How to Remove Chlorine from Bath Water

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• Want to know how to remove chlorine and chloramines from your bath?  Use Vitamin C (ascorbic acid)!
• Check out my filtration/neutralization comparison sheet for details on all the options available for purchase!

We all want safe water free from dangerous chemicals.  We also want water that is not contaminated with disease-causing bacteria.  In order to prevent contamination of our water supply, water companies will add either chlorine or chloramine to the water supply.  While I am incredibly thankful for drinking water that is free from germs, I do wish that our water was treated with less toxic options that did not put us at risk.

Both chlorine and chloramines are poisons that we inhale and absorb through our skin as we shower and bathe.  While there are affordable carbon filtration devices that significantly reduce chlorine and chloramines in water that we drink, the same is not true for showering or bathing. Unlike drinking water filters that have cool water slowly traveling through the filter, shower and bath filters must neutralize or filter chlorine and chloramines with hot, fast flowing water and carbon are rendered ineffective when using hot, fast flowing water.

Wanting to protect my little ones was the reason I sought out a way to neutralize chlorine and chloramines in our bath water.

Thankfully there are simple options for bathtubs that can immediately reduce the chlorine and chloramines to which you and your family are exposed.  

Ascorbic Acid, which is also known as Vitamin C, is one such option.  In fact, Vitamin C can so quickly neutralize chlorine and chloramines that our family can notice an immediate difference in the smell in our bathroom!  Even while using our bathroom exhaust fan to remove moisture, vapors, and clean our indoor air, a bathtub full of water that was not treated with Vitamin C, would make the entire room and hall smell like a public pool!

While Vitamin C is not the only way to neutralize the chlorine in bath water, it is the easiest way to address chloramines in our water supply.  While some water treatment plants still use chlorine, many are now using chloramines which are a group of chemical compounds that contain chlorine and ammonia.  The main reason for the transfer from chlorine to chloramine is that chloramine does not react with organic matter in the water and fewer trihalomethanes (THM) form during disinfection with chloramine. However, this does not necessarily make them a safer option and other toxic byproducts which have not yet been fully examined are still formed.  Unlike chlorine, chloramines do not readily dissipate, and they can cause nitrate levels in the water to increase. The potential release of ammonia during chloramination which causes the corrosion of lead and copper.  Most of our water supply travels through lead or copper pipes so studies are being conducted to determine if chloramine is at fault for increased lead exposure. To prevent corrosion, and therefore increased lead exposure, substances called orthophosphates are added to the water supply.  However, corrosion control methods can either be ignored or seriously flawed, and all too often people’s lives are damaged by the effects of lead as we have seen with the tragic stories coming out of Flint, Michigan.

Vitamin C reduces chlorine and chloramines in both hot and cold water.  Vitamin C reacts with chlorine very quickly and it is incredibly easy to neutralize an entire bathtub full of water almost instantly with 1000mg. of Vitamin C.  While Ascorbic acid may make the water slightly acidic, this can be beneficial to the skin as it helps to keep our skin’s natural acid mantle intact.  Vitamin C also washes away without any harmful effects on our water supply or aquatic life.

Is Vitamin C the only option for removing chlorine?

The other types of bath chlorine/chloramine neutralizers all include variations of “KDF” which a type of media composed of copper and zinc.  These metals generate a charge that converts chlorine into chloride which is considered harmless on all counts.  While KDF works well to virtually eliminate all free chlorine, and can also function in hot water just like Vitamin C, unlike Vitamin C, it must have lots of contact with the water to achieve this dechlorination.  This means that the KDF filled bath ball dechlorinators must be either swirled around the tub or hung on the spout and have the water run slowly through them in order for the to neutralize the chlorine/chloramines.

Can KDF bath balls reduce chloramines?

There are some questions as to whether or not the KDF media actually reduces chloramines and total chlorine.  Most of the tests done on KDF only look at free chlorine (chlorine that has not combined with anything in the water) and do not examine the total chlorine.  I was curious about this so I examined each of the “bath ball” manufacturers’ websites.  What I found was many of the products did not provide details regarding the percent reduction of chloramines. I contacted the companies regarding this and some replied.  The percentage reduction that the companies claimed in email responses is listed on “The List of Options” below so you can easily compare them.   What concerns me about these companies is their lack of transparency on their websites.  Some also claim reductions in things like VOCs or heavy metals.  While industrial KDF used in water treatment facilities can remove heavy metals, I have not found evidence that it is true for a bath filter. 

What to choose?

I have chosen to opt for Vitamin C as the way to dechlorinate our baths.  I chose Vitamin C because it is affordable and easy to use.  I simply use a tiny scoop to put a pinch in the bathtub before each bath and the dechlorination is almost instant.  1000 mg. of Vitamin C will neutralize an entire bathtub full of water.  While there is no fizz with pure Vitamin C like there is with the Vitabath Vitamin C tablets, it is important to remember that those are designed for the bath and do contain citric acid.  It is the citric acid which fizzes in the water and not the Vitamin C.  This fizzing action always made me feel like it was really working!  But I opted to go for the Vitamin C powder over the tablets as I wanted to eliminate the possibility that I was using GMOs in my bath water.  I purchase GMO-free vitamin C powder in bulk and we feel good about the fact that the water our kids bathe in is free of chlorine and chloramines.

Check out the list below for an easy comparison of the options and share with us what you prefer and why! You can click over here to get my body butter recipe to use after a bath.