Why your shower smells of chlorine.
Melbourne's mains supply is disinfected with chlorine, and hot water in a closed bathroom lets that chlorine escape into the air. Your water is safe. Filter it with carbon where the mains comes in and the smell is gone from every shower and tap in the house.
In short.
You can safely drink and shower in Melbourne mains water. The smell is the disinfectant that protects it on the way through the pipes, and you notice it most in the shower because heat and spray let it out fast.
There are two ways to deal with it. A shower filter treats one shower head, partly, and its cartridge lasts a few months. A whole-home carbon filter at the mains inlet treats every shower, bath, tap and appliance, and its cartridges last about a year. The Eco Purify Home System has a 5 micron sediment stage and then two 20 inch carbon stages. A licensed plumber installs it and provides a compliance certificate, and your first 12 months of cartridges are included.
Carbon reduces chlorine, taste and smell. It will not remove fluoride, soften your water or disinfect it. If you need any of those, tell us when you enquire and we will give you a straight answer on whether this system suits. Here is how each of the three stages works.
Where the chlorine smell comes from.
It is added deliberately, and a little of it is supposed to make it all the way to your tap.
The smell is there by design. Melbourne Water treats the mains supply with chlorine at the treatment plant and leaves a small residual in the water, so it stays disinfected all the way through the pipe network to your home. That residual is what reaches your nose. Melbourne mains water meets the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines, and the residual is part of how it does.
How strong it is changes from day to day and from suburb to suburb. If your water has come a long way from a treatment plant, or has spent time in a reservoir or tank, some of the chlorine has usually gone. If you live near a plant or a re-dosing point, there is more of it. Levels are often lifted after mains works and in warm weather too, and that is when most people first pick up the smell.
Under the guidelines, the health-based limit for chlorine is 5 milligrams per litre. Most of us can smell or taste it at around 0.6 milligrams per litre, a small fraction of that limit. So a strong smell is not a sign that the water is outside the guidelines.
Why it is strongest in the shower.
Hot water, fine spray and a closed room. That is all it takes.
Chlorine sits in the water as a dissolved gas. Hot water pushes it out, and a shower head splits that hot water into fine droplets with a large combined surface area. You get both effects together, in a small, closed room full of steam. Pour the same water cold into a glass and the smell is much weaker.
It also explains why a kitchen tap filter or a jug in the fridge makes no difference to the shower, the bath or the laundry. Shower water comes straight out of the hot water system, and the hot water system is fed by unfiltered mains.
Chlorine, skin and hair.
This is about comfort, not safety.
Chlorine oxidises. In a hot shower it reacts with the natural oils in your skin and hair. That is why some people get out feeling dry, tight or itchy, and why coloured hair can fade or turn brittle earlier than it should. People with sensitive skin or eczema often say their skin settles down on holiday or on tank water.
That is a comfort issue, not a safety one. Chlorine at drinking-water levels is not a health risk for washing, and if you have a diagnosed skin condition, your GP or dermatologist is the right person to ask, not a filter company. What carbon filtration gives you is comfort: steam without the chlorine smell, and water that feels on your skin and hair the way soft rainwater does.
Shower filter or whole-home filter?
Each one cuts chlorine at the shower head. Where they differ is how much they remove, how long they last, and what else in the house gets treated.
| Comparison point | Shower head filter | Whole-home system |
|---|---|---|
| Coverage | A single shower head. The bath, basins, laundry and kitchen still get unfiltered water. | The whole house: every tap, shower, bath and appliance, plus the hot water system, filtered once where the mains comes in. |
| Chlorine reduction | A compact cartridge, usually KDF or calcium sulphite. At full flow and shower temperature, water spends only a fraction of a second in it. | Two 20 inch carbon stages. Cold mains water moves through them slowly before it gets to the hot water system, so contact time is longer and reduction is more complete. |
| Hot water | Works on water that is already hot. Carbon does a poorer job in heat, so most shower filters leave it out. | Works on cold water ahead of the heater, which is where carbon does its best work. |
| Sediment | Usually a minimal sediment stage or none at all. Grit still gets to the shower head. | A 5 micron pleated sediment stage sits before the carbon and keeps shower heads and aerators clear. |
| Cartridge life | Usually a few months per cartridge, and nothing to tell you when it has run out. | Usually 12 months for the carbon stages. The pressure gauge tells you when a change is due, and your first 12 months of cartridges are included. |
| Flow and pressure | Puts a restriction right at the shower head, which can cut flow noticeably. | Built for whole-house flow with 25 mm connections, so pressure stays up with several taps running. |
| Fitting | You screw it onto the shower arm yourself. No plumber needed. | Installed on the main supply by a licensed plumber, who issues a plumbing compliance certificate. |
For a rental, or a home with one bathroom, a shower filter is a fair fix. If you own the place and want the smell gone at every outlet, bath included, one filter at the inlet is the easier answer. Read the full system specifications or the common questions before booking.
Carbon: what it takes out and what it leaves.
For chlorine, taste and smell, activated carbon is the right choice. For several other jobs people expect of it, it is not.
What carbon reduces
- Chlorine, along with its taste and smell
- Many of the organic compounds behind earthy, musty or chemical tastes
- Chlorine by-products such as trihalomethanes (reduced, not eliminated)
- Sediment, rust and grit, caught by the 5 micron sediment stage before the carbon
What carbon leaves in
- Fluoride. Carbon does not take fluoride out, and this system is not built to. For fluoride-free drinking water at one tap, you need a reverse osmosis unit at the kitchen sink, and we can quote that as an add-on.
- Hardness and dissolved minerals. Melbourne's water is soft, so this is rarely an issue, but a carbon filter does not soften water.
- Nitrates, salts and most dissolved metals.
- Viruses and bacteria. The system depends on the mains supply already being disinfected. If you are on tank water that could carry bacteria, you also need a UV stage.
What a whole-house fix costs.
A single fixed installed price across Melbourne metro, then an optional yearly charge if you would like us to look after the cartridges.
The installed system costs $2,499, including GST. For that you get the three-stage system in its weatherproof cabinet, three cartridges already fitted, the bypass valve and pressure gauge, installation by a licensed plumber, the plumbing compliance certificate, and replacement cartridges for the first 12 months. Read whole house water filter costs in Melbourne to see how that stacks up against other quotes.
From year two, the Care Plan is $299 a year. You get a reminder, a fresh cartridge set delivered before it is due, and our plumbers fit it in Melbourne metro. Cancel anytime.
Installed price, Melbourne metro
$2,499
Send us a photo of your meter area and we will confirm your fixed price, usually on the same day.
Chlorine in shower water: your questions.
Plain answers you can use. If your question is not covered, give us a call.
Is showering in water that smells of chlorine safe?
Yes. Chlorine is what keeps Melbourne mains water safe, and levels across the network sit well within the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines. What you smell in the shower is chlorine coming out of warm water as a gas. It does not mean the water is unsafe.
Why is the chlorine smell stronger in the shower than at the kitchen tap?
Two things: heat and spray. Warm water holds less dissolved chlorine, and the shower head breaks it into fine droplets that let the chlorine escape fast into a small, closed room. Run the same water cold into a glass and the smell is far weaker.
Do shower filters take out chlorine?
Some of it. Carbon performs poorly in hot, fast-flowing water, so most shower filters use KDF or calcium sulphite media instead. The water touches the media for a fraction of a second, so reduction is only partial. Cartridges last a few months, and you are treating just the one shower.
Does a whole-home filter fix the chlorine smell in every shower?
Yes. We fit the system where the mains comes into the house, before the hot water system. Every shower, bath, basin and appliance then gets water that has already gone through two carbon stages while cold. Carbon reduces chlorine taste and smell. It does not remove fluoride.
What if my area uses chloramine rather than chlorine?
Some networks use chloramine, a combination of chlorine and ammonia that lasts longer in the pipes. Activated carbon reduces it too, just more slowly. That is another reason to use large 20 inch cartridges with long contact time instead of a small shower filter. Give us your suburb when you get in touch and we will check your supply.
When will the chlorine smell come back?
Carbon fills up gradually. In most Melbourne homes the carbon stages are replaced once a year, and your first 12 months of cartridges come with the installation. On the Care Plan, we send the next set and a plumber to fit it before the smell can creep back.
Ready for showers without the chlorine smell?
Send us your suburb and a few photos of your meter area. We will come back with the fixed installed price, usually the same day.