Aquasana, a leading maker of high-performance water filtration solutions for the home, has announced the results of its fourth annual National Water Quality Survey in honor of National Water Quality Month, which found that an increasing number of Americans are choosing to filter their drinking water at home as trust in bottled water continues to decline. According to the new survey, which polled 2,246 U.S. adults in March 2022, over three-quarters of Americans (77 percent) said they use a water filter at home—an all-time high for the annual survey.
“We conduct this survey each year to keep a pulse on how Americans feel about the quality of their drinking water, including their primary contaminants of concern and the key motivators driving them to filter their tap water at home,” said Derek Mellencamp, General Manager of Aquasana, an A. O. Smith company. “Given the vital role that clean drinking water plays in maintaining good health, it’s encouraging to see how awareness around water quality issues, along with the number of Americans choosing to filter their drinking water, are consistently trending upward across the country.”
The number of people who filter their tap water has steadily climbed over the past few years, from 73 percent in 2020 to 77 percent in 2022. According to the survey, the most common motivators among those who said they use a water filter at home are the health benefits (42 percent), environmental friendliness (41 percent), and lack of trust in the quality of their drinking water (37 percent). Additionally, over one-third of Americans (36 percent) said they do not like the taste of their water.
Health is more important to Americans now than ever, and it’s impacting their water filtration habits. According to this year’s survey, over half of Americans (54 percent) polled agree they are more concerned about their health because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and 40 percent are now more concerned about the quality of the unfiltered water in their homes.
Water filters are a significantly more sustainable alternative to single-use plastic bottles. The average American uses 167 disposable bottles per year, 80 percent of which end up in landfills and take 450 years to decompose. In addition to driving Americans to filter their tap water at home, the survey also found that eco-consciousness has significantly grown as a driving force behind Americans’ purchasing behavior. In fact, almost half of Americans (45 percent) said they “always” seek out products to purchase because they are sustainable for the environment, up 67 percent compared to 2021 (27 percent).
More than half of the U.S. residents surveyed said they are concerned with the quality of the unfiltered tap water in their homes, a 50 percent increase from 2021 (34 percent to 51 percent). Additionally, two in three Americans (69 percent) think it’s necessary to filter their tap water at home, up from 63 percent in 2020. More than half (53 percent) of those surveyed cited filtered water as the most trustworthy option for clean drinking water in 2022. In contrast, America’s trust in the quality of bottled water continues to decline, dropping 24 percent from 2020.
When it comes to specific drinking water contaminants, U.S adults cited lead as their No. 1 contaminant of concern (24 percent) for the second year in a row, followed by chlorine and chloramines (20 percent), bacteria and cysts (17 percent), pesticides and herbicides (16 percent), fluoride (10 percent) and PFOS/PFOS (5 percent).
“Installing a water filter is an easy way to instantly improve the overall health and wellness of a home,” added Mellencamp. “Here at Aquasana, we’re committed to raising awareness around the importance of drinking clean, healthy water and helping people find effective water treatment solutions they can trust.”
For the full list of survey results and more insights into how Americans feel about their drinking water, visit aquasana.com.
Source: A. O. Smith
