5 Signs It’s Time to Test Your Home Water Supply

5 Signs It’s Time to Test Your Home Water Supply

Whether your home is supplied by well water or municipal water, it’s a smart move to know when and how to test your home water supply. Let’s look at the five signs that you should take a closer look at what is coming out of your taps. 

Sign #1: Your Water Has a Bad Taste or Smell

No one wants to drink water that tastes bad or is stinky. While this is most often a problem with well water, it can also be a problem with water from a municipal or rural water company, especially after a storm or similar disturbance. Until you know for a fact what is making the water stinky or unpalatable, you won’t know if there are any health risks associated with drinking that water.

What could make your water taste or smell bad? Here are three possibilities.

  • Metallic smells: Your water could have a high level of iron, manganese or zinc. This can come from mineral deposits in the bedrock around your home, but if it shows up suddenly, then corrosion of metal pipes or other plumbing fittings might be to blame. If your water is acidic, that increases the risk of corrosion adding dissolved metal to your drinking water. Household members might experience nausea or vomiting. Long-term exposure could lead to kidney and liver problems. 
  • Rotten egg smell: You may have hydrogen sulfide gas in the water. This can result from sulfur-reducing bacteria that oxidize sulfur, producing substances that are good for plants but not great for drinking water. This gas is not very harmful unless it gets strong, but it is not what you want in drinking water. You could also have sulfate in the water which can come from mineral deposits, but also from mining, fertilizers and other human activities. Sulfate in drinking water can cause diarrhea and dehydration. It can also contribute to pipe corrosion. 
  • Swimming pool smell: Your water could have been overchlorinated at a treatment plant. If you have a well, it could have been contaminated with pesticides or other chlorine-based chemicals. The other possibility for a well owner is that their own efforts to disinfect their well were improperly done. Household chlorine bleach, when used for disinfection, can get trapped in corners of a plumbing system. Chlorine is a respiratory irritant. Long-term exposure increases the risk of some cancers. 

Sign #2: Discoloration and Staining

The most common stains coming from a contaminated water supply are red or brown stains. You may see them on clothes that have gone through the laundry or on sinks or appliances. The usual culprit is excessive iron in the water supply. 

While stains like this can come from dissolved iron naturally present in groundwater, they can also come from corroded iron pipes in the household. Many homes have replaced iron pipes with PVC pipes which are less expensive and easier to work with. If pipes have not been updated, iron may leach out of the pipes, especially if the water is acidic. The right water treatment can improve the pH balance and reduce the iron in the water supply. The right filtration system will remove naturally occurring iron. Excessive iron levels can damage the heart, liver, pancreas, and gastrointestinal system. 

You might also see green stains on sinks and faucets. These can come from high levels of copper in the water. Like iron, copper can come from natural deposits in the rock around the home or from corrosion of copper elements in the plumbing system. You don’t want to ignore these stains. Some people can’t handle increased levels of copper in their drinking water. In severe cases of exposure to high levels of copper, liver or kidney damage can result. 

Sign #3: Cloudy Water

Healthy water is clear water. If your tap water looks cloudy or murky or it has any color, that can be a sign of contamination. The right move is to find out as fast as you can what is causing that cloudiness. Some sources of cloudy water can cause illness. 

The possible causes of cloudiness include:

  • Sediment, silt, clay or dirt: These substances can bring bacteria with them. Find out if there is construction going on in your area or if the water lines are being flushed by your local utility. If you have a well and you see this problem, your well should be inspected to determine if it needs repair. A cracked casing could be letting soil enter your well water.
  • Microorganisms like bacteria or algae: When there is an unusual growth of waterborne bacteria in the bodies of water in your area, this can result in cloudy water being piped into your home. Municipal water systems may have difficulty removing all of the bacteria in the water.
  • Mineral buildup in your plumbing system: If minerals like calcium, iron, or manganese have built up in your well, plumbing system or supply lines leading to your home, your water can appear cloudy. You can remove the contaminants with a filtration system designed to remove minerals.
  • Air bubbles suspended in your water: To determine if cloudiness is caused by air bubbles, let a glass of water sit for a little while, tapping on the side a few times. See if the bubbles all rise to the top and the water is now clear. 
  • Dissolved solids such as calcium and magnesium: If you’re in an area that tends to have hard water, you might just be seeing a high quantity of dissolved calcium and magnesium in your water. In a household with a water-softening system, cloudy water could be a sign that the system needs maintenance or repair. If you don’t have a water softener, you may want to add one or choose a reverse osmosis system.
  • Methane gas: Methane gas in a water supply is a rare cause of cloudy water but it is a dangerous one. Methane can result from the decomposition of organic matter or from gas or oil drilling near water sources. When methane is released from taps, it can accumulate in the home if there is poor ventilation. Because the gas is flammable, this can create a very dangerous situation. If methane is present in well water, a special installation to vent the gas from the well is required.

To determine which of these reasons could be causing your cloudy water, it is usually necessary to have your water professionally tested

Sign #4: Scale or Scum Buildup

This signal that you need to test your water will accumulate over time. You may just notice that your sinks, faucets, toilets and other fixtures are developing ugly deposits. These deposits are hard to remove unless you scrub vigorously or use special cleaners. Scale or scum means that you have high levels of minerals in your water and they are accumulating not only on surfaces but also inside appliances and pipes. 

The most common minerals are calcium and magnesium, but can also include iron, copper and zinc. Eventually, these minerals can clog pipes and appliances, especially water heaters. Energy costs usually go up when water heaters, washers and dishwashers are clogged with minerals. These minerals are also hard on hair and skin. Hair can become quite dry and eczema symptoms can be worsened by this hard water. 

To design the right solution to remove these minerals, you will need to test your water. Calcium and magnesium can be removed with a water softener but iron, copper and zinc require other methods. The choices for those minerals are coagulation (also known as flocculation), aeration or activated carbon filtration. Know before you go. 

Sign #5: Illness in the Household

While this one is listed last, it is of vital interest to homeowners, especially if they have families. Waterborne bacterial, parasitic, mold or chemical contaminants are quite capable of causing illness in humans and animals. 

Here are the critically important times to think about the purity of your water:

  • Someone in the household gets ill and does not recover within an expected timeframe
  • You’re bringing home a new baby
  • A new child who is not accustomed to this water source is being added to the household
  • Someone in the home suffers from compromised immunity, such as someone being treated for cancer, HIV/AIDS or an autoimmune disease or someone on corticosteroids
  • An aging person will begin drinking from this water source

This is not a complete list but it should give you an idea of who can need extra protection from waterborne contaminants. Short-term, you might see health problems like nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, fatigue, and skin rashes. If they don’t resolve, dig deeper into your water quality.

The list of all possible contaminants that cause illness and the symptoms that would show up could fill a book. Suffice it to say that any unusual or persistent illness or a susceptible person in the home should motivate the homeowner to test their water, whether their home is supplied by well water or municipal water. 

A Special Note for Well Owners: Know Your Neighborhood’s Contamination Risk

Whether your well is in a suburb or a rural area, you should be aware of any possible contamination sources that can affect your well. This could mean that you check out construction projects to determine what type of businesses are going in or monitor agricultural or industrial activities around you. 

If you have any of these activities or facilities within a couple of miles of your well, you would be wise to monitor the quality of your well water: 

  1. Animal feedlots
  2. Animal waste disposal
  3. Manure stockpiles
  4. Fertilizer or pesticide use
  5. Boat or auto repair shops
  6. Airports
  7. Firefighter training sites
  8. Railroad cars
  9. Recycling centers
  10. Dry cleaning operations
  11. Gas stations
  12. Golf courses
  13. Funeral homes
  14. Research laboratories
  15. Oil and gas production
  16. Mining operations
  17. Petroleum refineries
  18. Chemical manufacturing
  19. Paper or textile mills
  20. Fuel oil storage tanks
  21. Landfills
  22. Septic systems and leach fields

This isn’t a complete list but should alert you to the kinds of operations that can introduce bacteria, parasites, industrial chemicals and toxic metals into your water source. Test your well water now if you have never done it. Then recheck your water quality every year. One bad industrial chemical spill can affect the quality of your water for years. If you find out about it right away, you can install the right filtration or treatment to eliminate the threat. 

The Right Way to Get Your Water Tested

Buying a small water testing kit from a home improvement store will only give you a tiny bit of information about your water. It may tell you if ten or a dozen contaminants are present but not how much of them. There are, in fact, hundreds of harmful chemicals, undesirable minerals or metals or other toxins that could be present in your water. 

That little test may identify the presence of a couple of well-known kinds of bacteria but not all the others that could harm your family. You may not learn about algae, parasites or fungi that could be present.

Professional water testing is the best way to keep your family safe. A check of your well water will tell you what type of filtration or softener you need. A test of your municipal water can provide peace of mind or inform you of deficiencies in your local water treatment. 

The first time you test your water, get the most comprehensive test you can afford. Every year after that, then get a basic water test to check that the quality has not deteriorated. 

Consult ETR Laboratories for Fast, Accurate Testing of Your Water

ETR Laboratories has tested the water of tens of thousands of well owners, municipalities and states plus industries that rely on pure water. ETR Laboratories even provides testing services for other companies that sell water tests.

Go to the authoritative source of accurate, professional water tests: ETR Laboratories. Choose the right water test for your home, business or city on our Tap and Well Water Tests page.