Aquasana Shower Water Filter
Clean, refreshing water. That is what you might think about the water coming out of your shower head. Think again! Have you ever heard of Chlorine?
“It's no secret that much of our water supply comes from polluted sources. As a result, most municipalities use chlorine to kill bacteria. High chlorine levels are not healthy for any living organism, including humans; in fact, chlorine is the primary ingredient in household bleach which is not only highly-corrosive, but is designed to kill organisms it contacts.
Chlorine keeps water bacteria-free. But it reacts with organic material creating chloroform, trimethohalanes (TMHs) and other "chlorination disinfection by-products" (CBPs), all strongly linked with cancer.
A Health Canada Position Paper entitled Safe Drinking Water: A Public Health Challenge, states: "14-16% of bladder cancers may be attributable to water containing CBPs. There is an urgent need to resolve this ... In fact, given the prolonged exposure to CBPs and the epidemiologic evidence of associations with several cancer sites, future research may establish CBPs as the most important environmental carcinogens in terms of the number of attributable cancers per year." The paper links CBPs with spontaneous abortions, low sperm count, birth defects, respiratory problems and spina bifida.
Unfortunately, most people are unaware that more chlorine is absorbed through the skin during the average shower than by drinking six to eight glasses of tap water. Skin is highly permeable - it is the body's way of excreting toxins and regulating temperature. Hot showers cause the pores of the skin to dilate, allowing chlorine and other free radicals to be rapidly absorbed. Further chlorine is contained within the water vapor that enters the air as steam, and is breathed into our lungs as we shower. Furthermore, chlorine and other water contaminants reduce the effectiveness of many shampoos, conditioners, lotions, oils & skin creams, leaving your skin dry and unnourished, not to mention the money spent on quality personal care products, wasted.”
After reading a few articles like this one, I decided that it is in my best interest to invest my hard earned cash into a good water filter. If you do a search for “water filter shower”, sites like Google will produce some 4 million results! Quite a large number. So I determined that buying a widely used and reviewed filter would be a good start. Aquasana Shower Filter model AQ-4100 was my choice. Not too expensive, well built, easily installed, well reviewed - these were the main points that tipped the scale in favor of the AQ model.
Ordering at one of the many online stores was easy. And after a few days of waiting, I had the filter box in my hands. I was pleasantly encouraged by the weight of the filter. If there was an invasion of my house, and I had no good weapon, I surely, with a well placed throw to the head, could kill anyone threatening me. Luckily, I have much more useful tools for the above scenario. So, to the shower the filter went!
Not to be swayed by all the favorable reviews, I decided to test the filter myself, and for that, I ordered the “Water Safe” test kit from Silver Lake Research in quantity of two, sort of before and after scenario. Not too sophisticated, it does the job, none of the less. Below are the results of my little “school science experiment”:
| AQ4100 | No Filter | Filter |
| PH | 7.5 | 7.5 |
| LR Hardness | 120 | 120 |
| Chlorine | 2ppm | 0ppm |
| Lead/Pesticide are negative on both. | ||
| Nitrate/Nitrite are negative on both. | ||
| Bacterial is negative in the 48hour test. | ||
As you can see, the water that passed through the filter had the chlorine content removed completely. In other words, the glove fits. That was exactly what I was looking for.
A few things to keep in mind:
- You would have to replace the filter every 6 months or sooner, depending on the frequency of use. Changing the filter is very easy.
- The filter will decrease the pressure output of your shower head by about 20%.
- There is a 15 sec delay on the temperature change. Because of the filtration system, if you wanted to make your hot water a little cooler by turning the knob, it would take about 15 seconds for you to feel the difference.
Happy showering!
--EM--