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What's inside your water
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
If you can’t seem to get squeaky clean after your shower, it may be because your building has added sodium silicate to your water.
“In the old buildings with some iron pipe in them, it stops the rust. And in the new buildings sometimes, to cut down on brown water they actually end up coating the iron particles,” says Phil Kraus, the president of Fred Smith Plumbing & Heating Company, which services around 850 Manhattan co-op and condo buildings.
“I don’t recommend using it if you don’t need chemicals in the water, but it’s FDA approved so I’m not going to say I don’t approve,” says the plumbing expert. “If you put too much sodium silicate in the water it doesn’t necessarily make it sudsy but it gives it a slimy feel like if you take a shower and can’t get the soap off—it’s like a film you can feel in your body. It can come and go from one day to the next.”
We find this kind of shocking – how about you? We’d love to hear from anyone who can help assess the health risks of sodium silicate, if any.
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OMG this makes so much sense to me now. I was always just afraid of hard water and I could tell when I washed my hair if I was in a shower with hard water in the building but last year my parents had all the pipes up and down their streets ripped out and replaced and whenever I'd get a glass of water at their house (we are raised drinking from the tap in NY) it was like there was dishwashing detergent in the first glass. I could not figure it out but I bet the building added this with the pipe change. I'm disgusted.
So many New Yorkers are told we have the some of the cleanest water in the country. While that may or may not be true, the pipe system in most of our buildings are close to over 100 years old.
I never shower nor drink water out of the pipes. I have a filter system for both. It is a one time purchase with bi annual refills on the filters. I highly suggest using them to filter out the slimy feeling one gets after showering. Its a lot cheaper than changing the whole piping system in the building.
Diane, what's the name of the system that you use? Is it Culligan? How much space does it take up?
Only one of our properties out of 75 uses silicate. It has helped to keep the water cleaner and has not presented any problems. We have had many experiences with cloudy/brown water, but in all instances where we lab tested the water, it was determined that it was fine for human consumption. You may notice that the hot water is discolored more often than cold, that is because it propoerties change when heated. If you are concerned, you should have the water tested.
Yes, Diane, more information, please! Especially about the system to filter shower water. Where is it located?
I had no idea that one could filter shower water. I need more info Diane...
I use multipure. You only have to change the filter 2 - 3 times a year on the kitchen drinking water and a little more often on your shower.
It doesn't take up much room. There are many filter systems out there. When searching, you want to make sure that they filter out as much as possible. Filters like Brita are just about useless. Buying water in plastic bottles is also not healthy.
I for one, would never drink unfiltered water directly from the faucet. And, if you're kosher, there are microscopic crustaceans in the tap water. Not good.
It will probably run you $300 for both filters. It's a one time purchase and the replacement filters are relatively inexpensive.