San Antonio Water - Magnesium, Calcium, and Chlorine, Oh My!
San Antonio Water - Magnesium, Calcium, and Chlorine, Oh My!
What’s in the San Antonio Water?
The water in San Antonio is some of the hardest in the US, filled with minerals leached from the Edwards Aquifer. This huge underground aquifer is one of the most abundant artesian aquifers in the world, and provides most of the water for the city of San Antonio and surrounding areas. Edwards Aquifer is made up of porous, honeycomb-like formations of limestone, a rock formed by calcium and magnesium.
As the water flows, the limestone slowly erodes. Once in the water, it dissolves, leaving behind small pieces of calcium and magnesium. These deposits are what create the “hard,” mineral-rich water that flows into our homes.
While high levels of calcium and magnesium aren’t necessarily bad for your health, they can damage your home’s plumbing systems and appliances. Hardness is generally expressed in grains per gallon (gpg), and anything over 3 gpg will begin to negatively affect your home.
At minimum, San Antonio water tests at 18 gpg, well over the level that begins to cause damage. You’re essentially washing your clothes, dishes, and hair with dissolved rock.
San Antonio water also tests high for chlorine, which is both good and bad. Chlorine is added to the water as a powerful disinfectant, killing off germs and other nasty bugs that would otherwise make us sick. However, those levels of chlorine can be as high as the chlorine levels at your local swimming pool. And if you’ve ever accidentally swallowed a mouthful of pool water, you know highly chlorinated water isn’t great for drinking.
What can I do about it?
Extreme hardness and high chlorine levels are the two biggest problems with the San Antonio water. And while neither will profoundly affect your health, they can cause damage to your home, and make the water taste unpleasant.
To remove these minerals and chemicals, we recommend installing a whole-home soft water system. Or you can take it up a notch and install a whole home refiner or conditioner, which includes both a water softener and a filtration system.
Water softeners are the best option to remove hard minerals from your water and replace them with “soft” minerals, such as sodium. Soft water protects your home and plumbing from hard water deposits and clogs. It also helps your appliances and clothing last longer, free from the abrasiveness of any tiny mineral particles that can build up and cause damage over time. Soft water even softens your skin and your hair, and you’ll probably find yourself using less soap and shampoo. No more dissolved-rock showers!
Adding on a filter will address the high levels of chlorine, and get rid of that fishy, mouthful-of-pool-water taste and smell. This conditioner can be integrated within your water softener or added as an external filter. But this can be overkill for some folks, who only need chlorine-free drinking water (We don’t truly need chlorine free-toilet water, after all).
Here at Dupure, our favorite option to take out as many of the contaminants in our drinking water as possible with our lightweight under-the-sink reverse osmosis filtration system. This removes the chlorine from your drinking water and assures you have the purest, cleanest possible water to drink.
People often say that San Antonio water is bad, but it’s not. The water itself is a rich resource! Calcium, magnesium, and chlorine are the culprits, and are easy to remove. Whole-home soft water systems help your water feel, taste, and flow like…water.
Dupure - “Better water”
The water in San Antonio is some of the hardest in the US, filled with minerals leached from the Edwards Aquifer. This huge underground aquifer is one of the most abundant artesian aquifers in the world, and provides most of the water for the city of San Antonio and surrounding areas. Edwards Aquifer is made up of porous, honeycomb-like formations of limestone, a rock formed by calcium and magnesium.
As the water flows, the limestone slowly erodes. Once in the water, it dissolves, leaving behind small pieces of calcium and magnesium. These deposits are what create the “hard,” mineral-rich water that flows into our homes.
While high levels of calcium and magnesium aren’t necessarily bad for your health, they can damage your home’s plumbing systems and appliances. Hardness is generally expressed in grains per gallon (gpg), and anything over 3 gpg will begin to negatively affect your home.
At minimum, San Antonio water tests at 18 gpg, well over the level that begins to cause damage. You’re essentially washing your clothes, dishes, and hair with dissolved rock.
San Antonio water also tests high for chlorine, which is both good and bad. Chlorine is added to the water as a powerful disinfectant, killing off germs and other nasty bugs that would otherwise make us sick. However, those levels of chlorine can be as high as the chlorine levels at your local swimming pool. And if you’ve ever accidentally swallowed a mouthful of pool water, you know highly chlorinated water isn’t great for drinking.
What can I do about it?
Extreme hardness and high chlorine levels are the two biggest problems with the San Antonio water. And while neither will profoundly affect your health, they can cause damage to your home, and make the water taste unpleasant.
To remove these minerals and chemicals, we recommend installing a whole-home soft water system. Or you can take it up a notch and install a whole home refiner or conditioner, which includes both a water softener and a filtration system.
Water softeners are the best option to remove hard minerals from your water and replace them with “soft” minerals, such as sodium. Soft water protects your home and plumbing from hard water deposits and clogs. It also helps your appliances and clothing last longer, free from the abrasiveness of any tiny mineral particles that can build up and cause damage over time. Soft water even softens your skin and your hair, and you’ll probably find yourself using less soap and shampoo. No more dissolved-rock showers!
Adding on a filter will address the high levels of chlorine, and get rid of that fishy, mouthful-of-pool-water taste and smell. This conditioner can be integrated within your water softener or added as an external filter. But this can be overkill for some folks, who only need chlorine-free drinking water (We don’t truly need chlorine free-toilet water, after all).
Here at Dupure, our favorite option to take out as many of the contaminants in our drinking water as possible with our lightweight under-the-sink reverse osmosis filtration system. This removes the chlorine from your drinking water and assures you have the purest, cleanest possible water to drink.
People often say that San Antonio water is bad, but it’s not. The water itself is a rich resource! Calcium, magnesium, and chlorine are the culprits, and are easy to remove. Whole-home soft water systems help your water feel, taste, and flow like…water.
Dupure - “Better water”