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It isn’t as hard as you think to find out if something is wrong with your water. You probably already suspect that the problem is there and have for some time. Things like things floating in the water you draw from the tap or the way it smells when you get in the shower are clues that not everything is right with your water.

The taste alone should give it away because pure water should taste good. Why do so many people never take action to protect themselves from bad or nasty water? The reason is because over time you get used to the taste and smell of the water that comes out of your tap and you hardly notice it anymore. You get used to adding chemicals to prevent water spots on your dishes and to washing residue out of the bottom of water glasses. If you notice these things, it is probably time to test your water to determine how much filtration you need.

The fact is that the water situation is becoming worse year after year, especially for those that live in or around urban areas. Some urban areas are becoming more aware of water’s huge impact on their local population. For the most part, however, cities remain completely unaware that people want more from their water. With all the politics about streets and crime, most cities completely forget about water. These are good reasons for learning how to use water-testing kits yourself so you can take action to protect the water that you and your family consume.

If you are on a well water system, then you need to be the most aware because you are the most affected by the environment and by how the community treats its watershed. Unless filtered out, everything that goes down the drain eventually ends up in the public water supply. This includes everything from fluids from cars to industrial waste.

If you are on an urban water system that goes through a water-processing plant before the water is delivered to citizens of the community, you have to worry about the chlorine that the city adds in for sanitation. Plus, public filtration systems only perform some very basic water filtering. Lots of contaminants get through public water filters or are added between the water-processing plant and your home.

When you look for a water-testing kit, it is important to keep in mind how dangerous your community’s water is. To use a water-testing kit to test for chlorine, you can actually use a swimming pool test kit. These can be purchased at your local hardware store and will last a long time if used properly. You can also get advice on the right water-testing kits for to fit your needs from a qualified water filtration expert like those at Aquasana.

Using water-testing kits means getting a sample of your water and adding a chemical agent that changes color to tell you the nature and density of contaminants that are in your water. Compare the color to the chart that comes with your water-testing kit to interpret the results. Don’t be surprised if you find that the amount of contaminants in your water by far exceeds what is healthy for your family to drink.

You may need to order a specific water-testing kit to provide for your situation, especially if you are worried about specific chemicals in your water. You can also have a sample testing by a local governmental agency, such as the health department. If you are worried enough about your water you may even need to send it off to be tested in a professional lab. No matter what you do, you will probably find that the water contains chemicals you don’t want in your water. With that valuable information, you can buy the right water filtration system based on what you need to filter out. The experts at Aquasana can help you every step of the way.

When you move to a rural area it may be necessary for you to provide your own water. This is a big adjustment if you have never had a well water system before. If you are used to being on city water, then chances are you are used to thinking of water in an entirely different way. Water is something you pay the city to provide like sewage or trash pick-up. Now that you are living farther from a major population center, you have to provide some or all of these services yourself.

On the bright side, you can think of all the money you are saving by providing your own water. On the other side, you may need to invest some of that money into making sure you are getting clean water by buying a good well water filter system. A system of filters is going to be necessary for almost all well water situations.

You do not need to filter all of the water that comes from your well. You can place the well water filter system in a way that you only filter water coming into your house. This one step will save you money by not filtering the water you use to water your plants, wash your car, or to do other outdoor activities. By not requiring your well water filter system to keep that water pure, you cut down on the wear and tear on the filtering mechanism and on the filters that need to be changed routinely.

Making these kinds of wise water usage decisions can save you a lot of money on a cost-per-gallon analysis. The cost per gallon is based on how much the well water filter system costs you plus maintenance costs divided by how many gallons you get between filter replacements and cleaning. No matter how much or how little that amount is, using filtered water is wasted on plants, because most plants cannot tell the difference between filtered and unfiltered water.

The same applies to pool water, since most of the time you take a shower after being in the pool, so there is no point to filter the water than ends up in the swimming pool. Similarly, water used to for cleaning outdoor appliances or for washing the car or the dog does not need to be filtered. Smart placement of your well water filter system will make sure you are only filtering water that will have an impact on your health and the health of your family.

What you need to do is determine how bad your water is and how much filtration you will need to make it safe to drink and use in your house. There is a large variety of water tests out there, and it can be confusing to figure out what tests you need to do. Ask other people in the area what tests they have had done and base your tests on this. You can also hire a professional to test your water. Tests vary from do it yourself home kits to sending a water sample off to a laboratory.

You also need to become more aware of what is going into your watershed. You will find that almost everything in the end has an effect on your water. The watershed provides the water that comes to you through your well water system and you have no control over what kind of contaminants make it into that water before it gets to you.

Water is used by many industries to flush out harsh chemicals. If these chemicals end up in your water supply you need to find a way to remove them instead of drinking them along with your water. A high-quality home filtration system like the ones supported by Aquasana can remove industrial chemicals and other contaminants that should not be part of the water you and your family drink. When you know what sort of chemicals and substances are coming out of your well, tailor your filter system to filter them out.

What Are the Best Methods for Using Water-Testing Kits?

It is easy to get a little paranoid about the level of contamination that may be in the tap water that you drink. There are enough reports and websites and TV specials exposing the level of toxins that are in many municipal water systems to put anyone into a panic. However, panic doesn’t result in getting to the bottom of how much contamination is actually coming out of the faucets in your home.

Panic also doesn’t find a solution to the problem. There are ways to research your exact level of tap water contamination and there are ways to deal with it so you and your family can have pure, clean, and healthy water in your home every day. Panic doesn’t get the job done but a systematic approach to testing the water in your home using a water-testing kit can be the first step to solving this common problem.

Water-testing kits are easy to locate so that any homeowner can find out both the level of water contamination that is getting through to their tap water and what kinds of things are in that water that should not be there. Many times you can find a water-testing kit at a local hardware store. If you are not sure what kind of water-testing kit to use, you can contact a responsible water filtration company like Aquasana and they can give you some guidance.

Once you get home with your water-testing kit, using what is provided to you to determine the contamination level of your water is quite easy. The water-testing kit will come with a vial for drawing water from your tap. Fill it as you are instructed to do in the water-testing kit guidelines and then seal the vial, shake the water up to stir up the contaminants, and let it sit for a couple of days. Make sure the test sample in your testing kit is not exposed directly to sunlight.

Just that one first test can tell you if there are contaminants in your tap water if the water takes on a peculiar color or if you see sediment floating around in the water. Sediment is the silt, dirt, gravel, and other natural substances that can get into your water from the lake or stream where it originated. If sediment is getting into your tap water, it is time to look into installing a water filtration system because that is not healthy.

Your water-testing kit will come with testing strips for various kinds of contaminants, including chlorine. You will also find in the water-testing kit a dropper to take a small amount of water from your sample to put on the testing strip. Follow the instructions for each kind of test and observe how the testing strip changes color. You will find a chart in your water-testing kit that will help you understand the colors the testing strip displays. That change of color is telling you the water-testing kit found the contaminant being tested for and the severity of the contamination you have.

Recent studies at Ohio State University tell us that it is not necessary to test for hydrogen sulfide in your water using a water-testing kit.  Hydrogen sulfide is easy to detect because of that rotten egg smell. If your water has any kind of peculiar smell, that is reason enough to make contact with a good water filtration expert like those at Aquasana and get started evaluating what kind of water filtration system to put in.

You are ahead of the game because you took the time to use a water-testing kit. Now follow through with what you learned by putting in a water filter system that will stop those contaminants from getting into the water your family uses to drink, cook, and shower, once and for all.

Is Water Testing Important?

When you think about it, when you draw water from the tap at your home or office, you put a lot of trust in the public filtration systems to deliver to you pure and clean water that will not make you sick when you drink it. As more information comes to light about the high levels of contamination that is in the water that goes out to homes in most communities, that trust may be naive and misplaced.

Many cities provide water to their citizens that is stored in water towers or that comes from a public resource such as a local lake or river. When you drive by that lake or river and you see people swimming and boating in that water, does it dawn on you that you are watching contamination of the water you will be drinking tomorrow morning? Of a greater concern is when you see livestock in that water, you know that what comes out of animals goes right into the water that flows into the pipes that come to your home.

Many waterways that provide water for public consumption are lined with factories as well. Those industries use that water to clean or cool their machinery or as a place to dump unwanted chemicals. We wish this was not true but over and over it is shown that this kind of intentional contamination of the water we all depend on for life and cleanliness and health is going on all the time.

How do you know if the water you are drinking is safe? There are agencies performing some basic water testing to determine if there is a crisis level health threat in the water the public consumes. It is true that the water that goes into the pipes to come to your house is filtered by at a water processing plant. That filtration performs only some basic protection against contaminants that can make you and your family very sick.

In addition, any number of contaminants can enter the water once it leaves the water processing plant. There are no provisions for water testing or filtering past that point which means that when you turn the faucet on to get water to drink, what is coming out may or may not be healthy or safe to give to your family. Without adequate water testing, there is no way of knowing that.

Water testing can help let you know if the water you use for cooking, taking showers, and drinking is safe to use and healthy. If you have no resources to perform water testing, the likelihood is high that contaminated water can get through to your home and introduce dangerous contaminants that could cause wide-ranging health problems. Many health issues that we blame on illness or allergies or that we have no explanation for at all are being caused by contamination in the water that could contain anything from farming fertilizer to pesticides to pharmaceutical products to animal feces.

There are two ways to get help with water testing to learn more about what is in your water. A qualified water filtration expert from a company like Aquasana that is well known for understanding water contamination issues can help guide you to find out the level of contamination that is in your water and what specific contaminants you may be exposing your family to if you do not have a home water filtration system in place. In addition, you can buy a water-testing kit at the hardware store or from the internet so you can routinely perform water testing yourself. When you find out the level of water contamination you have, you will have taken the first step toward solving the problem of unfiltered water entering your home.

The second step is to talk to a water filtration consultant such as those that Aquasana can provide to suggest the best water filtration solution for you and your family. While there is some investment in buying and operating a good water filter system for your own family, that investment is well worth the cost when you can rest easy that you are not permitting contaminated water to get through to your home any longer.

Whenever a potential crisis approaches a community, certain supplies disappear quickly from store shelves. Probably the top two commodities that have the greatest urgency to have on hand when a disaster may be on the way are batteries and clean drinking water. It doesn’t take that much of a disaster to put a community into a crisis mode. A hurricane or tornado can destroy homes and throw all kinds of contaminating debris into the reservoir or lakes where tap water is drawn to supply homes in the area. Some communities pipe their water from quite far away so the disaster doesn’t have to be on top of you to put you and your neighbors into a clean drinking water emergency.

On a daily basis, the tap water most of us use for drinking, cooking, and taking showers goes through some basic filtration at the city water processing plant. Numerous studies have shown that even under the best of circumstances, the drinking water that comes to our homes is contaminated. When a disaster strikes, not only can the source of your drinking water become contaminated, the ability of the water processing plant to operate their filtering systems may become compromised which would allow unfiltered drinking water to flow to the citizens of the community.

The first step to prepare for a crisis so that you can ensure your family has a steady supply of drinking water is to install a high-quality water filtration system in your home such as those sold by Aquasana. The time to plan for good, clean drinking water in a crisis is long before it happens. When an emergency happens, there will be a rush by hundreds or thousands of homeowners to get water filters in place to protect the drinking water of their families. If you took the time up front to have a quality drinking water filtration system put in long before the emergency strikes, you can filter the water that comes from city sources. Even if contamination levels have risen or the city water processing ability is compromised, you are ready.

The next level of preparedness that is desirable so you and your family have clean drinking water is to put aside filtered water in case of a dire emergency where water delivery is disrupted. You cannot count on being able to buy bottled water when a serious crisis hits your community. If you took the precaution of installing a good water filtration system in your home, you can produce all the clean and healthy water you want to set aside for an emergency situation.

You can buy gallon jugs or save them from when you buy fruit juice or milk for your meals. After cleaning them out, you can fill them with water from your own tap that you have confidence in because your home filtration system delivers drinking water that is free of contamination on a daily basis. By putting these aside in a place that is set up to survive a serious storm or some other crisis, you will not have to panic if disaster looms. You are prepared.

Along with the peace of mind that putting a high-quality drinking water filtration system in gives you because you are ready for any emergency, there are daily benefits to acting before the crisis comes. The drinking water you and your family consume will be free of contaminants starting as soon as you have the filtration system put in. Why wait for a crisis to start using pure drinking water in the home? By contacting Aquasana, you can enjoy those benefits every day and be ready for a crisis as well. That is good living and good planning all in one efficient step.

What Steps Can My Family Take at Home to Encourage Clean Water?

In the last ten years, the awareness of how to live in an environmentally friendly way has risen significantly. It has become a focus in the schools which means that even if you don’t talk much about how to “live green” at home, your kids are becoming aware of how to be good citizens of the earth at school. Being friendly to the environment is about more than just being responsible to the earth. It is about living in a clean world for our own good. This is especially true when it comes to what every family can do at home to encourage clean water that comes to your home for drinking, bathing, and cooking.

Contamination of the water supply has a lot of causes. The first big step any family can do to help the cause of clean water for your community is to become aware of water contamination. The more we talk about it, learn about why the local water reservoir is polluted, and become active to encourage public officials to do all they can to provide clean water to the community, the more that will get done. If young people are aware of clean water issues, they can talk to their friends and raise the awareness of the importance of clean water for any community. Then when the community makes it a priority that their local water reserves are full of healthy and clean water, that is when elected officials will take action.

Around the house, every family uses some hazardous chemicals that do a great job doing what they are designed to do. It is important when you are done using these kinds of chemicals that they do not get dumped down the drain, into the street, into the ground, or even put out with the trash to go to the local landfill. Any of those ways of disposing of harmful chemicals will result in them ending up in the water supply eventually. When you have old paint, used oil, furniture polish, or pesticides to get rid of, don’t throw them away or dump them. Make the effort to take them to an approved facility that will dispose of those toxic chemicals safely and in a way that does not threaten the clean water of the community.

Recycling is another great way to improve the environment and protect the clean water in the water supply. When plastics are thrown out and they go to the landfill, the residue leaks into the soil when the plastic is incinerated. This process creates both air pollution and toxins that go into the water supply. Plastic recycling has become very easy to do if you become aware of the need and make it a habit around the house to collect plastics to be recycled.

It will take time to learn these and other lifestyle habits that help you and your family stop contributing to the contamination of the clean water in the public reservoirs. While you work hard for the public good, there is a great step you can take to assure good clean water for your family right now. That step is to install a reliable water filtration system like those that Aquasana can show you. By filtering your water, you cut down on the use of bottled water which means many plastic water bottles will not go into the landfill to create air and water pollution. More importantly, your home water filtration system will provide the means for you to make sure that your family is getting clean water, free of contaminants, right out of the tap of your home. There is no question that once you provide clean and healthy water to your family, they will never want to go back to drinking anything but clean water ever again.

Are Water Testing Methods Reliable?

There are plenty of reports on the news or in magazines and newspapers that inform us that the water quality that comes to us from city water-processing facilities may still be seriously contaminated. If all we had to go on to believe these reports were the sales scripts of bottled water and water filter companies, that would not be enough. Water contamination is a big issue and the importance of more effective controls over the water supply for our communities is getting to be a bigger issue all the time.

In order to assess the reality of how serious water contamination is in your community, many people turn to various water-testing tools and kits. Many of these kits work like a pregnancy test by giving you testing strips that turn colors if the particular contaminant being tested for is evident in the water sample you are taking. The problem is that, like the pregnancy test, you never know how accurate those tests are.

It isn’t hard to find water-testing kits that give you the basic tools to perform your own water testing. Many of these kits can be found at your local hardware store for less than $10. The old saying, “you get what you pay for,” applies to how much stock you can put in water testing that is done using these kits. Most in-home water tests are not very accurate. For the small amount of money that you pay for a basic water-testing kit, you can really only test for very few contaminants. In light of the vast diversity of water contamination sources, that kind of water testing falls short of what you need to determine the severity of the water contamination problem you are facing.

A more comprehensive water-testing method can be used but it often costs $100 or more. Any knowledgeable water-quality consultant will tell you that water testing is a moving target. Even the most comprehensive water-testing system still will only give you a glimpse of water quality on a given day. Levels of contaminants vary greatly during different times of the year.

For example, THMs and VOCs are two very harmful and common tap water contaminants. Water testing may show much lower levels during colder seasons than warmer seasons due to increased levels of chlorine needed to kill algae in the warmer months. Other contaminant concentrations vary greatly depending on water table levels and seasons. In the summer when people use lawn chemicals, the levels rise in surface water greatly. In winter months, they almost disappear.

One way to get a localized picture of what kind of water contamination problem you may be having in your community is to get a copy of a city water quality report. You can learn as much from these free reports as you would from an expensive home water-testing kit. However, even city water quality testing cannot give you the whole picture of what is in your water.

Most city water testing capabilities can only test for the 96 regulated contaminants. When you consider that there are over 90,000 known toxic chemicals used in our society and that more than 2,000 of them have been detected in tap water supplies, even city water testing comes up insufficient to the task. But knowing the level of water contamination that the basic contaminants are contributing to the water supply of your community is enough to let you know if the time has come to invest in a home water filtration system.

The best assurance that you are providing healthy water to your family, and the least expensive, is by using a high-quality, economical water filter like those from Aquasana. These water filter systems are certified to remove common tap water contaminants. With a reliable water filtration system in place, you can be sure of your water quality no matter what season, temperature, or the limitations of the local reporting requirements.

When you begin to research your options for a home water filtration system, there are two decisions to make that One of the most efficient ways of dealing with water contamination in the public water system is to install a home water filtration system such as one of the styles that Aquasana can show you. The great thing about Aquasana’s home water filters is that many of them can be installed by a homeowner who has average home maintenance skills and tools. Because you don’t have to hire a professional installer to put in your water filter system, that saves a lot of money. Plus, if you put in your water filter system yourself, you understand how it is set up so you know how to check on it or perform maintenance down the road.

A water filtration faucet is one of the quickest ways to get clean drinking water while still putting in a quality water filter that you can depend on. The place most people put in a water filtration faucet is in the kitchen sink area. In that way, they get the combined value of providing clean water at the place most people go for a glass of water and providing a reliable water supply for cooking. A faucet water filtration unit is also an economical approach to trying out a home water filtration solution. The alternative to installing water filtration faucets is to install an inline or whole house water filtration system. While these designs are excellent as well, the installation is more involved and they are more expensive over all than putting in one or two faucet water filtration installations.

One downside of setting up a water filtration faucet is that it will take up some space under the cabinets where the pipes go up to your kitchen sink or on the countertop where it is placed. The water filtration faucet is actually not installed in the faucet. This is good because all water filtration systems must have their filters changed a couple times a year. Having the water filtration faucet mechanism under the cabinets or on the countertop makes the unit a lot easier to get to for maintenance.

The faucets for a water filtration faucet system as a rule take up the space where the sprayer ordinarily sits in most kitchens. You can give up your sprayer on the basis that it is far better to have pure and healthy water to drink than to have that convenience. It is possible to still keep your sprayer, however, if you are skilled enough to put in another hole in the counter where the sprayer can come out. With a small amount of handyman skills or by employing someone who has those skills, you can organize a nice looking installation that accommodates both needs. Or, you can simply make space on the countertop to set up the faucet.

Keep in mind that putting in just one water filtration faucet installation may not meet all of your requirements for clean water for your family. You can put in separate faucet water filtration designs that Aquasana can show to you in the bathroom, the wet bar, the utility room, and the showers. This is worth thinking about because more and more experts are stating that as much contamination from polluted water can happen in the shower as can happen from the drinking water you and your family consume. If you do find yourself planning for multiple installations of water filtration faucets, before you buy and install the first one, take a look at a whole house water filtration system again. It could turn out to be the most cost effective solution for your water filtration needs.

will make a big difference in how you select the perfect solution for you and your family to get clean water at home. The first decision point is when you realize that a home water filtration system is the best way to eliminate the problem of water contamination in your drinking water. This is an important decision because many people never take the time to educate themselves on the amount of toxins and other contaminants that are coming with their tap water every day.

The second decision is what kind of home water filtration system to install. One of the most popular ways to quickly and cost effectively put in a home water filtration solution that will give you and you family healthy and clean water is to install a faucet water filter. As the name implies, a faucet water filter is installed on one particular faucet only.

That means that if you install a faucet water filter at one location, the water coming out of other faucets such as in the bathrooms, the showers, and the water going to your refrigerator, your clothes washer, and your dishwasher is not filtered. The faucet water filter is usually selected to provide clean drinking water from the location where most people get water for that purpose.

The most common place to put a faucet water filter is on the kitchen sink. By putting a faucet water filter in the kitchen, you are providing healthy water where most people get their drinks and for the water that you will use for cooking as well. Spend some time studying how faucet water filters are installed and then do some measurements under your sink and in the faucet area to make sure you can accommodate the unit where you want it to be installed.

When you buy a faucet water filter, you want to be sure that the brand and model you buy will serve you well at intercepting the most common types of water contamination that are in your area. You can either conduct your own water testing to find out what is in the water now or get copies of the water testing that is done by the EPA for the water that is in your community’s water reservoir to develop that list of contaminants that your faucet water filter must eliminate from the drinking water for your family.

Once you have a good understanding of the installation and filtering requirements you need for the faucet water filter you will buy, the next step is to find a quality water filtration equipment provider that will sell you a well-made faucet water filter and then stand behind their product after the sale. Of the many fine water filter companies in the market, you are on the right track if you start your search with Aquasana. Aquasana sets the standard for the industry so you will be able to find a faucet water filter from their inventory to fit your needs.

Pay attention to when the filters need to be changed on any faucet water filter you buy. Any water filtration system you install will have to have the filters replaced a couple of times a year, so make sure you are comfortable with how to install a fresh filter in the faucet water filter system you install.

Whether you buy from Aquasana or another water filter provider, make sure you know where to get replacement water filters and what those costs will be so you can plan accordingly. By planning ahead and getting a good understanding of the goals and designs of faucet water filters, you will make an intelligent choice to buy and install a faucet water filter that will serve your family well for many years to come.

The problem of contamination of the drinking water is a national crisis. The ultimate solution to the problem of toxins and other unhealthy contamination in the public water supply lies with the governmental agencies charged with the safety of the public water supply, like the EPA and the FDA. Unfortunately, these agencies seem to be fighting a losing battle because they have been in authority over the water that the citizens of the country drink for some time and the problem of water contamination is no better than it was when it came to public attention.

The conclusion is that it is the responsibility of the individual homeowner to find a water purification system that will assure that their families will have reliable and healthy water to drink. There are numerous methods for purifying water that have been used over the years. To select the water purification system that is best for your family calls for some deeper scrutiny of each of these methods to determine if they are effective and workable at a household level.

A water purification system that has been around for ages is also one that is often used by campers or people in a survival situation. That system is to boil the water. This system is highly effective against bacteria and other microorganisms that are contaminating the drinking water. There are three reasons that boiling is not a good solution for a home owner who wants a water purification system that will work every day.

First, boiling is not effective against chemical contamination of the drinking water which represents the largest threat to the health of the water the public drinks. Secondly, microorganisms in the drinking water are being addressed by most public water processing facilities by the addition of chemicals like chlorine. Thirdly, boiling all of the water you use for drinking, bathing, washing your clothes, or for taking showers is simply impractical for a modern family to attempt on a day-by-day basis.

Chemical treatments are a method of water purification that we mentioned earlier because it is commonly used at the municipal water treatment level. The focus of a chemical water purification system is that it only targets microorganisms. Chemical treatments do nothing about the pesticides, pharmaceutical drugs, toxic industrial solvents, or rocket fuel that has been found in so many public water systems. If anything, chemical treatments introduce another problem to the water purity issue because the chemicals added to kill disease microorganisms in the water becomes a water contamination issue itself. Obviously, chemical treatments are not an ideal water purification system for use at the home level.

Each of these water purification systems are good in a specific situation and to address a specific kind of water contamination. To provide service to a household, a water purification system must be able to address a wide array of water contaminants including chemicals, microorganisms, sediment, and others. To accomplish this goal, a good activated-charcoal home water filter system is a great choice. Aquasana has some outstanding models of activated-charcoal water purifier systems that will fit the need.

Activated charcoal does a great job of addressing hundreds of different kinds of water contaminants and does so reliably for you and your family. Once you have an Aquasana home water filtration system in place, you can enjoy clean and healthy water from any faucet in the house and you can have as much as you want for no additional cost. It is an efficient, economical, and healthy way for homeowners and parents to take a big step forward to protect the health and wellbeing of their families quickly and for many years to come.