Aerators On Faucets And Shower Heads...

[FarangBuddha]

There have been some studies recently showing that the aerator units (plugs) found at the tip or end of many home faucets and shower-heads are major bacteria/virus traps. The studies conclude that they therefore pose a health hazard and it would be better if people removed them. The problem being that these aerator/filter plugs get gummied-up with dirt/grit/whatever from the water supply and then harmful bacteria and virus in the water attached to this flotsam and form a colony of nasty bacteria and viruses.

Then, when people shower some of the bacto/viro particles are ejected out and can be either ingested in the water or become aerosolized and breathed into the lungs/respiratory system. Once inside the body, these bacto/viro particles can cause illnesses or disease. More or less the same happens when people use water from the faucet...bacto/viro particles can again enter the body. Anyone who has ever changed a faucet or shower-head and has seen the gunk (that's the scientific term) found in the aerator/filter heads would have no problem seeing that they could well present a danger like described in the studies.

I for one have removed the aerators from my faucet heads...why take an unnecessary risk. Has anyone else done so or would you now consider it?

Edited March 21, 2010 by FarangBuddha

[chrgrims]

Sounds like good thinking to me. I had a problem with the water purity in the kitchen a while back, and we narrowed it down to the faucet. one way of solving the problem is to remove the aerator, another would be to clean the thing. we did the latter, which involved disassembling it. if someone knows a good way to clean a faucet without removing it, it would be nice to know about it.

[Daffy D]

if someone knows a good way to clean a faucet without removing it, it would be nice to know about it.

Depends on your plumbing layout, if you can turn your water mains off and have a tap or bum-gun at a lower level than the faucet then you can pour bleach into it.

First turn off the water at the mains and then open the low level tap or bum-gun to let the water level drop when you open the faucet you want to clean.

Attach suitable sized plastic pipe to the faucet and hold it up so the bleach will flow back wards into the faucet as you pour it in.

Close the low level opening so you don't loose all the bleach then pour some more bleach into the plastic pipe. At this point, again depending on your layout, you can pour in bleach till the plastic filler pipe is full, here you can then turn the faucet on and off to ensure the bleach gets to clean every corner or turn your faucet to the off position and turn the mains back on.

Turning on the mains will push your, slightly diluted, bleach in the pipes toward the faucet but there will be an air pocket so ever so slightly open the faucet to let the air out so the bleach mixture is in the faucet.

Leave for as long as you can and run the water for some time before use to flush out the bleach.

Worked for me

[FarangBuddha]

I add about a quarter cup of common household bleach to my 1000L water storage tank every 15 days. My hope is that it keeps the water fairly clear of harmful germs and gives the pipes and fixtures a slight cleaning as well.

Don't know how effective it is but if makes me feel better