It's not your moisturiser. It's Canberra's water.
A licensed Canberra plumber filters the chlorine out at your water main, before it reaches a single shower, tap, or bath. Skin stops feeling stripped. Eczema flare-ups settle. Hair stops breaking.
The water-eczema connection
Eczema is the most common chronic skin condition in Australian children, and Australia has one of the highest rates in the world. Researchers from King's College London (Perkin et al., 2016) found that early-life exposure to chlorinated, mineral-heavy bathing water was associated with damage to the skin barrier and a higher risk of atopic dermatitis. For a child whose skin barrier is already fragile, every Canberra shower and bath is another dose of the same chemical irritant. We don't make medical claims about curing eczema. What we do is filter the chlorine out at the water main, before it reaches your child's bath, so that one trigger is gone from the equation. Many of our Canberra customers report their kids' flare-ups settle within weeks of the install.
Five ways Canberra water is costing you
Tight skin, itchy bath nights, brittle hair, a chemical smell in the bathroom. Most of it is the same culprit.
You step out of the shower and your skin feels tight, stinging, almost shrunken. You're reaching for moisturiser before you've even finished drying off. It's not the dry Canberra air. Chlorine at 2.0 ppm is a strong enough oxidiser to strip the sebum your skin barrier depends on, which means water loss starts the moment you turn off the tap.
"I used to leave the shower with burning and itching on my legs. The dry skin on my elbows and knees has gone."
Children's skin is thinner and more permeable than ours, and if there's already eczema in the picture the barrier is fragile to start with. Chlorinated water makes flare-ups worse, which is how parents end up coating their kids in steroid creams just to stop the scratching at night.
"He's told me the water isn't itchy anymore and we can see his face is not dry."
Chlorine oxidises the disulfide bonds in keratin. In plain terms, it weakens the hair shaft, lifts the cuticle (which is why you get frizz and stripped colour), and washes away the scalp's natural protective oils. The salon shampoo isn't the problem. The water it's mixing with is.
"My hair feels not only cleaner but stronger and thicker. My wife's scalp doesn't itch anymore."
Hot pressurised water through a shower head turns dissolved chlorine into gas you breathe in. A ten-minute hot shower can put more chlorine through your lungs than drinking two litres of the same water from the tap. That's the tickle in the throat, the dry cough, the stinging eyes.
"I usually had a cough in the shower. Not anymore. It doesn't smell or taste like chemicals."
Canberra's water is low in calcium and magnesium, which is what "soft" means. Soft water makes soaps lather aggressively, which makes you rinse longer, which means more chlorine contact with your skin and scalp. Soft and "world-class" are not the same thing.
"Canberra's water is soft, but my skin still felt stripped after every shower."
Two ways to fix it
The right answer for households with multiple bathrooms, kids in baths, or chronic skin issues. You stop thinking about chlorine entirely because it's gone from the moment water enters the house.
Pricing tailored to your home. Quoted in writing within 48 hours of the assessment.
Doesn't fix the kids' bath. Doesn't fix the kitchen tap. But for one person in one shower, it does the job.
Pricing tailored to your setup. Quoted in writing within 48 hours.
Not sure which? The free in-home assessment tells you. Book yours →
What Canberra customers report
"My 6 year old son has been battling eczema since 6 months old. After showers he would have dry, itchy skin. He has told me the water isn't itchy anymore and we can see his face is not dry."
Verified buyer · Canberra ACT
"I have suffered with eczema my whole life and have tried everything. As soon as the filters were in, my skin cleared up. I no longer suffer from dryness and can manage my skin with moisturiser instead of harsh steroid creams."
Verified buyer · Canberra ACT
"I used to leave the shower with burning and itching sensations on my legs, needing to apply moisturiser instantly to soothe the pain. The dry skin on my elbows and knees has now gone."
Verified buyer · Canberra ACT
"Got rid of most of the chlorine smell from my shower. My hair feels not only cleaner but stronger and thicker. My wife gets eczema on her scalp but she shared her scalp feels much better and not itchy when showering."
Verified buyer · Canberra ACT
"I usually did have a cough in the shower. Not anymore. Showers don't stink like chlorine. It doesn't smell and doesn't taste like chemicals."
Verified buyer · Canberra ACT
Quoted feedback from verified Canberra households. Individual results vary. We don't make medical claims.
Who installs it
Brett is a licensed Canberra plumber. The in-home assessment is a real one, not a sales pitch with a clipboard. He looks at the water main, the bathrooms, the family setup, and tells you what's actually needed. If the answer is one shower head filter and a phone call in a year, that's the answer. If it's whole-home, you'll get the reasons in writing.
Still unsure?
Book your free in-home water assessment
Free in-home assessment, written quote within 48 hours, zero pressure either way.
