The smell of chlorine is typically associated with sitting poolside on a hot summer day. But when that smell comes from your tap water every time you pour a glass, it can come as quite a shock. So if you’re asking yourself, “Why does my water smell like chlorine?” read on to find the answer and what you can do to fix it!
Why does my water smell like chlorine?
The reason that your water smells like chlorine is simple: because there’s chlorine in it! Water treatment plants use chlorine as a disinfectant to kill dangerous bacteria and pathogens that would otherwise cause deadly waterborne diseases. When the water reaches your home, it still contains low levels of chlorine that will give off that familiar smell.
The water in some homes can have more of a chlorine smell than others, even if they get their water from the same treatment plant. That’s because homes that are located closer to the water treatment plants will have a higher concentration of chlorine than those that are located farther away.
Why does my water only smell like chlorine some of the time?
Do you only notice the chlorine smell in your water during certain times of the year? Or is the smell always there, but worse at some times than others?
The reason for the differences in the severity of your water’s chlorine smell is that water treatment plants use different amounts of chlorine during different times of the year. Sometimes plants will use a mixture of chlorine and ammonia (known as chloramine), which has less of a concentration chlorine. If your plant briefly switches from chloramine to chlorine, or if they add more chlorine due to a contamination, your water will smell worse than normal.
Is there anything I can do about my water smelling like chlorine?
Water treatment plants would like you to believe that the chlorine in your water is a necessary side effect of the disinfection process. But many people are off-put by the smell, and chlorine in drinking water has been linked to a number of different serious health issues.
By installing a water treatment system in your home, you can benefit from the disinfectant properties of chlorine while also removing that chlorine from your water once it leaves your taps. You can either choose to install a point-of-use system that will remove chlorine at your kitchen tap, or you can install a whole house system that will remove chlorine and its byproducts from every tap in your home.
If you have any questions about why your water smells like chlorine, or if you’d like a water treatment system serviced or installed in your home, contact North Carolina Water Consultants, your North and South Carolina water filtration system installation and service provider. We provide service all over the Carolinas, including towns like Clemmons, Statesville and Belmont, NC.