Colored rings, oily films, cloudy dishes.
Limp hair, dry skin, dull clothes.
Unclean water can impact the aesthetics of your home — and your body and property — in a variety of ways.
And that’s saying nothing of the drab aesthetics of the water itself: It could be brown or some other unappetizing color, muddy, cloudy, etc.
In our other blogs, we’ve delved into the numerous health impacts of unclean water. In this one, we’ll go into the ways that “dirty” tap water can affect the look and function of your home.
White Film in Water: What it Is, The Harm it Can Cause and How to Get Rid of It
To understand where white film and cloudiness in your water comes from, we have to go all the way back to where the water coming out of your tap originates. And that necessarily includes a crash course in geology.
Under earth’s crust, there’s an aquifer. And beneath that is a firm foundation of rock. Any water that sits in that rock begins to take on some of its characteristics.
Whether you use a city water system or get your water from a private well, your water will be affected by the composition of rock in that layer. Any time you extract whatever from that deep layer, you’re bringing up not only the water itself, but also any elements from the rock layer that have attached themselves. And often, that includes a white film.
The good news: That white film is easily treatable with a good high-quality water softener. There are also some reverse osmosis (RO) systems that remove the rock. And if you go the salt-free conditioner route, the treatment will keep the calcium attached. This can help protect the plumbing of your home, but it won’t take rock out.
Bottom line: If you have white film in your water and it’s bothering you — from an aesthetic standpoint and/or regarding the look of your residential property and fixtures or your own appearance — you want to take the rock out of your water. And you can do that with RO and a water softener. (Fair warning: RO can get expensive.)
If you don’t go this route, you may be able to fix the appearance of the water, but you may still experience dry brittle hair and see a film on your dishes.
Orange Stains: Call in a Pro to Determine Where They Come From and What They Mean
When it comes to water, seeing orange is a big deal. Orange stains represent a water problem that can ruin your toilets, clog your pipes and more. When you run your laundry, you may find that your whites don’t come out white. Your dishes take on a sheen of orange. Your bathtubs develop a persistent stain.
But don’t despair: This is all addressable. An orange coloration in your water indicates the presence of iron or iron bacteria. It’s advisable that you talk to a professional about this. A water quality expert can tell you what kind of iron or iron bacteria you’re dealing with. There are a variety of iron filters and chlorine injection systems on the market, if that’s the direction you need to go. The reason you want to call in an expert on this is because the problem requires fairly through testing to determine whether you’re dealing with standard iron or iron bacteria.
Gray Stains: This is Why Your Toilet Bowl Looks Streaky
What’s the culprit if your toilet bowl looks dingy and dull, despite all your efforts to clean it?
If you’re seeing streaks in the toilet bowl that won’t go away with any amount of cleaning products or scrubbing, you can expect that there’s rock in your water.
Think of it this way: When purchased new, a porcelain toilet bowl has a glossy finish, giving it a nice sheen. But over time, if the water that’s flushing into and out of your toilet has rock on it, the rock in your water wears away at the sheen, like sandpaper might. When you expose porcelain to water and that water has white film or calcium in it, your toilet bowl may turn gray.
Gray water can be a sign of calcium or an indicator of turbidity or dirt in water. You must seek out a water treatment expert. Unsure where to start? Search for local licensed plumbers, or anyone with many years of experience in the water quality field. This person will help you determine if there’s calcium or other particles in your water. As an example: In our local Illinois market, we have silica in the water. Gray stains can also be from hydrogen sulfide — in other words, decomposing plant and animal.
Oily Water: Two Causes to a Big Problem
Oily water is a huge problem: In fact, it’s the topic of one of our biggest blogs.
If you have oily water, just know that it’s caused by industrial pollution or hydrogen sulfide. Both of these culprits can create an oily sheen on water.
Suffering from oiiy water in your home? We recommend doing some water testing to see what’s causing it. Then, once you’ve figured out the cause, a whole-house filter can absorb hydrogen sulfide or help with industrial runoff.
Blue or Green Water: Indicative of a pH Imbalance
When you get staining on toilets and fixtures that’s blue or green, in color, that generally means your water has a lower than average pH. In other words: It’s acidic.
What causes these bright hues? The acid in the water affects copper in your pipes, causing them to turn color. This gives your toilets that blue or green haze.
To confirm this is the problem, simply test the pH of your water. If you find that it’s reading at a 5 or 6 pH, your suspicions of acidic water can be confirmed.
Luckily, there are many products on the market that can help you raise the pH of your water, making it more basic or alkaline. So talk to a professional and have it tested. If your water is acidic, one option is Neutra 7, which is soda ash. You’ll want to inject this into your water to raise alkalinity the back to 7.5 pH.
Cloudy Water: Usually Caused by Turbidity
Wondering why your water is cloudy? The number one cause of cloudy tap water is turbidity.
When your water is cloudy, it means that particles have gotten into it: think silica, clay, dirt and a whole lot more. Sometimes these particles settle out.
In other cases, if you have methane in your water, you’ll experience the same thing. To investigate this issue in your house, fill up a glass from the tap. If your tap water is gray and the bubbles settle out, you’ll probably want to look into a whole-house filter. Look into carbon filtering, along with the Greensand Plus product. This will help take out larger and smaller particles at the same time.
