When it comes to water quality, start with your senses

In most homes, the water that people drink represents only about 1% of all water used. Considering our bodies are made mostly of water, that 1% is pretty important.

Ensuring good water quality is critical to the health and safety of your family, but where do you begin? It’s a lot like judging wine, actually—start with your senses.

See, smell, taste

Take a look

Start with a glass of your tap water. First, use your eyes and look at the color. Is there a distinctive color that may represent minerals or sediment? Look at the clarity—is your water clear or cloudy?

Sniff test

Next put your nose to the glass and smell your water. Does it have a distinctive odor or no odor at all?

Taste it

Finally, take a sip. Are you pleased with the taste of your water? Is there an aftertaste?

Consider an in-home treatment system

If you found some things you don’t feel comfortable with, consider getting it tested. You also might consider an in-home water treatment system that can help with the issues you noticed as well as those you can’t.

Once your water leaves the municipal treatment facility, it takes a long journey to get to your tap. During that time it could acquire tasteless, odorless contaminants and microorganisms that can’t be seen.

While you may have specific goals to improve your water, such as look, smell or taste, the most important role of an in-home water treatment system is ensuring elimination of any potential contaminants, microorganisms and disinfection byproducts.*

You can’t see them, but since every drop of water you consume helps support your vital bodily functions, those contaminants can have an impact on your health and wellness.

Expert recommendations

The Water Quality Association recommends using water treatment systems that economically treat potential health-effecting contaminants right at the tap to ensure that the water your family drinks is of the highest quality.

Those contaminants are not reduced by systems like water softeners.

Amanda Morgott, a product design engineer in research and development for Amway, notes that tap water can pick up harmful contaminants anywhere along the journey from its source to your faucet.

“It makes sense to focus intensively on potential contaminants left in your drinking water right at the faucet with a ‘final barrier’ system,” Morgott said.

NSF certified

She recommends looking for a home water treatment system that has been independently verified to reduce a wide variety of potential waterborne contaminants for safer water with better taste, odor and clarity.

“The eSpring™ Water Purifier has been certified by NSF International to effectively reduce more than 160 contaminants, including 145 potential health-effect contaminants – more than any other NSF-certified carbon filtration/ultraviolet (UV) light treatment point-of-use system,” she said. “Its UV light destroys up to 99.99 percent of waterborne disease-causing bacteria and viruses.

“The system makes having better tasting, higher quality water in the home simple and virtually carefree for the user.”

Once you’ve installed a system, you can put your senses to the test again and gauge the color, clarity, smell and taste or your water. You’re sure to see a difference in that critical 1% of water your family consumes every day.

Read more posts about eSpring on Amway Connections or visit the websites for Amway US or Amway Canada.