Chloramine in Tap Water: What It Is, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It

If you’ve looked up your city’s water quality report and seen the word “chloramine,” you’re not alone in wondering what it means. And if nobody has clearly explained how it differs from chlorine or why it matters for your shower, read on.

Chloramine is increasingly common in US municipal water. It behaves differently from chlorine, it affects your skin and hair differently, and most shower filters aren’t built to handle it. Here’s what you need to know, written in plain language.

What is chloramine?

Chloramine is a disinfectant made by combining chlorine with ammonia. Water treatment plants use it to keep water safe as it travels through miles of pipe network from the treatment facility to your home.

It does the same basic job as chlorine: it kills bacteria and pathogens in the water supply, keeping your tap water safe to drink. But the way it does that job is fundamentally different, and that difference becomes relevant the moment the water reaches your shower.

There are three types of chloramine (monochloramine, dichloramine, and trichloramine), but the one used in water treatment is almost always monochloramine. When your water report lists “chloramine,” this is what it’s referring to.

How chloramine is different from chlorine

Chlorine is volatile. It breaks down quickly when exposed to air, heat, and organic matter. That’s why you can smell it when you run the tap, why it dissipates if you leave a glass of water sitting on the counter, and why a hot shower fills the bathroom with that chemical pool smell. That volatility also means standard filtration media can break it down effectively.

Chloramine is the opposite. It’s designed to be stable. It doesn’t evaporate as quickly, doesn’t produce the same strong smell, and resists being broken down by the same processes that handle chlorine. This stability is exactly why water utilities prefer it: chloramine stays active in the pipes for longer, keeping water disinfected over greater distances.

But that stability also means standard shower filter media (activated carbon, redox media, calcium sulfite) struggle to reduce chloramine at the flow rates and short contact times that a shower operates at. These media were designed to handle chlorine’s volatile, reactive nature. Chloramine’s tighter chemical bond requires a different approach.

The short version: chlorine is easier to smell but easier to filter. Chloramine is harder to detect but harder to reduce.

Why cities are switching to chloramine

The shift from chlorine to chloramine has been underway across the US for decades, and the pace has accelerated. The reason is straightforward and well-documented.

When chlorine reacts with naturally occurring organic matter in the water supply, it can form disinfection byproducts (DBPs). The most commonly discussed are trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs). These byproducts are regulated by the EPA under the Safe Drinking Water Act, and utilities face penalties for exceeding the allowed limits.

Chloramine produces far fewer of these byproducts. It also stays effective in the pipe network for longer, which means water remains properly disinfected even in systems with long distribution distances or aging infrastructure. From a public health standpoint, chloramine is a more efficient, longer-lasting disinfectant with a better regulatory profile.

That’s why more than half of large US water utilities now use it as their primary disinfectant. The switch is driven by regulatory compliance and public health, not by any shortcoming in chlorine itself.

Which cities use chloramine?

Chloramine is used in a large and growing number of US metropolitan areas. Some of the most notable include:

•  Washington, D.C.

•  San Francisco, CA

•  Denver, CO

•  Philadelphia, PA

•  Portland, OR

•  Tampa, FL

•  Dallas–Fort Worth, TX

•  Parts of the Greater Los Angeles system

•  Parts of the Greater Boston system

•  Minneapolis–St. Paul, MN

This is not a full list. Treatment methods vary by utility and can change over time. The only reliable way to know is to check your local water quality report, also called a Consumer Confidence Report (CCR). Your water provider is required to publish one every year.

If you’re renting, your landlord or property management company should be able to tell you which water utility serves the building. The utility’s website will have the report.

What chloramine does to your skin and hair

Chloramine affects skin and hair in ways that overlap with chlorine, but because chloramine is harder to detect by smell, many people never connect their symptoms to their water.

On skin

Chloramine strips the natural oils (sebum) that form your skin’s moisture barrier. This barrier is what keeps water in and irritants out. When it’s disrupted, skin can feel tight, dry, or rough after showering. For people with eczema-prone or already-irritated skin, chloramine exposure during a hot shower can make symptoms worse.

Because chloramine doesn’t gas off as readily as chlorine, it stays in the water longer and maintains more contact with your skin during the shower. In some ways, this makes it more persistent on the skin’s surface than chlorine.

On hair

Chloramine can contribute to dullness, dryness, and a straw-like texture over time. Color-treated hair tends to fade faster because chloramine, like chlorine, is an oxidizer that reacts with hair dye. Your scalp may feel itchy or flaky, and these symptoms are easily mistaken for dandruff or a reaction to your shampoo.

The pattern many people describe is this: “My hair looked great for a while, then gradually got worse, and switching products didn’t help.” If the timeline aligns with moving to a new area or a change in your local water treatment, chloramine is a strong possibility.

Can a shower filter reduce chloramine?

This is where most shower filter brands get it wrong and where we’re going to be honest about the limitations.

Standard shower filter media (activated carbon, redox media, calcium sulfite) are designed to reduce chlorine. They do that job well, typically reducing 90% or more of free chlorine at normal shower flow rates. But chloramine’s chemical stability means these same media are far less effective against it. The contact time between the water and the filtration media in a shower filter is simply too short to break chloramine’s bond reliably.

If your water contains chloramine, the filter formulation matters. The Aquabliss SF400 Daily Revitalize+ Shower Filter is our strongest option for more complex water chemistry. It contains double-dose Vitamin C ceramic beads and 40% more active filtration media than the Daily Revitalize, making it better equipped for demanding water conditions.

The Daily Revitalize also contains Vitamin C media and is a solid choice for everyday city water use. For consistently challenging water chemistry over the life of the cartridge, the Daily Revitalize+’s higher concentration of active media makes it the better match.

We won’t claim every filter in our range handles chloramine equally, because that wouldn’t be true. We’d rather tell you which one gives you the best result and let you make the right choice for your water.

How to find out if your water has chloramine

This takes about five minutes and costs nothing.

Step 1: Search “[your city] water quality report” or “[your city] consumer confidence report.” Your water provider publishes this annually and it’s available on their website as a downloadable PDF.

Step 2: Open the report and look for the “Disinfectant” or “Disinfection” section. It will list either “free chlorine” or “chloramine” (sometimes listed as “monochloramine”) as the primary disinfectant.

Step 3: Note the reported levels. Chloramine is measured in mg/L (milligrams per liter). The EPA maximum allowable level is 4 mg/L, but most systems run between 1.5 and 3.5 mg/L.

If your report lists chloramine as the primary disinfectant, your shower water contains it. There’s no way to detect it by smell alone at the concentrations used in municipal water, and TDS meters won’t pick it up either (they measure dissolved mineral salts, not disinfectants).

What you can do

If your water contains chloramine and you’re noticing skin or hair symptoms, here are the most practical steps:

Choose a filter designed for more demanding water chemistry. The Aquabliss Daily Revitalize+ (SF400) is our strongest option for chloramine-treated water. Its double-dose Vitamin C ceramic beads and 40% more active filtration media than the Daily Revitalize make it better equipped for complex water conditions than a standard filter.

If you’re on well water, the Aquabliss SF220 Daily Essential Shower Filter is the recommended starting point. It’s the only filter in the Aquabliss range approved for well water use.

Replace your cartridge on schedule. Keeping to a 3–6 month replacement cycle keeps filtration consistent. In areas with more demanding water chemistry, leaning toward 3 months is a good idea.

Shorten your shower temperature ramp-up. Hot water opens pores and hair cuticles, increasing the surface area exposed to chloramine. Slightly cooler water reduces absorption and exposure.

Check your report annually. Water treatment methods can change. What was chlorine last year could be chloramine this year, especially in systems that are expanding or upgrading their infrastructure.

The honest summary

Chloramine is a safe, effective water disinfectant. It does its job in the pipes and keeps your water supply free from harmful pathogens. But like chlorine, it wasn’t designed with your skin and hair in mind.

If your water supplier uses chloramine and you’re experiencing dryness, irritation, or gradual changes in your hair and scalp, your water quality is worth investigating. The connection is easy to miss because chloramine doesn’t announce itself the way chlorine does.

Aquabliss won’t tell you we solve chloramine with every filter in our range. We will tell you which filter gives you the best chance of reducing it, and we’ll tell you how to check whether it’s in your water in the first place. That’s what transparency looks like.

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