If you have bad tasting water, bad smelling water, or just plain ugly water, you know that you need to do something to fix it. But what?  That all depends on what is causing that taste, smell, or murkiness. Of course, there are some contaminants that you can’t see, smell, or taste. Getting a water test is the best first step in fixing bad water.

Poor water quality can affect not only your drinking water, but also the water used in a variety of household functions. Contaminated water used for cooking may affect your health, while too much of certain minerals can hamper cleaning in your laundry or bathroom, as well as staining your fixtures.

We recommend that you get an independent water test whenever possible. You should never have someone come into your home to test your water and then try to sell you the water treatment equipment. You should get an independent test from a laboratory, health department, local university, or even the local pool supply company. Many swimming supply stores do water testing for free and are pretty accurate. Just ask them to test it just like they would if you were considering buying a swimming pool or hot tub. Do not let the sample sit all day or overnight before testing. If the water sits too long the pH can actually change and that is a very important part of testing.  Draw the sample and then get it tested as quickly as possible. If you cannot find anyone independent to test your water locally we would be happy to provide a  free water test for the more common water tests. Just send us a sample. In some cases, depending on what is in your water, we may need to send you a container to put the water in for testing.

Water Filters of America.com® offers well water testing and city water testing as well as other water sources you may have. Sometimes people are unsure of what they should be testing for. The type of analysis you choose should be based upon your specific concerns, your water source and what contaminants may potentially be in the water. We offer some advice to consider here on our webpage. The most common tests we perform are pH, iron, TDS, nitrates and hardness.  These are included in the free water test. But we can test for virtually anything that might concern you.

Once you have your water test results you may be confused and wondering what to do with all those numbers. We understand what it all means and can explain it to you and give you great advice on fixing your water.  We will answer all of your questions and never ask you to buy anything. We want everyone to have clean, safe, and great tasting water!

Have you considered getting a lead water filter?

There are a number of simple options to remove lead from water. You’ve probably heard of the water crisis in Flint, MI, where high levels of lead were found in the water. But did you know that the drinking water of many cities across the U.S. could have high lead levels? We have recently heard that the town of Sebring, Ohio is facing a similar situation.

Just as in Flint, the problem with the Sebring municipal system is not with the source water itself, but it is the corrosion of the lead pipes that supply the water to thousand of homes that causes lead to leach out of the pipes and into the water.

Lead water supply lines are still in use today in countless communities across the US. Although Congress banned lead water pipes 30 years ago, estimates of remaining lead pipes range from 3.3 million to 10 million. These pipes can leach lead into tap water during repairs or a change in water chemistry. There are no solid numbers of these lead service lines because record keeping has been sketchy. Cities like Washington have tried to replace their lead pipes but found they couldn’t locate them all because the original maps had been lost. With millions of lead pipes still in place, the estimated number of people that could be drinking this water is somewhere between 74 million and 96 million people.

Typically, water is treated with phosphates or silicates which coat the inside of the pipes to prevent corrosion. Testing for lead is done periodically, but lead tests are only required every three years. Federal rules set a maximum level of 15 micrograms of lead per liter of tap water but medical experts say there is no known safe level of lead.

The scary part of the story is that even when cities have done testing and found high levels of lead in the water, they don’t make it known right away. In Sebring, it was August when the test samples had high lead readings. It was not until January that residents were informed of the situation. The residents were unknowingly drinking that water for months.

Makes you wonder what you don’t know about your own water.

Not all water filters can filter lead from water. Some advocates are calling for cities to replace all the lead service lines. This is a huge undertaking which could take decades and cost billions of dollars. As good as it sounds to replace all those lead lines there is a down side. The utility companies own the lines from the water treatment plant to the property line but the homeowner is responsible for the line from the street into the house. If the homeowner is unable to replace their portion of the line it may actually make the lead levels in the water higher due to the disturbance of the pipes that can shake loose the scale that has built up in the pipes.

If you are concerned about the quality of your water, waiting for the government to fix the problem is not a good option. And buying bottled water is expensive and inconvenient. WaterFiltersOfAmerica.com has some great lead water filter options that can give you clean water and peace of mind. Here’s what you can do:

GOOD (Under $200)

A Reverse Osmosis drinking water filter in the kitchen for all of your cooking and drinking water. This filter is simple to install and can be hooked up the the refrigerator for pure drinking water there as well. This does not address the rest of the household water, but will provide safe and tasty purified water that is as good or far better than bottled water. You can find them here:  https://waterfiltersofamerica.com/reverse-osmosis/

BETTER: (Under $500)

A whole house carbon filter tank takes care of the whole house and greatly reduces lead in water. It automatically backwashes periodically to clean itself and send all that unwanted lead, chlorine and other contaminants down the drain and away from the home. Add this unit with a reverse osmosis drinking water filter in the kitchen for a truly wonderful change in your overall water quality and drinking water that is as good or far better than even drinking bottled water. See our whole house backwashing carbon tanks here:  https://waterfiltersofamerica.com/carbon-tanks/

BEST: (Under $1200)

Our Dual Purpose Water Conditioner not only controls lead better than any other solution, it also softens the water for a cleaner home, softener skin and will also clean out your pipes and water lines over time saving you a fortune in plumbing repairs, hot water heaters and even lower the cost of heating your water for showers and other hot water household uses. The reason it is called Dual Purpose is that it has dual tanks (One stacked on top of the other) that clean and softener as well as removes unwanted contaminants and chemicals. The top tank has whole house carbon like the tank mentioned above, and the lower tank is a water softener. Water softeners are very efficient at removing lead from the water. It is always best to filter the water before softening and that is accomplished by the carbon tank above. Most home owners find this unit fairly easy to install themselves. Add a reverse osmosis drinking water filter in the kitchen for cooking and drinking water and you have the perfect system for clean, lead free luxurious water. Find them here: https://waterfiltersofamerica.com/premium-dual-purpose/

Please don’t hesitate to contact a friendly water tech at 800-684-0979 for a discussion of your situation and to determine exactly what you need and what it should cost. And don’t worry, our friendly water techs are never allowed to ask you to buy anything or pressure you in any way. They just care about you and give you great advice.

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Some people say they don’t like the slippery or slimy feel from water softeners and
conditioners. In most cases this is because they don’t realize that you don’t need to use
nearly as much soap with soft water as you do with hard water.
The biggest complaints usually come from people who use their hand and a bar of
soap, without a washcloth or sponge to wash with. These people will notice it more than
most people because they are putting a massive amount of soap on their skin. If these
people were to buy a soft soap in a pump bottle where they can just put a tiny amount of
soap in their hand, they would probably solve this problem altogether.
The vast majority of people who have a water filtration or softening system that use
proper amounts of soap learn to love it. Once you have used clean soft water for a
period of time, you won’t want to go back to the thick soap scum that really hard water
produces on your skin. It becomes scummy and makes your skin very dry. Anyone with
sensitive skin should consider using a water softener and modifying how much soap
they use. So don’t get rid of soft and luxurious water just because you are used to soap scum. Some people call it squeaky clean. We call it squeaky clogged. Just change
your habits.  WaterFiltersOfAmerica.com® has high quality water softeners at very affordable prices. You can find them right here: https://waterfiltersofamerica.com/water-softener/

Most people who have water supplied by their municipal water supply assume that when they turn on the faucet, they are getting clean drinking water. This may not always be the case. Recently in Flint, Michigan, residents found that their water had high levels of lead in it. How did this happen?

To save money, Flint switched their water source from the Detroit water system to the Flint River.

The lead that ended up in the resident’s water did not come from the river itself, but from the old lead and lead-soldered pipes. The Flint River’s water was 19 times more corrosive than the water from Lake Huron, the previous source. This corrosive water began to leach high amounts of lead from the pipes into the water.

A study from Michigan’s Hurley Medical Center found the number of children and infants in Flint with above average lead levels in their blood had almost doubled since the city switched its water supply.

Exposure to lead in young children can cause behavior and learning problems, lower IQ, hyperactivity, slowed growth, and hearing problems.  The most susceptible to lead are children six years old and younger.

Some residents of Flint complained of various health problems from using the local water, including respiratory disorders and skin lesions.

What can be done about this serious problem?

Buying bottled water can be very expensive. A reverse osmosis system from WaterFiltersOfAmerica.com will pay for itself after only a few months. WaterFiltersOfAmerica.com has a variety of solutions that will provide you with clean water that you can feel good about drinking. If you want peace of mind that what you and your family are drinking is safe, visit WaterFiltersOfAmerica.com to see how affordable clean, pure water can be.

Will soft water clean the household pipes?

If the question is asked because you had really hard water in your home and no water

softener for a long period of time, to the point it left the pipes lined with limestone,

calcium, dirt etc., the answer is yes.

Over time the soft water will break down the hardness and debris left in the pipes from

hard water and carry most of it away. Water heaters will begin to use far less energy to

heat the water right away and over time will start to remove the massive amounts of

calcium, limestone and other debris collected. That is like having a big calcium brick

on the bottom of the heater.

Normally with hard water you have to heat through this brick of hardness and debris

before you even heat the water. Not only will that save a fortune on energy to heat the

water, the soft water is generally much lighter in weight with all of that hardness gone,

so just the water being lighter can save as much as 20% or much more on the money

you spend to heat the water. Not to mention your clothes are softer, whiter and brighter

than they have ever been before.

That is why most people, whether they realize it or not, save enough money in their

overall budget to pay for the initial expense of a water softener or water conditioner

many times over. Add that to the fact that people with sensitive skin who have

excessively hard water gain an incredible advantage when they change to soft water.

If you buy an efficient water softener such as they sell at WaterFiltersOfAmerica.com, salt

becomes a minimal expense as the average person with a properly applied water

softener or water conditioner can expect to only add salt about once per year. Average

salt cost would then be about $25 a year depending on where you buy the salt.