Why Does My Tap Water Taste Salty?

Picture this: You wake up in the middle of the night extra-thirsty. You're too tired to head downstairs to get a glass of water from your filtered water pitcher, so you turn on the tap in the bathroom for a cup of cold water. You begin to drink it and it tastes ... salty. After checking that you didn't actually dip your cup in the ocean, you decide to get some filtered water after all.

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Why Your Tap Water Is Full of Salt

Tap water can taste salty for a number of reasons. One is that it may have an excess of chloride ions. Salt is a compound made up of sodium and chloride ions. Chloride is also a part of other compounds, like potassium chloride and calcium chloride. All these mineral compounds can give water a salty taste.

These minerals can come from the water supply in your town or city. Chloride is present throughout the environment — in rainwater, groundwater, wastewater and urban runoff, just to name a few. Water supplies can end up with an excess of chloride when seawater or snow-melting substances, like road salt, get into local water supplies. This can happen when snow melts in the spring or if your city and town is located near an ocean.

Sulfates can also be a cause of water tasting salty. Sulfates occur in nature in certain soils and rocks, and they can get into the water supply from groundwater moving through the earth.

Common Causes: Water Softener Problems

In households that have hard water — water that has an excess of hard minerals — water softeners are used to treat the household water supply. They remove hard minerals like calcium and magnesium through an ion exchange, replacing them with sodium or potassium ions. If the water softener isn't functioning properly, there may be an imbalance of sodium ions, causing the water to taste salty.

For example, water softeners need a certain water pressure to operate correctly, so if the water pressure is too low, that might cause the water to taste salty. Other potential water softener problems include clogged parts, including valves or drain lines, or adding too much salt to the unit.

If you're experiencing problems with your water softener and you suspect that's why your water tastes salty, it's a good idea to consult a professional for help. They have experience working with this type of equipment and can help pinpoint potential issues.

How to Address Salty Tasting Tap Water

The easiest way to address water tasting salty is to filter it before drinking or cooking. Unfortunately, carbon water filters don't remove chloride or sulfates from water. More advanced reverse osmosis filters, distillation and deionization processes remove chloride and sulfates.

If your water has never tasted salty before, it may be worth contacting your local water supplier. It may be a more widespread problem that needs to be addressed.

Installing a reverse osmosis filter under your sink or in your house at the point of entry will also prevent water from tasting salty because this filtering process removes sulfates and chloride.

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Is Salty Tap Water Dangerous?

According to the Quality Water Lab, small amounts of chloride or sulfates aren't necessarily harmful to your health, but salty-tasting water is definitely worth investigating, especially if you're following a low-sodium diet. In large quantities, sulfates can act like laxatives, and chlorides in large amounts can lead to high blood pressure, not to mention corrosion in your water pipes.

Regardless of the cause, salty-tasting tap water is worth looking into, whether you run some home tests, contact your local water supplier or adjust some of the settings on your water softener.