Tap Water Taste Icky? Here’s What You Need to Do

Tap Water Taste Icky? Here’s What You Need to Do
crawfordmech December 9, 2016

Taking a sip from your tap and recoiling from a peculiar flavor may leave you panicking about the safety of your water. Instead of worrying without direction, use these guidelines to help determine how you should proceed if you suspect your tap water is contaminated.

What’s Making Your Water Taste Funny?

Our senses of taste and smell developed as a way to identify the chemical compositions of the items around us. Certain biological conditions such as pregnancy or sickness can affect the way our senses perceive the world around us so that they may cause a sudden change in your water’s taste. Even habits like drinking sugar-laden sodas and coffees can impact how you perceive the water’s taste. To rule them out, have multiple people perform a taste test. Once you have a broad sample of taste test results, you can use them to narrow down the potential list of contaminants.

A metallic taste may indicate that relatively harmless metals like iron or copper are being leached from the pipes along the water’s path, but it can also be a warning sign of hazardous lead used in home plumbing prior to being outlawed. If there is an earthen or rotting taste, biological matter from algae may be sifting through the water. You might want to ask your neighbors to see if they are experiencing a similar taste. For larger homes and office buildings, be sure to take samples from multiple locations to rule out localized sources of contamination.

If your taste testing is inconclusive or you want immediate and clear results, you can skip these steps entirely and purchase a home water testing kit to get a definitive answer with less hassle.

Fast Fixes to Try First

First, start by giving the faucet and the area surrounding it a thorough cleaning and sanitization. Small colonies of bacteria or tiny solids clumping around the aerator can build up and cause changes in your water’s flavor. Take the faucet apart and boil the pieces in a mix of three parts water to one part vinegar to get rid of all the microbes. With your plumbing endpoints now sparkling clean, running the faucet for a few seconds before using the water can flush out any contaminants that build up as the water sits.

Get the Taste Out of Your Mouth

If all else fails, it’s time to bring in the big guns to take down the water-borne taste terror. Crawford Mechanical Services has been repairing and replacing plumbing systems in homes and for businesses for over 20 years, so finding the culprit and fixing it will take no time at all. For the health of your friends and family, as well as the taste of your drinks and food, contact Crawford Mechanical Services so we can fix your water problems as soon as possible.

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