Home Tips: How to Make Sure That the Water-Quality You Drink is Good

Having access to clean water is necessary for our survival, but how can you tell if your tap water is safe enough to drink? It’s hard to judge the quality of water by its clear appearance or lack of odor. Depending on your location, your water source and storage affect its quality. Your water may have contaminants like excess chlorine, lead, iron, or any other harmful substances. To ensure your water is safe to drink, let’s take a look at a few ways to test its quality.

Transparency 

The first obvious sign to check is the water’s transparency. Clean water should be completely clear without any visible impurities or cloudiness. Fill a plastic bottle with tap water and shake it a few times vigorously and let it settle before checking it for contaminants. Watch out for any slight hues in the water’s color. Yellow indicates the presence of chromium-6, iron, or lead, while orange or brownish water is a sign of rusty pipes, which harbor bacteria and is dangerous to consume.  Install a reverse osmosis system to make sure that the water that comes from your faucet is clean so you can drink it without any doubts.

Odor

The next step is to smell the water to check if it has a distinctive odor. Ideally, clean water should be colorless, odorless, and tasteless. Excess chlorine in water gives it a strong bleach-like smell. If you smell a pungent smell similar to rotten eggs, this indicates the presence of hydrogen sulfide, a harmful colorless gas usually found in groundwater. A fishy odor is a sign of high barium levels, which is usually leaked to water sources due to pipe drilling or construction work.

Test Strips

These colored stripes can inform you of the water’s constituents. If you suspect the presence of a particular substance being excessive in your water, this kit will pinpoint that substance. Simply submerge the strip in a glass of water for a few seconds, remove it, and compare the colors to the accompanied color sheet indicating different substances. These strips are a cheap and easy option to test your water at home. Alternatively, you can purchase a more expensive and advanced testing kit that can give you more accurate results. It can help you assess your water’s quality in relation to pH, total hardness, alkalinity, bacterial growth, and chlorine content.

Water Filters

Many people use water filters in their homes as an alternative to purchasing bottled water. They’re a great option to guarantee your tap water is safe to drink without having to test the water quality every now and then. You can install water filtration system in your entire house since these have great benefits. These systems deliver clean water for your washer, shower, and drinking and cooking water. It won’t just taste better but it will preserve your appliances as it prevents harsh chemicals from entering them. You’ll even find your laundry is softer and clearer when washed with filtered water.

TDS Meter

A TDS meter is used to detect the total dissolved solids in your water. Rainwater absorbs minerals from rocks and soil, including calcium and sodium that increase the water’s pH contributing to its pleasant taste. When the water has a higher level of these substances, it’s described as hard, while if it drops below 17 mg per liter, it’s described as soft and becomes more acidic. The acceptable range for drinkable water is between 80 and 100 mg of minerals per liter. These minerals can accumulate in water pipes in your area causing the water to become harder. You can test the water for these substances by a TDS meter, which is affordable and easy to use. Depending on your results, you can consider getting a salt-free water conditioner, which gets rid of these substances and makes the water softer.

Check Water Quality Standards

If you want to check your water source, call your local water company to ask for a detailed report. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mandates the company to provide accurate information about the water quality in your area. You can find out the hardness range and contaminants’ level to determine whether your water is safe for consumption. EPA has a drinking water watch program that allows you to search their database for areas with contaminated water. You can use this information to report health hazards in your area and demand to improve the water quality. 

If you’re interested in finding out about your water quality, try some of the tests outlined in this article. You can install a water filter in your house if you don’t want to go through the hassle of testing your water or if you want to save on buying tons of water bottles every month. In any case, you should check with your local water company to know the water quality standards in your area.