Water Quality

Importance of Water Quality

Quality water is essential for daily living, cleaning and consumption. Failure to have access to good, clean water can result in numerous issues and potential hazards that can threaten the environment and healthy living. Problems range from aesthetic unpleasant taste or staining issues all the way up life threatening contaminants. Water heaters, appliances, pipes and other parts of your plumbing system can also be negatively impacted by poor water quality, leading to issues with performance and premature failure. A few of the most common water problems in the United States are hard water and chlorine.

Definition of Hard Water:

Hard water is water that contains high levels of calcium and magnesium.

The Problem with Hard Water:

Water Hardness causes many problems in homes and is not good for your health. It is a problem for nearly 90 percent of American homes. Research shows that hard water can damage showerheads, create stains in clothes, and reduces efficiency of water heaters. Hard water can also create habitable areas inside your water pipes for bacteria and other pathogens which can significantly affect your health if consumed.

How Hard Water Affects your Home and Health:

Hard water scaling can cause your showerhead to lose up to 75 percent of its flow rate in 18 months. Hard water also interacts negatively with soap, reducing its cleaning power. According to the Water Quality Research Foundation for washing machines, the most important factor in removing stains from clothing was water softness. Reduction of water hardness was up to 100 times more effective at stain removal than increasing the detergent dose or washing with hotter water. In fact, soft water can reduce soap use by as much as half. Hard water can also reduce the efficiency of water heaters and increase electricity costs by as much as 48 percent, according to the Battelle Memorial Institute.

Hard water scaling can also affect your health. The piping used in home plumbing, whether copper or PVC, has very smooth interior surfaces that don’t permit bacteria to settle and grow. However, hard water results in scale formation on the interior surfaces of those pipes, providing a perfect home for bacteria.

Hard water you use to wash your fresh fruits and vegetables may contain this bacteria, and the problem isn’t only in the kitchen. When you take a hot shower, the steam you are inhaling can also contain the same microbial contamination that is in the rest of your plumbing, exposing you to bacteria such as Legionella, which can cause Legionnaire’s disease.

Below is a map of water hardness around the United States.

The Solution to Hard Water:

Researchers at the School of Sustainable Engineering at Arizona State University found that using a salt-based water softener helps remove hard water and soft scale from building inside your home pipes. Soft water is up to 12 times more effective at cleaning dishes than increasing the amount of detergent used.

More importantly, a salt-based water softener is the most functional and cost-effective means of removing hardness minerals. Using a salt-based water softener reduces the need for detergents and high water temperatures, leading to a smaller household carbon footprint. This can help you save money on appliance repair/replacement

How DROP Water Softeners Remove Hardness:

DROP offers a few variations of salt-based water softeners that protect you and your home from hard water damage. Our water softeners come in a variety of sizes suited for any size home. They are just one part of the DROP Home Water Management of products that work together as a smart home water system.
To learn more about DROP Water Softeners and how they work, click here.

The Smart Water Management Platform:

All DROP Water Softeners are unique because they do much more than just remove hardness from your water. DROP’s platform of products works together to conserve water and protect you from water leaks. Our water softeners can be paired with “DROP Leak Detectors” that can sense water leaks and automatically shut off your water if a leak is detected.

Whether you have just one DROP Water Softener or a full platform of DROP Products, DROP is able to handle any home setup based on your specifications and needs.

Definition of Chlorination:

Chlorine is a common disinfectant used to remove diseases, pathogens, and other contaminants from water.

The Problem with Chlorine in Water:

Chlorine used to filter water can combine with organic matter to form compounds called Trihalomethanes (THMs). These compounds are toxic when consumed, inhaled or applied on the skin. Drinking chlorinated water has demonstrated a variety of toxicity issues.

How Chlorine Affects your Home and your Health:

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has concluded that there is evidence to support a potential association between long term exposure to high levels of THMs and bladder cancer as well as suggestions of an association with colon and rectal cancers. In addition, the Environmental Research Foundation cites several studies linking moderate to heavy consumption of chlorinated tap water by pregnant women with higher miscarriage and birth defect rates.

The most obvious problem with chlorine in the water is that it leaves an unpleasant taste and smell behind. Chlorine can alter the taste of water, coffee, tea, and other beverages.

The problem not only lies within drinking water but also in our daily showers and baths. Showering in chlorinated water may expose us to even more chlorine than drinking the byproducts in the chlorinated water since we are not only absorbing the chlorine through our skin, but it is also being vaporized in the shower and inhaled into our lungs.

The Solution to Chlorination in Water:

Carbon filtration has been proven to absorb chlorine without leaving any negative effects in your water. Absorption takes place when your water is filtered and cleansed through a carbon filter. It removes chlorine, distaste, odor, and other organic compounds to deliver clean water throughout your home.

How DROP Water Filters Clean your Water:

DROP provides two main categories of water filters. Our first method we provide is a cartridge filter to cleanse chemicals. This space saving option is easy to install but needs to be replaced every year depending on your water use. The other option we provide is a carbon media tank to filter and cleanse your water of chemicals. This method uses a backwashing cycle to flush the carbon media of excess debris and accumulation to your drain.
To learn more about DROP water filters and how they work, click here.

More on water filters

The Smart Water Management Platform:

Like DROP Water Softeners, all DROP Water Filters are unique because they do much more than just remove chemicals from your water. DROP’s platform of products works together to conserve water and protect you from water leaks. Our products can be paired with “DROP Leak Detectors” that can sense water leaks and automatically shut off your water if a leak is detected.

Whether you have just one DROP Water Softener or a full platform of DROP Products, DROP is able to handle any home setup based on your specifications and needs.

Sources:

https://www.jacksonville.com/lifestyle/20180410/90-percent-of-homes-have-hard-water-what-are-effects

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/janet-miller/7-signs-you-need-a-water-_b_12353858.html

https://www.wqa.org/improve-your-water/benefits-of-good-water-quality