Should you invest in a water filter for your shower? The water flowing through your home’s pipes may not be as clean or good for you as you might assume. If your place of residence isn’t utilizing a whole house filter it could be allowing contaminants to flow right to your shower head including: chemicals, trace minerals, and even microorganisms. Your skin is the largest organ of the body, which is capable of absorbing elements, good and bad. Aside from drying your skin out, your hair can also be effected by minerals from hard water. By opting to install a shower water filter, you could be preventing you and your family from suffering from the byproducts of showering in contaminants. Let’s delve deeper.
Have Hard Water Could be Flowing Through Your Pipes
Water rich in minerals, such as calcium, silica, and magnesium, has the potential to build up in pipes, appliances, and more. This phenomena is known as hard water, which is measured in grains per gallon, or gpg. Water measuring above 3.5 gpg is considered “hard”, and could lead to damage throughout your home. It may be hard to know if you have hard water, though, requiring close attention to detail. Aside from building up on household appliances, how can hard water effect your hair, skin, and fingernails? While it’s not going to be detrimental to your overall health, hard water can impact your body whereas a water softener could be of great benefit.
Hair Damage
Large amounts of minerals can cause visible effects on human hair, leading to a dull sheen. Ultimately, mineral buildup tends to weaken hair follicles, and lead to easy strand breakage. Regardless of how many times you wash your hair, rinse, or even utilize various shampoos or other hair care products, you will be unable to remedy the situation. The issue arises solely from your tap water, not your genetics, or conditioner. If you hair feels straw-like, filmy, limp, or appears dull, it is a huge symptom of hard water.
Irritated Skin
If you notice an unfamiliar dryness to your skin, especially after showering it is another symptom of hard water. This is because your skin reacts unkindly to water high in minerals, chemicals, and other contaminants. This water condition may also aggravate preexisting conditions, including: eczema, psoriasis, and sensitive skin, to name a few. As your skin comes into contact with hard water, minerals deposit onto your skin as oils are absorbed from your skin. This has a large impact on your skin’s overall pH, leading to breakouts, soap scum, and mineral buildup.
Nail Breakage
Your nail bed is comprised of sealed layers of keratin, which break down over extended exposure to the minerals of hard water. When you wash your hands for example hard water causes flaky, brittle fingernails. This is in addition to stunting overall growth, and dried out nail beds, as well as total discoloration. The use of a shower filter thankfully, can significantly reduce the contaminants, and minerals present in your tap water. This means the harmful effects of contaminant tap water can be reduced to a level that does not affect your health.
Shower Water Filter Options
When it comes to choosing your next shower water filter, you will be thankful to know there are plenty of models to choose from. From whole house water filters, to inline shower filters, home owners have a plethora of options when it comes to their shower filter. The installation can be as simple or difficult as you’d like – it’s as simple as screwing a cartridge directly into a showerhead. To experience healthier skin and hear as well as clean shower water, the following products are our choices for best shower filter.
Waterdrop AQ-4125 Shower Water Filter
This water filter system is made of high-quality and premium material, delivering an outstanding filtration performance. The water filtration system for home features 2-stage filtration. The first 5-micron PP cotton filter intercepts any large particles such as sediments, rust, dirt, grits, silt.
The second GAC filter adopts natural coconut shell to make granular activated carbon, which reduces funny taste, odor and chlorine and improves water taste. The efficient filtration performance prolongs water-related appliances service life.The dual sealing rings prevent water leakage.The reinforced structure features durable materials, and passed 300 psi water pressure and 100,000 water hammer tests.
Luxau 4 Pc 18 Stage Shower Filter Replacement Cartridge
Luxua’s 18-stage shower filter replacement cartridge is a very common size, capable of fitting into similar design housing. Homeowners can enjoy up to 6 months of use, for 12,000 gallons of fresh, filtered water. Once you reach 6 months of use, it is important to replace the cartridge to continue the reduction of heavy metals, chlorine, minerals and more. This filter also reduces the additional deposit of limescale, and other elements that contribute to hard water or buildup.
3M Aqua-Pure AP101 Series Whole House Water Filter
The 3M Aqua-Pure whole house water filter prevents fine sediment from moving throughout the piping in your home. This is due to a 5 micron filtration capability, to reduce contaminants from flowing through to all of your pipes. A transparent housing provides an easy view for better preventative maintenance. This type of water filter system enables homeowners to extend the life of their home appliances, sinks, showers, and more. If you have up to two bathrooms within your home, this is the ideal whole home water filtration solutions. In terms of houses with more bathrooms, another model would be more suitable. This type of water filter requires regular maintenance, as well as a cartridge replacement twice per year. However, this maintenance schedule is highly dependent upon the amount of use within your home.