How Hard Water Affects Your Family
While municipal water in North Bergen is safe to drink, its mineral content impacts daily life. Hard water minerals react with soap to form a residue, preventing a clean rinse. This can lead to:
- Dry, itchy skin and scalp after showering.
- Dull, brittle hair that's difficult to manage.
- A sticky, soap scum film on skin, shower doors, and sinks.
For families with infants, preparing baby formula with moderately hard water can be a concern for some, though it poses no direct health hazard.
Filtration Recommendations for North Bergen
For moderately hard water at 5.0 GPG, a whole-house system is usually not necessary. The goal is targeted, cost-effective treatment.
- Good: A quality pitcher filter (like Brita or ZeroWater) or a faucet-mount filter is often sufficient. These systems effectively remove the minerals that cause bad taste in drinking water and coffee.
- Better: For superior taste and convenience, an under-sink Reverse Osmosis (RO) system provides highly purified water on demand. This also eliminates the need for bottled water; an average family can spend $600-$900 per year on bottled water, a cost an RO system removes.
- Whole-House: A whole-house water softener is not a cost-effective choice here. At an installed cost of around $1,500, it would take nearly 28 years to pay for itself through the estimated annual savings of $54.