Most of the time when someone starts researching a shower water filter their primary concern is with the chlorine in the water. The chlorine to worry about comes from the water treatment process used by most municipalities.

Why is chlorine added to our water supply?

It turns out that chlorine is very effective at killing off bacteria and parasites that could otherwise make us sick. Unfortunately, the chlorine can also cause ill effects in people – hence, the desire to get a shower water filter.

Normally, people don’t notice chlorine in their water. Those that do will typically get a filter for their drinking water that fits onto their sink faucet, in their refrigerator (the ones that have water dispensers) or they may just use a water pitcher type filter.

The problem is that drinking is not the only way for chlorine from water to get into the body. A more insidious way for chlorine to adversely affect our health is through the shower. The shower is a more effective way for chlorine to enter the body because most of us like to take hot showers. The hot water helps to liberate the chlorine from the water into the air with the steam.

So not only do we end up with this chlorinated water all over our body, but we’re breathing it into our lungs as well. For most people it’s not an immediate threat – they may just not feel as well as they could and may notice that their skin is more scaly and their hair feels heavier and duller.

But people who already have breathing problems, such as asthma, will notice the effects more readily. For asthmatics, taking a hot shower can be a debilitating experience if excessive chlorine in the air brings on an attack.

This is why the shower water filter has become so popular and, in some cases, a real necessity. The difficulty in filtering shower water is that most traditional filters do not work very well with hot water or at the high rates of flow we enjoy in the shower. This presents a special problem, but there are a couple methods that seem to work well.

Essentially, rather than removing the chlorine from the water and storing it in a filter medium, a shower water filter will react with the chlorine in the water to create a less volatile compound that will not be harmful. One method to accomplish this is with a filter that uses a medium of copper and zinc. A different technology actually uses Vitamin C to react with the chlorine.

Both are effective but have their pros and cons. One of the advantages of the Vitamin C solution is that it also removes chloramines, which is an alternative to chlorine treatment used by some municipalities.

The biggest problem with either solution is that you need to replace filters periodically and placing any sort of filter between the plumbing and the shower head will likely reduce the water pressure you feel on your body.

Shower Water Filter Video