If you have your water supplied through the town supply system, then you can be confident most of the time in the safety of your water supply. Treatment and testing for mains supply is usually carried out at the treatment plant and at some designated points through the network.
Mains water is not always consistent in quality and being safe to drink doesn’t always translate to being enjoyable to drink. The treatment process used to clean municipal water involves the use of chemicals like chlorine to kill bacteria. Chlorine has a taste and smell to it that does not dissipate which often means you can smell and taste it in your drinking water.
Mains water has to comply with the drinking water standards, however because minerals such as calcium, or silica are not a risk to our health as such, the acceptable level is still at a level that will cause scale. Scale has the potential to damage pipes and mark appliances over time as it builds up which is not easily removed. Heat will increase the speed of this process hence you will notice scale more in bathrooms, around shower heads and in your kettle for example.
We have a number of solutions for whatever your situation.