How to Test and Improve Water Quality at Home
You’ve done your research on the potential contaminants in your drinking water. You know that you might be consuming lead, microplastics, fluoride, forever chemicals, chlorine, estrogen, and other pollutants. How can you know for sure what’s lurking in your tap water, and if what you learn is less than desirable, what can you do about it?
In this blog, learn more about how water testing kits work and what you can do to address the many contaminants that could be making your water unsafe to drink.
How Do Water Testing Kits Work?
There are a few different ways to learn more about the water quality in your home and general area. The easiest is with Sans’ free water quality tool which gives you a quick, easy, and accurate report, and all you have to do is enter your zip code. The data is provided by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) database, which contains data collected from more than 48,000 municipal water supplies around the United States. The EWG is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that strives to help individuals live their healthiest lives.
Another simple way to learn what’s in your water is with a water testing kit. While the exact details of testing kits can vary by brand, generally, they come with chemically treated strips that you dunk and swirl around a water sample for a short period of time. Based on the contaminants present in your water, the strip will change colors. Usually, these kits come with a color-coded chart that you can compare the strips against to better determine what is in your water and to what degree.
These kits can test the hardness of your water and also detect contaminants like copper, mercury, lead, chlorine, sulfate, and bacteria. Compare your options before purchasing to see which kit covers the most pollutants. You can find many water testing kits on Amazon for less than $30.
While these at-home kits are affordable and provide instant results, there’s a large margin of error and the number of contaminants they can check for is often limited. This is why some people opt for lab test kits. You still collect the water sample yourself. However, you ultimately ship it to a lab. There, they can test for thousands of pollutants, and the technology they use is going to be more sophisticated than at-home kits. While you’ll likely have to spend more money and wait a little longer for the results, to some people, it’s worth the investment!
How Often Should You Test Your Water?
The frequency with which you test your water will depend on a few things, in particular:
- Whether you have well water or public water: Households with well water should be tested more frequently.
- The land uses around you: If you live near construction or livestock, you should test more frequently.
- The pollutant: Some contaminants need to be tested more frequently than others.
If you’re not sure what schedule you should be on, check with a professional in your area.
So, you’ve tested your water and received concerning results. What now?
How to Address the Impurities in Your Tap Water
The contaminants in your drinking water can wreak havoc on your health. Your body can’t survive without water — shouldn’t you be drinking only the cleanest? This is why water purification is so important.
But some purifiers are designed far more optimally than others. Small devices that latch onto your faucet and the built-in filter that your refrigerator was designed with cannot get the job done. The same goes for pitcher filters. Filters work thanks to their small holes, which “trap” pollutants and remove them from your water. However, many brand-name filters aren’t nearly efficient enough and allow dangerous particles through. Think of a window screen that flies and other bugs can travel through. That’s what many filters are like.
Currently, the most powerful technology in the field of water filtration is reverse osmosis (RO). This is the ultimate “window screen.” In fact, it’s so precise that nothing can get through it except for water molecules.
Reverse osmosis is a great place to start, but the Sans water purifier takes it a step further. In addition to our four-stage RO filtration, we add UV-C light to neutralize viruses and bacteria that can make you sick. This is why our purifier addresses more contaminants than other well-known brands. Learn more about how we compare to our competitors.
It monitors your water quality in real time and will alert you when it’s time to change the filters. (You can select your filter plan so that replacements are shipped to your home on time! The pre/carbon and VOC filters are delivered every 12 months, and the RO filter is delivered every 24 months.)
Looking for something compact that you can take with you on the go? Try our self-cleaning water bottle so that purified H2O is always within reach. The double-wall vacuum insulation will keep your water hot for 12 hours and cold for 24 hours. Ditch plastic bottles for something far more efficient, clean, sustainable, and thus, eco-friendly. A self-cleaning water bottle is better for the environment and, importantly, better for you.
Aren’t There Certain Things We Don’t Want to Filter?
There are two substances that your public water system is most likely adding to your water: chlorine and fluoride.
Chlorine is added to clean the water, which is not unlike how we use it to clean our pools. However, you don’t want to actually consume this chlorine. This means that as soon as it leaves your tap, and before you drink it, it should be filtered.
Fluoride is added because research has found that it’s good for our oral health. However, you’re likely already getting fluoride from your toothpaste. It’s also naturally occurring in some foods, like seafood, potatoes, grapes, and spinach. Science only knows that a small amount of fluoride is good for your teeth. We also know that getting too much can be quite dangerous for your health. So, it makes sense to filter fluoride out, as well.
Sans will rid your drinking water of both of these contaminants.
Maintaining Water Purity at Home
If you’re on a budget, consider starting with an at-home water testing kit. After obtaining your initial results, test another water sample after it’s gone through your water purifier to see the change! Learn more about the Sans water purifier and how it works.