If you’re getting your bathroom renovated or are simply having your fixtures changed, you might have considered investing in a shower filter!
Beyond that, you may be wondering what benefits a shower filter may offer.
Well, consider yourself lucky because shower filters and heads are our bread and butter here at SparkPod! That's why today, we’re going to be addressing questions such as:
- What are shower filters?
- What do shower filters do?
- Does a shower filter really work?
- What are the benefits of a shower filter?
Benefits of A Shower Filter
What are Shower Filters?
In simple terms, a shower filter is a fixture or attachment that is connected to your shower pipe or head.
Such filters contain elements in granular form that help chemically and physically remove chlorine as well as other harmful or toxic substances such as:
- chloramines
- heavy metals, and
- arsenic
What do Shower Filters do?
As mentioned above, the purpose of a shower filter is to remove elements, materials, and chemicals from regular tap water that could potentially be damaging in the long run.
The purity of the water exiting a shower filter helps improve skin and hair quality, and is also known to prevent certain skin related diseases.
Do you enjoy a good swim? If so, do you have access to a clean and safe river, lake, or beach?
If not, you probably frequent a club or community pool (unless you’re lucky enough to have a pool in your backyard).
If this is so, you’re also probably familiar with the strange way your skin and hair are left feeling once you’re done with your dip.
That’s chlorine at work.
Chlorine is an element or ingredient used for processes like paper bleaching and as a part of household cleaning agents. It's also used for water purification.
Did you know? It's the base constituent of the lethal chlorine gas used in World War 1.
Suffice to say, overexposure to chlorine can be detrimental and that’s one of the main things shower filters intend to remedy.
Simply put, the beads within your shower filter chemically neutralize and physically remove any impurities present making your water cleaner and safer.
Does a Shower Filter Really Work?
Short answer: Ours here at SparkPod does!
Long answer: The effectiveness of a shower filter depends on the brand you’re going for.
Of course all brands promise that their shower filter will do exactly what it is meant to, but there is no shortage of companies promising effectiveness who fail to deliver due to substandard product quality.
What are the Benefits of a Shower Filter?
- Chlorine and Chemical Removal
- Better Softer Skin
- Stronger Thicker Hair
- Cancer Risk Reduction
- Overall Health Improvement
- Anti-Bacterial
Now that we’re clear on the basics, we’re going to delve into what the benefits of a shower filter really are.
As we mentioned earlier, the overarching benefit of having a shower filter is reduction of harmful chemicals such as chlorine and others.
Where some of these chemicals are used in the purification of water, others may simply be present depending on how (in)efficient local purification plants are.
In removing such chemicals, shower filters help us avoid health risks and problems we may otherwise be exposed to.
For clarity, we’ve listed some benefits of using a shower filter that we know to be true and authentic:
Chlorine and Chemical Removal
As mentioned earlier, chlorine is used to kill bacteria and purify water, but excessive exposure is not exactly the best thing as far as we’re concerned.
Excessive chlorine exposure may have fatal results.
Even if the water in your local supply does not contain the levels of chlorine required to cause immediate damage to your health, long term exposure even in lower doses can result in health complications further down the line.
Using an effective shower filter ensures chlorine and chloramine filtration, which in turn means reduced exposure.
Shower filters are also designed to remove other harmful chemicals that may be present in tap water ensuring that your water is cleaner and safer.
Better, Softer Skin
Chlorine doesn’t only kill bacteria. It also causes the denaturizing or destruction of vitamins and minerals that are essential for the maintenance of healthy skin.
Further, chlorine tends to strip away the naturally occurring essential oils found on the skin, which causes dryness. This also leaves pores exposed which can in turn result in skin conditions such as rashes and even blisters in extreme cases!
Needless to say, a shower filter helps improve skin quality because it removes harmful chlorine.
Filtered water also leaves you feeling fresher and your skin feeling softer. Additionally, it helps slow down the overall ageing process with regard to your skin.
Stronger, Thicker Hair
Something that isn’t good for your skin is likely just as harmful for your hair, right?
Well, the same vitamins that keep our skin healthy do the same for our hair. Vitamin E for instance is essential for healthy, thick, strong hair but is destroyed by the presence of chlorine.
The fact that chlorine removes essential oils from the skin and hair results in hair that is frizzy and brittle.
Extended chlorine exposure is also linked to premature hair loss and baldness.
Like with your skin, a chlorine shower filter ensures that your hair stays stronger, longer, and healthier overall.
Cancer Risk Reduction
Though there is debate over this statement, several reliable sources state and believe that there is a link between chlorine exposure through tap water and cancer.
Though we may not be able to say that anyone exposed to chlorine via tap water is bound to suffer from cancer somewhere along the line, we can certainly say that there is a mild risk for predisposed individuals to end up suffering the same – chlorine being a sure catalyst.
Furthermore, as mentioned, chlorine does destroy vitamin E which is a known cancer preventative.
In other words, despite the research still being conducted, it is safe to say that installing a shower filter may be a good way to mitigate the prospect of cancer development.
Overall Health Improvement
We had mentioned how lethal chlorine can be as a gas, particularly when inhaled.
That said, chlorine can have a drastic and lethal effect on the respiratory system.
Any damage to the respiratory tract or system will have further effects such as:
- strain on the heart
- shortness of breath
- constant fatigue, and so on.
Being a halogen or an element that among other things is highly reactive, trace elements of chlorine in tap water can potentially vaporize into gas.
Though exposure to chlorine gas in such small amounts may not be seen as damaging in the short term, it's quite likely that long term regular exposure has detrimental effects on our bodies, the respiratory system in particular.
There are also studies that suggest inhaling trace amounts of chlorine have an adverse effect on neurological health.
A shower filter designed to remove chlorine keeps you and your family safe from such exposure which in the long run will seriously help improve the health of all those in your home.
Anti-Bacterial
Though chlorine does kill most bacteria, there are some types that can survive the presence of this chemical element.
The granules in shower filters remove all kinds of bacteria that might survive the presence of chlorine and build up in your tap water.
In short, a shower filter will not just keep your water free of harmful chemicals, but it will also rid the water of any bacteria that might be lingering despite the addition of chlorine.
Benefits of a Shower Filter: Bottom Line
We hope you found our information on shower filters helpful!
Suffice to say, it makes perfect sense to buy a shower filter as it’s an investment towards better health.
Besides the immediate positive effects that a quality shower filter can offer such as making you feel and look fresher, improving hair and skin health, and removing harmful chlorine, the long term benefits are truly worth the money you put down.
With the world population where it is at today and the fact that water may be in short supply in many places, water purification and recycling is the norm.
In other words, unless you live off the land or by a river or spring, the water you use will be chemically loaded. Making sure your water goes through that one last step of filtration before you actually use it is a perfectly sensible thing to do.
That's why we recommend you invest in a high quality shower filter such as the one we carry here at SparkPod!