Installing a water filter in your Cross Plains WI area home protects your plumbing and your family’s heath. Southern Wisconsin water is full of minerals that impact your drinking water, especially if you have your own well. Some are beneficial. Many are not. In addition, chemicals from surrounding lands pose a risk. The national Water Quality Association suggest taking action if you notice any of these signs:
- Water from your tap doesn’t taste good.
- Tap water doesn’t smell good.
- You cannot create a good lather when using soap – for bathing or washing dishes.
- Your water is leaving scale or spots on fixtures and surfaces.
Your first step when any of these symptoms appear is to get an accurate water test. You cannot do anything until you know what is in the water. There’s no “one size fits all – or even most” solution.
Accurate testing by licensed, State Certified plumbing professionals provides more than just clean water. It provides ways to make sure drinking water tastes good, soap rinses from clothing and in showers and your food is safe.
Once you know what’s in your water you can sort through the options for treatment, including:
- Point of use filters – systems underneath sinks and where the water comes from the tap.
- Point of entry filters – where water comes into the building so water in the whole house gets treated.
Providing clean, safe water is a complex process. Your actions might include a whole house ultra filtration system, a water softener, a reverse osmosis system, ultra violet treatments, chlorination, de-chlorination or localized filter installations.
Leading Water Filter Options
Point of use filter systems are popular in homes where the emphasis is on purifying water for cooking and drinking. They range from sophisticated filtration setups installed beneath kitchen counters with their own separate tap, to simple filters within pitchers. A third popular option is having filtered water dispensed from within a modern refrigerator.
This relatively simple solution delivers treated water at the point of consumption and is a final barrier to contaminants that may threated your health. Among the techniques used in point of use filters are:
- Activated carbon filter elements
- Reverse osmosis
- Ultra violet (UV) technology
- Distillation
For whole-house water treatment, the term is point of entry. These much larger systems reduce the threat of contaminants coming from every tap in the house, treating water for bathing, washing clothes, washing dishes and flushing toilets. There are especially useful in cases where the color or smell of household water has been detected to be “off.” Whole-house systems include:
- Ion Exchange treatments
- Activated carbon filter elements
- Reverse osmosis
How Does Water Treatment Work
There are common questions every homeowner has dealing with water treatments. The most basic is:
“How do water filters work?” — each is designed to reduce chemicals, biological contaminants, heavy metals and other impurities in drinking water. Different types work in different ways. Basically they work in two ways: one chemically attracts pollutants to a filter material while the second physically block particles in the water stream. Understanding basic filtering techniques is easy.
A popular, more technical form of filtration raises another question:
“What is reverse osmosis – how does it work? — the process of osmosis forces microscopic molecules through minute membranes to equal the pressure on both sides. Reverse osmosis is the opposite. It forces a higher concentration of particles on one side of the membrane – water pressure pushes pure water through leaving contaminants on one side. A reverse osmosis system use more than one filter element and is ideal for removing things like chlorine, lead, mercury and other heavy metals. Note, reverse osmosis is very efficient – so efficient it can remove up to 95% of beneficial minerals in your water. In addition, it takes about 3 gallons of water going through the system to achieve 1 gallon of purified water.
Everyone in southern Wisconsin knows “we have hard water.” Bringing up a third question:
“What’s the difference between a water softener and a filter system?” — both softeners and filters are part of a water treatment plan, but each serves a different purpose. Water softeners remove “hardening” minerals like calcium and magnesium that can damage pipes, appliances and fixtures. They do not remove contaminants from drinking water. Filtration systems, on the other hand, are designed to remove unsafe pollutants.
Well Water vs. City Water
The most significant difference between private well water and municipal systems is that city water supplies are monitored and treated on a regular schedule. If you have a well it’s up to you to monitor water quality. Rural water wells are susceptible to contaminates from ground water pollutants like seepage from landfills, failed septic tanks, fertilizers and pesticides and animal waste.
Water coming from municipal sources are safe but as it flows from the source to your home pollutants can slip in. Minerals and heavy metals can leach into the water from pipes and connections. Just because you are connected to “city water” doesn’t mean a filter won’t improve your life.
Choose The Right Water Filter
There is only one way to know which filtration system is right for your home. Get your water tested by a professional. If you see, taste or smell changes in your tap water, the certified, licensed plumbers at Sauk Plains Plumbing are ready to assist. Call 608-798-2121 and we’ll complete a detailed, accurate water test and suggest the best options for you. Team with us to protect you family and the water supply with a water filter that’s right for your Cross Plains WI, Verona, Waunakee or Middleton WI home.