perfect is our ground and well water sources would provide us with 100% pure water that is both drinkable and doesn’t cause limescale build-up in our piping. Perfect water would be:
- Soft water (below 60 ppm of water hardness; doesn’t damage piping, skin, doesn’t leave white stains on dishes).
- Without dangerous substances.
- Without bacteria and viruses.
The reality, however, is that 85% of US households have only access to hard water.
Water filtration systems are most often not in place as is; we have to take care to install filtration systems in order to get the high water quality to drink and to use for washing.
That 1% of impurities in water include (but are not limited to):
- Calcium cations (Ca2+) that cause water hardness and damage household piping, appliances
- Magnesium cations (Ca2+) add to water hardness
- Lead
- Arsenic
- Nitrates
- Nitrites
- Iron
- Chromium
- Selenium
- Fluoride
- Cadmium
- Phosphate
- Radium
- Chlorine
- Barium
- Bacteria
- Cysts
- Viruses
- Zinc
Going over all water impurities might be scary at first. The important realization is that concentration is key here. Phosphates or nitrates in water, at low enough concentration, will pose no problems.
The disconcerting situation is when the concentration of any of these impurities is too high. Calcium and magnesium content, for example, is too high in most households.
Development Of Water Purification System For Households
Here’s the deal:
Before the 1950s there was little anybody could do about water impurities. How can you extract minuscule molecules of lead from tap water? Without modern technology, that’s quite impossible.
It gets better, however:
The privilege of living in the modern world is that we do have access to fantastic technologic achievements. Water purification technology has advanced so far that every homeowner can install water purification devices that selectively filter out the unwanted water impurities.
Today, we can easily solve water quality problems like:
- Hard water.
- High nitrate water content and the presence of pesticides.
- High iron water content.
- Even eliminate the bacteria and viruses that might enter and contaminate our water supply.
For all of these challenges with water pollutants, we have specific devices – general and specific filters, softeners, reverse osmosis systems – that can help us homeowners eliminate water quality problems.
Choosing which devices to install can be a bit mind-boggling. That has a lot to do with us not really knowing what kind of water we have. Here’s where water analysis comes in handy. It’s interesting to see what we mostly think about before and after water analysis:
Before water analysis: “Our water quality is quite good, we get it from the community well, everybody uses it. We’re still alive, piping might be a bit clogged but we only have few failures here and there.”
After water analysis: “I couldn’t have imagined our water quality is so bad. We have 180 ppm water hardness, it’s no wonder why we have to call the plumber every year. Our water also has traces of nitrates, lead, an ample amount of iron (2 ppm), and even nitrates from pesticides. Are we going to die?”
In short, most people are unaware of the state of their water quality prior to the water analysis. After the analysis, everybody knows that taking precautions and care of water is vital.
We’ll look into the most frequently used water purification devices for specific water impurities. You will want a vast range of informational articles that can help you understand the specific water quality problem and equip you with the knowledge of how to best tackle it.
We will start with the No. 1 problem pretty much everybody has with their water supply:
Softening Hard Water With Water Softeners
Hard water is responsible for the white stains on our dishes.
Having hard water will, in time, clog our piping due to limescale build-up and render home appliances such as dishwashers useless. There are also several connections between hard water and skin conditions.
Hard water simply means that our water has a too high concentration of calcium and magnesium ions.
The best way to see how hard water most of us have is to look at the water hardness scale:
Most households have hard tap water. The best way to bring the water hardness under 60 ppm (effectively turning hard water into soft water) is by installing a water softener.
Of course, you can’t just buy the first water softener you see. Understanding your needs like size, water hardness, GPM flow rate is vital to choosing the right device. To help you out, we have poured through the water softener specification in order to bring you the best one. You can check the comparison of the best water softeners here.
To better understand how water softeners work and how they can help you, you are recommended to read Waternity Lab’s informational articles about water softeners:
