This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of PUR. The opinions and text are all mine.
Like oxygen, water is vital to our survival. You literally cannot live without it. Unfortunately, just like the air we breathe, the water we so desperately need to survive is often polluted with nasty chemicals that can wreak havoc on your body. We’re talking lead, pesticides, industrial pollutants, and so much more. It used to be kind of difficult to find out exactly what was in your water. You’d have to buy a testing kit and either figure out how to read it, or send a sample away to a lab for testing. Now, the Know Your Water website from PUR® makes it as easy as typing in your address to find out exactly what’s in your water! I’ll tell you all about that in a minute, but first, I want to talk about the importance of good water. I think we underestimate just how much we need it until we don’t have it!
What’s it Like to Live with Undrinkable Water?
Ever try to live with gross water? I’ve dealt with sulfur water for over 7 years. Ever smelled rotten eggs? Imagine smelling that every time you turned on your faucet. Now imagine drinking it! Trust me, you don’t want to! It’s not just gross when you drink it plain, either. You can’t use it for coffee, tea, or making juice. You can get away with using it to make a pot of spaghetti, but try using it in gelatin (or my favorite gelatin poke cake) and see what happens. Blech! We spent at least $500 a year on bottled water alone, and that’s a low estimate. At one point, I was spending a minimum of $50 a month on one of those water dispensers and the giant 5-gallon jug things.
In our situation, we knew by smell and taste that our water was off, but what if your water tastes perfectly normal? Most contaminants really don’t alter the taste much (if at all)! That’s where PUR’s Know Your Water website comes in so handy! It’s the first (and only!) totally free online resource that gives you access to the largest collection of US water quality data. It pulls data from more than 98% of all the public water systems in the US so you can easily see what’s going into your home, schools, hospitals, restaurants, and more.
How to Get to Know Your Water
Getting to know your water is easy with PUR’s website. Just type in your address and it does the rest! If you’re on a private well, I still recommend checking your water because your local restaurants, health care providers, and more use it. Give it a few seconds to fetch the data on your water before it loads to the report.
If you look at the screenshot above, you’ll see what I learned about my local water. I’m not sure if we should be proud that our lead levels are lower than county and state averages or shocked that it’s there in any amount. Honestly, I was shocked. We all know lead isn’t really something you’re supposed to ingest. It’s especially dangerous for our children! ANY amount of lead can be hazardous to your health. As you read your report, click on the links and exclamation points to learn more. If you click on, say “Chlorate,” a little pop-up tells you what it is and why it’s potentially bad for you.
Scroll down a bit and you’ll learn even more about your water, like exactly where it comes from, how it’s treated and more. Compared to some places, our water contaminants are on the tame side! I wanted to see what the water was like in other areas. My husband’s parents live in Indiana. In their town, the water was a bit better than ours. Then I checked out NYC. Wow, you guys, you wouldn’t believe how much lead is in the water there, not to mention the other contaminants!
I also checked Philadelphia, since it’s so close to us and we sometimes visit. Some of the water in that city actually contains steroids!
I was super shocked to learn that so many contaminants and pollutants were making their way into drinking water all over the country. For something that we can’t live without, you’d think it would be a bit, well, safer, wouldn’t you? Unfortunately, unless you can move to a place where the water is pristine (if such a place still exists), you’re kind of stuck with the water you’ve got. You can either buy bottled water (which isn’t guaranteed to be much safer than your tap water), or you can get more proactive and clean your water right at your tap with a PUR Advanced Faucet Filtration System!
Why the PUR Advanced Faucet Filtration System?
The PUR Advanced Faucet Filtration System makes it super easy and convenient to get filtered water right from your tap. Not only is PUR the best-selling brand* in lead filtration, but it also reduces over 70 other contaminants. In fact, this easy-to-install filter will reduce 99% of the lead in your water, 96% of mercury (you know, the stuff that made the Hatter so mad?), and 92% of certain pesticides.
Once I got the old aerator off of my faucet, installing the PUR Advanced Faucet Filtration System took less than five minutes. The old aerator was a bit stubborn. I was actually going to go out and buy a new faucet (I even searched for videos on how to install one, and I am semi-confident that I could pull it off with minimal flooding), but we did finally get it off. I still think I need a new faucet at some point. Thankfully, the PUR Advanced Faucet Filtration System will fit a variety of designs because it comes with 3 little adapters.
The PUR Advanced Faucet Filtration System doesn’t just clean the contaminants, it actually makes my water taste clean and pure (which makes sense, given the name!). It’s even good enough for making tea!
Clean water also benefits my pets in a major way, especially Zoe! She loves drinking straight from the faucet. We have to turn it on for her so she can get her drink. When she saw the water coming out of the PUR Advanced Faucet Filtration System, she had to come investigate. By “investigate,” I mean she refused to leave the sink and got very upset when I told her that I couldn’t have a Zo-cat in every picture.
I love how much money I’m saving versus buying bottled water! The PUR Advanced Faucet Filtration System has an MSRP starting at $34.99 (for the Chrome finish like I have, $44.95 for stainless steel). Replacement filters are $18.99. Depending on how much water you use, you should only need to replace them about every 3 months. Don’t worry, you won’t need to remember how much water you’re using. The little green light on the PUR Advanced Faucet Filtration System tells you that your filter is still good. A yellow light means it’s almost time to replace it.
A Year of PUR Giveaway
I have an awesome giveaway for you today! Enter below for a chance to win a “Year of PUR,” which includes:
- 1 PUR Advanced Faucet Filtration System
- 1 11-Cup Ultimate Pitcher Filtration System
- Replacement filters for each
- 21 oz Hydro Flask water bottle with a sports cap. The Hydro Flask will be one of their new colors, which won’t be available to the public until February 2018!
Total value: $198! Giveaway is open to US residents age 18+, void where prohibited. It ends on February 1st. Winner will be notified via email. Good luck!
Visit KnowYourWater.com to learn about your water quality and get your personalized water quality report. Come back and tell me what you learned!
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of PUR. The opinions and text are all mine.
*Based on Nielsen sales data for the 52 weeks ended 4/17/17
I would love this as I drink water every single day. We don’t drink water from the tap water so we rely on bottled ones.
This is definitely something I think about every once in awhile. You have pretty much convinced me to go ahead and check it out. So important to know about what we consume… especially our H20
Yea I am scared to think about it. We use the filtration system that is in our fridge for drinking water.
I usually opt for bottled water. I have to invest in a great water filter!
I don’t know enough what’s in water! We should all know more!
I learned that i really need to get a filter for my water
I thought NY had good water,now I’m not so sure.
My water isn’t that bad.
I learned that my water is over the EPA maximum for lead.
They can send you a report regarding contaminants in your area for the last 3 years.
I learned that i really need to get a filter for my water.So important to know about what we consume
Love ths definitely
I love that you can enter your address and it checks the water data!! Scary… there are 2 water contaminants in my water! EEEK!
Your water is pulled from a source and taken to a treatment facility. There, it is treated to reduce contaminants.
We have a private well, so there is no data for our water. It likes like the biggest issue for the city water near us is lead.
That really cool you can see the report for your provider. Looks like we will all go along with my husband and be drinking only bottled water from now on.
I learnt that my water contains lead and some other lesser known contaminants
Learned that our water has a small amount of lead in it–less than the state average, but more than national goal. We already use a PUR filter, but a faucet one would be nice.
thank you congratulations winners.
I learned that our water contains a small amount of lead and a small amount of industrial pollutants
I learned that you can enter your address and it will check the water data where you live.
I learned that at my house/area the water has had 26 reports of contaminants including 9 of them being for lead. Pretty scary stuff if you ask me!
I learned that even though water is treated at a treatment facility it still gets contaminated passing through aging water pipes on the way to your home.
Neat site!I learned our lead level is 3.0.
I learned that we get our water from Otisco Lake.
My water contains lead and some other lesser known contaminants.
This is a great link – ours comes through a treatment facility, but as it says, your water can be contaminated by old pipes, etc., esp if you have an older home.
I would love to use this in my own sick at home