Let me first say, I don’t know what any of these numbers REALLY mean. What I do know though is that since we’ve been bathing in Worth now, both of us complained about dry skin and our eyes burning like we’re in an over chlorinated pool.
Moving on…
This first night I took a bath in our wonderful tub, my eyes were as bloodshot as they have ever been. I first chalked it up to new water heater or pipes. The second night though, I figured something else was up, especially since The Wife started complaining too.
Picking up a Professional water quality test kit, the initial results were rather frightening.
The first test is signified by the tick mark. The pH was somewhere between 2 (Dangerous) and 5 (Caution), being closer to 5. Alkalinity was somewhere between 40 (Low) and 80 (Ideal,) being closer to 80. Chlorine was between 4 (Safe) and 10 (Danger,) based on how our eyes and skin were reacting, I’d say closer to 10. Lastly, hardness was around 50, Ideal.
Weighing our options, I decided to go with a Whirlpool Central Water Filtration System. Biggest reason was based on the level of chlorine, I felt I either had to install those single faucet/under-sink kits at each faucet, or opt for a whole house system. Last time I checked pool water wasn’t all that good for growing plants, vegetables, and grass. While this central water system was considerably more than an under the sink kit, it was not really all that much more than eight under the sink kits, plus the additional time and hardware to fit 8, as opposed to 1. Another possibly “neat feature” is the system self-purges, so there is no media to replace all that often. Time will tell on that though.
Anyway, after installing the system, and draining existing water lines, a new test was ran. The results were shocking. pH went from danger/caution to a solid safe. Alkalinity went from Low/Ideal to solid Ideal. Hardness now floats somewhere between Soft and Ideal. The biggest change was in Chlorine. What used to be on the 7,8,9 danger range dropped to zero.
All in all… money well spent.
