Video · Tap Water Quality
Why Does My Water Taste Bad? A Family Kitchen Story
Tap water usually tastes bad because of chlorine, minerals or something in the pipes. This family's water always tasted like a pool, then one morning it came out cloudy and foul, and they decided to find out why.
Job footageSwiftPro
- Topic
- Tap Water Quality
- Length
- 1:21
- Posted
- August 21, 2026
- Shot by
- The SwiftPro crew, Northern Virginia
What you’re seeing in this video
In a family kitchen, a teen in a green T-shirt sips tap water and makes a face while a woman cooks in the background. Tyler Griffin, SwiftPro's owner, fills a water sample jar at the kitchen sink.
The story behind it: one morning last year, while filling school water bottles, the tap water came out cloudy, like fog in the glass, with a funky smell. It eventually settled, but the bad taste and smell lasted a couple of days. On a normal day the water smells a bit like pool chlorine, and the kids rate it a four or five out of ten. That day was a negative one.
The plan at the end of the clip: a filter goes in tomorrow.
Sometime, I think it was like last year, one day we came down to the kitchen to fill the bottles like normal for our kids school, the water bottles and stuff, get ice out of the freezer, water out of the tap, and the water came out and it was like a off color. Like, I kid you not, it was like cloudy, and you put it into the glass and it would eventually like settle down, but it was like fog. Like, it was really gross looking, and it had this funky smell. Like, normally our water smells a little bit like pool water, right?
Like, chlorine, bleach, whatever. So, it's it's in there. And it doesn't have a great flavor. My kids rated it like a four or five out of 10, you know, it's not the worst thing you ever drank, but it's not good.
It's not enjoyable. But, this time I'd put it on a scale of one to 10 like a negative one. It was disgusting. It smelled funky.
I don't even know how to describe it. Just genuinely bad. It stunk. It tasted horrible.
I never found out like what happened. I should have probably been more persistent to try to figure out like what was in the freaking water. It lasted for a couple days. Eventually, like, cuz it probably was in our pipes and stuff for a while after, but whatever was in it, nasty stuff, got better eventually where it was tolerable again, but it's never been good.
My boys have been complaining about it for so many years. It's embarrassing that we've gone this long without having a filter in our house. So, we're going to fix that tomorrow. We're going to get a filter installed.
Hopefully, family's going to enjoy it having good tasting, good smelling water for once. Looking forward to it.
Why it matters in your house
- Cloudy water that clears from the bottom of the glass up within a minute is usually just air bubbles. Cloudiness or odor that lasts for days is worth a call to your water utility.
- A pool smell is chlorine or chloramine from treatment. A rotten egg smell from the hot side only often points to the water heater's anode rod, a different fix entirely.
- Before buying a filter, test the water. The right filter depends on whether the problem is chlorine taste, hardness or something else.
Why does my tap water taste bad all of a sudden?
A sudden change usually comes from outside your house: a water main break, the utility flushing lines, or a switch in treatment. Run the cold tap for a few minutes and check with your utility. If the taste never really goes back to normal, test it, because your home's pipes, water heater or fixtures may be part of the story.
Want it done at your place? See Tap Water Quality at SwiftPro or call (703) 997-9757.
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