Aquasana has been awarded the Consumer Digest Best Buy award for the SIXTH year in a row for both the AQ-4000 Drinking Water Filter and the AQ-4100 Shower Filtration System! That’s 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008!

What is the first thing that goes through your mind when you see a filtration system designed for the shower?

Personally my first reaction was, why? At first I had no comprehension of the importance of filtering the water I shower in and thought it simply to be a nice luxury item. Only later did I learn that showering in filtered water is even more important than drinking filtered water……WOW!!! Curious and starving for information I decided to research the effects of showering in unfiltered water.

I learned that showering in unfiltered tap water exposes you to far more contaminants than drinking tap water does, 7-10 times more! When you drink unfiltered tap water, your liver and kidneys filter out some of the contaminants. But when you shower in tap water, the contaminants are absorbed directly into the skin and inhaled into your lungs, a much more direct route to the blood stream. Virtually all synthetic chemicals are “volatile”, meaning they vaporize faster and at a lower temperature than water. These “VOCs” (Volatile Organic Chemicals) are released into the air, creating somewhat of an invisible gas chamber in your bathroom.

Most cities use chlorine or chloramines to disinfect the water supply, which when heated evaporate into the air becoming a VOC known as chloroform or THMs. Chloroform gas is a strong irritant to the lungs linked to asthma and respiratory problems. THMs are known carcinogens that have been linked to breast cancer, colon cancer and bladder cancer. Our primary exposure to both THMs and VOCs are from tap water.

Some of the effects of swimming in chlorine are mentioned in this recent article published by MSN:

Swimming in Chlorine, Beware of hidden environmental risks while swimming.

More information on the risks of chlorine in drinking and shower water:

Water Contamination

A lot of people probably wonder what the differences are between Reverse Osmosis Water Purifiers and Selective Filtration Water Filters.

Reverse Osmosis Purification Systems or distillers waste a lot of water during their filtration process; for every 1 gallon of “purified” water, the system wastes about 3-5 gallons. The water passes through a semi-permeable membrane that blocks anything larger than a water molecule. In doing so, the system will remove some contaminants but more importantly, it will remove all of the naturally occurring minerals in the water. Mineral Content in the water improves the pH of the water. When you remove the Minerals from the water you are creating very acidic water. There have been many recent studies on the importance of alkaline(mineral rich) water and your health.

Please Read what the World Health Organization has to say on the subject of alkaline vs. acidic water:
World Health Organization Water Report

Our drinking water filtration systems take out a wide range of impurities and contaminants from the water while retaining the natural occurring minerals that give your water a healthy, balanced pH.

View the performance data sheet for our Aq-4000 Drinking Water Filter:
Aquasana Water Filters Performance

“Nowhere on this planet is there a naturally occurring source of de-mineralized water. This is because we, as humans, are not intended to consume this type of water. Nature knows best!”