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Why Does Your Tap Water Smell More of Chlorine Some Weeks?
It is not your imagination. Australian utilities keep chlorine in the water at a level meant to last from the treatment plant to the last house on the network, and they say themselves that how noticeable it is can change with the seasons, the time of day, how close you live to a dosing point and which supply your suburb is on. A hot shower makes it easier to notice again.
Why the smell can change with the seasons
Icon Water, which supplies Canberra, says chlorine may be more noticeable over different seasons or at different times of day, and calls changes to chlorine levels normal. TasWater says the same of the “swimming pool” smell in Tasmanian water: it can vary with the seasons, with maintenance work and even with the plumbing in your own house.
TasWater also gives the numbers. Most people start to smell chlorine at around 0.6 mg/L, some as low as 0.2 mg/L, and TasWater says it sometimes has to keep levels above that so the water stays disinfected all the way to the tap. It typically keeps chlorine below 1.0 mg/L and monitors it around the clock. Why any chlorine is left in treated water at all is covered in why tap water still contains chlorine after treatment.
Heat, and why you notice it in a hot shower
Icon Water names the shower directly. Chlorine may be more noticeable when water is heated, “such as when you run a shower or bath”. So the same supply can smell faint in a glass from the kitchen tap and obvious in a hot shower with the door shut. The chemistry behind it is on the chlorine smell in your shower.
One city, several sources
SA Water describes water starting its journey to your property “from one of many sources”, and treats it according to where it came from. Water Corporation adds chlorine to all of its supply sources.
The disinfectant can differ between supplies as well. SA Water has used chloramine in parts of South Australia since the 1980s, including the Mid North, Yorke Peninsula and the southern Adelaide Hills, and says chloramine lessens the distinct smell and taste some people notice with chlorine. Two suburbs of one city can sit on different supplies and notice quite different things. SA Water’s suburb search tells you how your own water is disinfected.
Where you sit on the network counts too. TasWater says the smell is more likely if your home is close to a dosing point, or where little water is moving through the pipes.
What the Canberra, Tasmanian, South Australian and Western Australian utilities say
- Canberra, Icon Water: chlorine at its treatment plants, and no chloramine at any point of treatment or distribution. More noticeable when heated, over different seasons or at different times of day.
- Tasmania, TasWater: chlorine, typically kept below 1.0 mg/L. More noticeable near a dosing point, and it can vary with the seasons, maintenance and household plumbing.
- South Australia, SA Water: chlorine or chloramine, depending on the supply. Chloramine lessens the smell, and the suburb search gives your own answer.
- Western Australia, Water Corporation: chlorine in all supply sources, with chloramination on the Goldfields and Agricultural Supply Scheme from Mundaring Reservoir. It says the taste and smell come from chlorine reacting with natural organic compounds in the water.
The chlorine you meet in the shower
Icon Water and Water Corporation both suggest the same kitchen fix for the taste: a squeeze of lemon juice. Icon Water gives the reason. Lemon juice contains ascorbic acid, which can neutralise chlorine. Ascorbic acid is vitamin C.
Every Suhae shower filter cartridge uses that chemistry at the shower head instead of in a jug. Vitamin C converts free chlorine and chloramine into chloride, so it works on whichever one your supply carries this week. The full comparison is on chloramine and vitamin C.
Each Vita Refill holds 25,000mg of vitamin C. The lab result behind it is KEWI certificate IW-230133: 99.9% chlorine removal, with chlorine still undetected at 6,000 litres.
Suhae Radiance holds the cartridge inside the head, fits a standard shower fitting and installs in about 2 minutes with no tools. Refills are AUD $29.90 in ten scents, and each one lasts two to three months, depending on how much the household showers.
The chlorine level at your tap will keep shifting from week to week. A Suhae shower filter takes it out at the shower head either way.
