Water purification has become our requirement and the standard in every household wherever the Quality of water cannot be relied upon. There are many kinds of water filters and purifiers available in the market. We generally want to buy the best that we can afford but surprisingly, this might not be the best choice. Choosing the correct water filter or water purifier should be based upon the kind of water supply you receive and the kind of purification that is best suited to make that water safe and handy for drinking.
Here's a useful link about various kinds of water purifiers and and filters and how you can choose one that is correct for your your home.
Water purifiers have become an essential part of homes and kitchens where the water supply is not completely pure and healthy for drinking.
Well, the most proper way to choose the right water purifier for your home will be to get the water tested and determine what kind of contaminants if any does it contain. The quality of the water in our taps will vary hugely depending on which part of the world you are living in. In most of the developed western and European nations, tap-water is quite drinkable. But in countries like India, things can be unclear.
Once again, there are few cities in India that provide drinkable water straight from the tap. These cities usually have a privatised water supply that is charged according to usage much like any other utility services like electricity. But even in other major cities where non-chargeable water supply is provided through municipal corporations, the water undergoes certain purification satges.
However, due to increased pressure on our natural resources, increasing population and increasing pollution the sources of water are getting compromised . For example, the two largest natural sources of water for any city or in the rule areas is surface water like rivers or underground reservoirs. Underground reservoirs are facing problem of depletion due to increased demand. Surface water like lakes and rivers are getting increasingly polluted due to population, industrialisation and other factors. So while basic filtration methods are used by the local municipal corporations to purify the water before sending it to your home, in some cases they might not be sufficient.
So the only real way of actually knowing what is the quality of your tap water is, it to to send it to a water testing lab. There might be one available in your city or you can always ship the sample of water to another city where such a lab is available.
In today's time, the reverse osmosis water purifier system for homes is considered to be the safest option. This is only true if you have contaminants in water like heavy metals and excessive dissolved minerals. The commonly known parameter of measuring the amount of dissolved solids in water is called TDS. While this can be easily measured using a handheld metre, what is this reading does not tell you is that what the TDS actually comprises off. It could be just minerals like calcium and magnesium or it could be something more sinister like fluoride, lead, mercury or even uranium. So once again, testing of the water in a water testing lab is required.
If you do not have a problem with dissolved solids in your water and it is not contaminated by toxins and heavy metals, the ultraviolet water purification system is actually more effective in eliminating all the bacteria and parasites in water. It is so effective that the more advanced reverse osmosis water purifier systems combined the RO technology with the ultraviolet.
An ultra-violet water purifier also usually comes with additional cartridges like activated charcoal and a sediment filter. These two are very effective in absorbing chemicals like chlorine, volatile compounds, bad odour, bad taste, rust, silt and many other kinds of impurities. So all in all a UV water purifier is not a bad option at all.
Lower down the order are more simpler water filters like gravity based water filters that are similar to RO. But they use a different membrane and instead of using electric power and a pump to force the water through a membrane, these water filters use gravity to push the water through a filtration membrane that is capable of filtering out most of the parasites and bacteria.
The caveat to using this kind of filter is that the water should be low on the TDS. Otherwise the membrane will quickly get clogged with the dissolved solids in the water such as calcium carbonate.
If you have doubts about the water supply in your home and you really want to be sure about the water that you are drinking, reverse osmosis water purifier is probably the best option.
Keep a few things in mind if you want to use an RO water purifier in your home. Firstly, buy a model that also uses ultraviolet Technology in combination with the RO.
Secondly, since a reverse osmosis water purifier depletes the removes most of the dissolved solids in water, it also tends to remove salts and minerals that are considered essential for healthy drinking water. So use And RO water purifier that uses re-mineralisation technique to add those essential salts and minerals back to the water. You will probably get healthier water in this manner.
Third, a reverse osmosis system discards a lot of water as waste. Many times there is nothing really wrong with this water because the water supply is not contaminated to begin with. Basically this discarded water can be used for anything that you use the tap water for. The only difference between the tap water and this water is that it will have a slightly higher TDS.
The exception here is RO purifiers that are very efficient at conserving water and the ratio of filtered water to discarded water is low. For example, certain RO water purifiers claim to recover more than 50% of the water i.e. for every 1 ltr of purified water, less than 1ltr will be discarded. In this instance, the TDS of the discarded water will be about double that of the original water supply. This water can still be useful if the original TDS is not very high, say less that 250. Otherwise it can be used for watering the plants etc.
If you don't want to use the discarded water for things like washing hands and utensils, figure out a way to give it back to the environment. If you have a window that overlooks the garden patch you can put the pipe out so that the water goes back into the ground.
Always choose a reverse osmosis water purifier that gives you the cleanest safest water and is the most environment friendly. Read this post for more information on how to choose the right Reverse osmosis water purifier for your home.
Here's a useful link about various kinds of water purifiers and and filters and how you can choose one that is correct for your your home.
Water purifiers have become an essential part of homes and kitchens where the water supply is not completely pure and healthy for drinking.
Well, the most proper way to choose the right water purifier for your home will be to get the water tested and determine what kind of contaminants if any does it contain. The quality of the water in our taps will vary hugely depending on which part of the world you are living in. In most of the developed western and European nations, tap-water is quite drinkable. But in countries like India, things can be unclear.
Once again, there are few cities in India that provide drinkable water straight from the tap. These cities usually have a privatised water supply that is charged according to usage much like any other utility services like electricity. But even in other major cities where non-chargeable water supply is provided through municipal corporations, the water undergoes certain purification satges.
However, due to increased pressure on our natural resources, increasing population and increasing pollution the sources of water are getting compromised . For example, the two largest natural sources of water for any city or in the rule areas is surface water like rivers or underground reservoirs. Underground reservoirs are facing problem of depletion due to increased demand. Surface water like lakes and rivers are getting increasingly polluted due to population, industrialisation and other factors. So while basic filtration methods are used by the local municipal corporations to purify the water before sending it to your home, in some cases they might not be sufficient.
So the only real way of actually knowing what is the quality of your tap water is, it to to send it to a water testing lab. There might be one available in your city or you can always ship the sample of water to another city where such a lab is available.
In today's time, the reverse osmosis water purifier system for homes is considered to be the safest option. This is only true if you have contaminants in water like heavy metals and excessive dissolved minerals. The commonly known parameter of measuring the amount of dissolved solids in water is called TDS. While this can be easily measured using a handheld metre, what is this reading does not tell you is that what the TDS actually comprises off. It could be just minerals like calcium and magnesium or it could be something more sinister like fluoride, lead, mercury or even uranium. So once again, testing of the water in a water testing lab is required.
If you do not have a problem with dissolved solids in your water and it is not contaminated by toxins and heavy metals, the ultraviolet water purification system is actually more effective in eliminating all the bacteria and parasites in water. It is so effective that the more advanced reverse osmosis water purifier systems combined the RO technology with the ultraviolet.
An ultra-violet water purifier also usually comes with additional cartridges like activated charcoal and a sediment filter. These two are very effective in absorbing chemicals like chlorine, volatile compounds, bad odour, bad taste, rust, silt and many other kinds of impurities. So all in all a UV water purifier is not a bad option at all.
Lower down the order are more simpler water filters like gravity based water filters that are similar to RO. But they use a different membrane and instead of using electric power and a pump to force the water through a membrane, these water filters use gravity to push the water through a filtration membrane that is capable of filtering out most of the parasites and bacteria.
The caveat to using this kind of filter is that the water should be low on the TDS. Otherwise the membrane will quickly get clogged with the dissolved solids in the water such as calcium carbonate.
If you have doubts about the water supply in your home and you really want to be sure about the water that you are drinking, reverse osmosis water purifier is probably the best option.
Keep a few things in mind if you want to use an RO water purifier in your home. Firstly, buy a model that also uses ultraviolet Technology in combination with the RO.
Secondly, since a reverse osmosis water purifier depletes the removes most of the dissolved solids in water, it also tends to remove salts and minerals that are considered essential for healthy drinking water. So use And RO water purifier that uses re-mineralisation technique to add those essential salts and minerals back to the water. You will probably get healthier water in this manner.
Third, a reverse osmosis system discards a lot of water as waste. Many times there is nothing really wrong with this water because the water supply is not contaminated to begin with. Basically this discarded water can be used for anything that you use the tap water for. The only difference between the tap water and this water is that it will have a slightly higher TDS.
The exception here is RO purifiers that are very efficient at conserving water and the ratio of filtered water to discarded water is low. For example, certain RO water purifiers claim to recover more than 50% of the water i.e. for every 1 ltr of purified water, less than 1ltr will be discarded. In this instance, the TDS of the discarded water will be about double that of the original water supply. This water can still be useful if the original TDS is not very high, say less that 250. Otherwise it can be used for watering the plants etc.
If you don't want to use the discarded water for things like washing hands and utensils, figure out a way to give it back to the environment. If you have a window that overlooks the garden patch you can put the pipe out so that the water goes back into the ground.
Always choose a reverse osmosis water purifier that gives you the cleanest safest water and is the most environment friendly. Read this post for more information on how to choose the right Reverse osmosis water purifier for your home.
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