What Are the Best Water Purification Systems For Home Use?

There are a number of water purification systems on the market. Do you need one? And how do you go about choosing the right one for you and your family?

These are two important questions you'll want answered before you spend your money on the wrong thing.

Let's take the first question, first.

Why You Need a Water Purification System!

Unless you've been living on some other planet, I'm sure you've been reading about the information that's come out recently about the lack of quality of our municipal water supplies.

Over 90% of U. S. water systems contain traces of at least 10 synthetic chemicals and lead. A report done recently by Ralph Nader stated, "after reviewing over 10,000 pages of EPA documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act...[it was found that] over 2,300 chemicals that can cause cancer have been detected in U. S. tap water."

A number of scientists believe that this rise in carcinogenic chemicals found in our water supply correlated with the rise in cancers over the past fifty to one hundred years.

A big part of the problem is the age of our water treatment plants, and the technology they use.

Most water treatment plants in the United States are fifty to one hundred years old. Some even older!

They were designed to purify our water of things like cholera, not high-tech pesticides.

Most of our water is purified by letting the water settle through sediment to get out the particulate matter, then it's sterilized by injecting an amount of chlorine in the water.

The chlorine kills any bacteria that can cause disease. The chlorine is, however, actually left in the water after it leaves the treatment facility. This is done because the transit time from the treatment plant to your house could be as long as a week or more. In that time, your water could become re-contaminated.

The problem here is you actually drink the trace amounts of chlorine when you drink tap water. That's certainly better than getting sick with cholera, but there has to be a better way!

You're right, there is!

Now, before you run off thinking that bottled water is going to save you from drinking all of these contaminants and toxins, think again!

Unfortunately, most bottled water comes straight out of a tap, just like your water. As a matter of fact, there are fewer restrictions on the quality of bottled water than there are on the quality of tap water!

The bottom line: you need to re-filter your water at the tap before you drink it.

How to Choose the Right Water Purification System

There are a number of water purification systems out there. Some work better than others. Oddly enough, some work too well!

There are also whole house filters, filters you attach to one faucet, and water pitchers that filter water. Which one should you use?

Most pitcher filters use a water filtration system that's too simple. They just can't get out all the stuff you need filtered out!

If you're just interested in filtering the water you drink or cook with, then you might want to consider filtering the water from just one tap. Drinking water, however, is not the only way you get water-born impurities into your body!

Your skin is actually your body's largest organ! We don't usually think of our skin as an organ, like the liver, but it is!

We both discharge and absorb toxins through our skin. When you take a shower, for instance, the hot water opens up your pores allowing impurities in your water to seep in.

To sum up, you might want to really consider filtering all of the water in your house, either with a whole house filter, or with a filter for each tap and for each shower head.

Some of the technologies used in water filters are granular activated carbon filters, metallic alloy filters, microporous ceramic filters, carbon block resin filters, and ultra-thin membranes.

The best water filters on the market use a combination of these technologies to filter and purify your water.

One thing you need your filter to do is to leave in the trace minerals naturally found in water so that it tastes good and so that we get these minerals into our bodies. Minerals like calcium are necessary to our health, and drinking water with trace amounts of calcium in it is one of the ways our bodies acquire that mineral.

There are a number of water purification systems to choose from. What you need now is an informative website you can use to further educate yourself.

These are two important questions you'll want answered before you spend your money on the wrong thing.

Let's take the first question, first.

Why You Need a Water Purification System!

Unless you've been living on some other planet, I'm sure you've been reading about the information that's come out recently about the lack of quality of our municipal water supplies.

Over 90% of U. S. water systems contain traces of at least 10 synthetic chemicals and lead. A report done recently by Ralph Nader stated, "after reviewing over 10,000 pages of EPA documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act...[it was found that] over 2,300 chemicals that can cause cancer have been detected in U. S. tap water."

A number of scientists believe that this rise in carcinogenic chemicals found in our water supply is correlated with the rise in cancers over the past fifty to one hundred years.

A big part of the problem is the age of our water treatment plants, and the technology they use.

Most water treatment plants in the United States are fifty to one hundred years old. Some even older!

They were designed to purify our water of things like cholera, not high-tech pesticides.

Most of our water is purified by letting the water settle through sediment to get out the particulate matter, then it's sterilized by injecting an amount of chlorine in the water.

The chlorine kills any bacteria that can cause disease. The chlorine is, however, actually left in the water after it leaves the treatment facility. This is done because the transit time from the treatment plant to your house could be as long as a week or more. In that time, your water could become re-contaminated.

The problem here is you actually drink the trace amounts of chlorine when you drink tap water. That's certainly better than getting sick with cholera, but there has to be a better way!

You're right, there is!

Now, before you run off thinking that bottled water is going to save you from drinking all of these contaminants and toxins, think again!

Unfortunately, most bottled water comes straight out of a tap, just like your water. As a matter of fact, there are fewer restrictions on the quality of bottled water than there are on the quality of tap water!

The bottom line: you need to re-filter your water at the tap before you drink it.

How to Choose the Right Water Purification System

There are a number of water purification systems out there. Some work better than others. Oddly enough, some work too well!

There are also whole house filters, filters you attach to one faucet, and water pitchers that filter water. Which one should you use?

Most pitcher filters use a water filtration system that's too simple. They just can't get out all the stuff you need filtered out!

If you're just interested in filtering the water you drink or cook with, then you might want to consider filtering the water from just one tap. Drinking water, however, is not the only way you get water-born impurities into your body!

Your skin is actually your body's largest organ! We don't usually think of our skin as an organ, like the liver, but it is!

We both discharge and absorb toxins through our skin. When you take a shower, for instance, the hot water opens up your pores allowing impurities in your water to seep in.

To sum up, you might want to really consider filtering all of the water in your house, either with a whole house filter, or with a filter for each tap and for each shower head.

Some of the technologies used in water filters are granular activated carbon filters, metallic alloy filters, microporous ceramic filters, carbon block resin filters, and ultra-thin membranes.

The best water filters on the market use a combination of these technologies to filter and purify your water.

One thing you need your filter to do is to leave in the trace minerals naturally found in water so that it tastes good and so that we get these minerals into our bodies. Minerals like calcium are necessary to our health, and drinking water with trace amounts of calcium in it is one of the ways our bodies acquire that mineral.

There are a number of water purification systems to choose from. What you need now is an informative website you can use to further educate yourself.

To learn more about water purification systems visit my website!

R. Lee Cole is an avid health and exercise enthusiast who loves to make his research available to everyone via the Internet. Check out Lee's website for more information about this important topic.

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Quality Residential Water Filtering Systems Can Clean All Of The Drinking Water In Your Home

There are many benefits of having residential water filtering systems. Some of these benefits might be obvious to the average consumer, while others are less commonly known. This is due to the fact that many people do not realize just how bad their tap water is to their health, and their wallet.

The best way to see the benefits of installing whole house water filtering systems is to take a look at the effects of unfiltered common tap water. The most obvious, and most common, complaint about tap water is taste. Almost any filer system that you get for your home or drinking water will improve the taste of the water.

Another common complaint about tap water is odor. Water should not have any odor at all. Unfortunately, most tap, especially in major metropolitan areas, has a definite odor that makes drinking the water extremely unappetizing. Any residential water filtering systems on the market will correct this problem as well.

There are many, less obvious effects of unfiltered tap water. It contains harmful toxins such as chemicals from pesticides as well as harmful organic compounds. Most whole house water filtering systems will filter out these toxins, which have been linked to some forms of cancer and other health problems.

A residential water filtering system can also help with skin conditions and help you have healthier hair. Tap water contains high levels of chlorine. Chlorine will dry out the skin and hair, making you more perceptible to dermatological issues such as acne. Eczema and psoriasis can also appear or worsen, especially in children. Most water filters for the home or shower eliminate or lessen the chlorine in the water you use when you bathe and shower.

Using filtered water for showering and bathing can also help your skin and your wallet in other ways. When you use residential water filtering systems that restore the PH balance in the water, you will find that you get much cleaner and are able to rid yourself of the soap film left by tap water. This soap film can cause dermatological problems to appear or worsen. It also saves you money, because PH balanced water requires less soap for cleaning.

Unfortunately, not all whole house water filtering systems are the same. Most of these filters are single filter or single stage systems. While these systems remove chlorine and most organic compounds from the water, they also strip the water of valuable minerals that are actually good for you and essential to your health. They also tend to let through more of the synthetic chemicals such as herbicides and pesticides. Additionally, you will not find a PH balance in most of the water from these systems.

The best residential water filtering systems are those that that will perform well in all aspects, and address all of the concerns about tap water at one time. The systems that do this best are those with two filters. Each filter has its purpose, and together they clean the water to a level better than any other system.

Two filters are used with these systems: one of copper and/or zinc, and one of carbon. The carbon filter is that used on most residential water filtering systems. It cleans the water of some organic compounds, chlorine, and can restore the PH balance in the water. The filter of copper and/or zinc cleans the water of synthetic chemicals and other contaminants.

Many whole house water filtering systems use a carbon based filter, reverse osmosis, or distillation. Some multi stage water filtering systems use reverse osmosis in conjunction with a carbon based filter. While this is better than reverse osmosis alone, the process still strips water of its natural properties and minerals.

It is only when the carbon and copper and zinc filters are used together that the best results will be achieved. In order to reap all of the benefits of residential water filtering systems, you should make sure that the system you choose has a dual filter using metals and carbon.

Martin Spencer is a health researcher who has been studying water filtration for over 25 years. He is a regular contributor to Water Purification Guide, a site dedicated to various methods of treating and purifying water. Learn about whole house water filtering systems on our site.

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Why Reverse Osmosis Water Systems Are Not Ideal For Home Water Purification

Reverse osmosis water filtration systems can certainly remove some of the harmful contaminants from your drinking water. However, many of the smaller toxins are not filtered out. Also, this type of filter takes out important trace minerals such as calcium and magnesium, leaving water devoid of its therapeutic value. That's why reverse osmosis is not the way to go for home water filtration.

It is highly important for you to start thinking about water and the many contaminants that reside in it. If you think that the water you drink from the tap or buy in bottles from the store are filtered enough, think again.

There are over 2,000 cancer-causing contaminants in the water coming from our water taps. This is the water you drink, cook with and shower in. Owning a filtration system for your home is the best way to ensure that the water you drink is clean and healthy. With this said, many consumers struggle with what type of system to invest in.

There are multi-stage units, distillers, purifiers and reverse osmosis water systems. Research shows that multi-stage water filters are ideal, but people continue to buy RO systems as they are unaware of the drawbacks.

As stated before, reverse osmosis water systems strip water of its natural minerals. When consumed, this water can cause negative things to happen to our bodies. First of all, water that lacks minerals is more acidic. Therefore, our body will pull minerals from other areas of our body, such as our teeth and bones to neutralize this abundance of acid. The second downfall of drinking this water is that this overabundance of acid increases our risks of cancer. This is because free radicals increase when our bodies aren't as alkaline as they should be. These free radicals are what lead to cancer.

Alkaline water has the most minerals. Therefore, that's what we should be putting into our bodies.

Making our bodies acidic goes beyond just drinking water by the glass. Showering in contaminated water is 2 to 3 times more toxic than drinking one glass of unfiltered water. If reverse osmosis water systems aren't able to remove the contaminants from the water we drink, they won't be able to remove the contaminants from the water we shower in either. This scary, but true fact makes it very clear how unhealthy unfiltered water can be for us.

The phenomena of reverse osmosis water systems began over 40 years ago, when this water was needed for industries such as printing and photo processing companies. These two industries were in need of mineral free water for the type of work they produced. Although this water continues to work for these purposes today, it is not healthy for human consumption, especially if you plan on making a habit of it.

Exposing water under pressure to a semi-permeable membrane starts the process of creating reverse osmosis water. This membrane has a very fine pore structure, which tends to reject certain contaminants, minerals and a large part of the water during the process. This strips the water of its inorganic compounds and trace minerals, leaving behind water that can be damaging to your body over time.

Synthetic chemicals are also contaminating our water. As mentioned earlier, reverse osmosis water systems remove contaminants based on molecular size. These synthetic chemicals have molecules much smaller than water molecules, making them impossible to be removed by this process.

Look for multi-stage water filter systems that eliminate the maximum amount of toxins while keeping the trace minerals in. Also, be sure to look for a performance data report detailing all of the contaminants removed.

Reverse osmosis water filtration is definitely not ideal for your family's heath...there are much better choices available.

Martin Spencer is a health researcher who has been studying water filtration for over 25 years. He is a regular contributor to Water Filtration Guide, a site dedicated to various methods of treating and purifying water. Learn about drawbacks of reverse osmosis water systems on our site.

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Water Filtration Systems - Making Your Water Safe

Once thought of as an unlimited natural resource, water is now one of the most essential products in demand. Although a rising world population has led to an increased demand for water, it is not the leading reason why it is a threatened precious resource. Water contamination has led to a reduction in the amount of usable water. Sewage, pesticides, agricultural run off, nitrogen fertilizers, and other pollutants are threatening pure underground water supplies.

Changes to our Water Supply

In order increase water usability, water supplies have to be treated with many chemicals to prevent illnesses and bacterial diseases. The effects of chemically treated water have led to many health risks. From drinking to showering and swimming in our pools, chemically treated water has produced serious health risks. Researchers have determined that taking long hot showers has led to an increased exposure to dangerous chemicals. As well, Elderly, people with certain vitamin deficiencies, and people with heart and kidney problems are more susceptible to the toxic effects of fluoride.

Water Filtration Systems: Making Your Water Safe

With the growing data demonstrating chemicals in our water as a health hazard, consumers are looking for natural ways to purify their water. The result has been an increased demand for water filtration systems and natural ways to sanitize water for pools. Filtered water has a number of health benefits. Reduce airborn chemicals by removing them from your water. When chlorine and other chemicals are removed from water used for washing, they are no longer embedded in clothing. Removing chlorine from the water used in dishwashing prevents chlorine vapors from being released into the air. Using a house water filter can alleviate the effects of asthma and allergies by providing cleaner air to breathe in the home.

Water Filtration Systems

To combat water chemical contamination, a number of water filtration systems are now on the market. Reverse Osmosis (RO) Water Filters contain a membrane that permits pure water to pass while preventing larger contaminants from passing through. The unfiltered water stays on one side of the membrane and the filtered water passes through to the other side. The main disadvantage is that there a lot of wasted water. Distilled water filtration systems work by boiling water, cooling it, and then condensing it back to liquid leaving contaminates behind. These systems use a lot of power making them expensive to operate.

Wellness Water Filters

Many people are not aware of the negative effects of chemically treated shower water on the skin and lungs. Hot water opens up skin pores so we end up absorbing and inhaling chlorine and other chemicals. Purifying your shower water is just as important as purifying your drinking water. The Wellness Filter turns the water from your faucet into pure and healthy water. Removing chemical impurities from shower water eliminates the harmful effects of chemicals like chlorine. Using an enhanced filtration system, wellness water filters provides a healthy balance of minerals, antioxidants and negative ions to your shower water. The enhanced water helps improve skin conditions like eczema, psoriasis, and dry skin. Wellness water also cleans better and leaves hair more manageable and healthy. The Wellness Shower reduces up to 99% of chlorine for up to 24 months

Salt Water Chlorinators

To eliminate the use of chemicals to sanitize pools, salt water chlorinators are fast becoming a healthy choice. A small amount of natural salt is dissolved into the pool water. Electrolysis separates the salt water into its basic elements, sodium and chloride. Pure chlorine is produced and works in the cell chamber to sanitize the pool water. It keeps your pool water constantly sterile and healthy. There are no periods of unhealthy chlorine levels and no dangerous chlorine compounds. By extracting excess hard elements such as calcium, the feel of the water is improved and protects the pool equipment.

Tap Water

Tap water is not the dangerous substance that bottled water companies often claim. Recently, the town of Montpelier, Ohio was voted as the world's tastiest tap water. Three communities in British Columbia, Canada were also ranked as having the tastiest water among 32 waters from 13 U.S. states and three Canadian provinces. Filtering out chlorine and other chemical contaminants before drinking is the best way to know the quality of your water. When you factor in the advantages of lower cost, convenience, and quality, water filtration systems are a practical and healthy alternative to bottled water.

Healthy Choices for You and Your Family

Water is a necessity for all life. Unfortunately, human involvement has drastically reduced the amount of usable water. Luckily, the use of safe and effective water filtration systems and natural sanitization systems have helped many people and their families combat the hazards associated with chemically treated water.

After doing extensive research, Isabella learned how beneficial natural salt is and about it?s many uses, as well as how it can be used to help people look and feel better. This prompted her to create http://www.natural-salt-lamps.com and help thousands of people.

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Effects Of Water Softener Discharge on Septic Systems

There are over 20 million households in the United States currently using on-site septic systems, and that number appears to be growing. We get many questions from our customers as to what effect (if any) water softener discharge has on a these systems. With such a wide range of information and opinions available, we felt that it was appropriate to examine some of the studies on this topic, and try to accurately present an overview of current understanding.

The Septic System and Water Softening Process

Septic system function is very straightforward. Your homes plumbing is piped into a in-ground storage tank. When wastewater enters this tank, the heavier solids settle to the bottom. Bacteria present in the storage tank digest the solids, breaking it down to a liquid. After this process is complete, relatively clear water is discharged from the primary tank into a second holding tank or distribution box. Water then re-enters the surrounding soil through a drainage field consisting of perforated underground piping.

The water softening process is accomplished by a chemical cation exchange that replaces the calcium and magnesium in your water with a equivalent number of sodium or potassium ions. During the softening process, your household water passes through the resin bed, and the magnesium and calcium contained in the water are removed. A given sized resin bed has a fixed capacity to remove hardness before it needs to be regenerated to full capacity in order to continue to provide softened water (for example, one cubic foot of resin has the ability to remove 32,000 grains of hardness from your water). When the resin bed is nearing exhaustion, the control valve washes the resin bed, and draws salt containing solution from the brine tank through the resin. As the salt contacts the resin bed, the process of ion exchange occurs, and the magnesium and calcium (hardness) that was collected in the bed during operation is washed to drain. After a final rinse to remove the excess salt, the resin bed is again ready to provide softened water.

The concern of discharging water softeners into an on-site septic system arises out of a belief that sodium salts used by water softeners during the regeneration stage - or the increased amount of water entering into the system - may be harmful and possibly cause septic systems to fail. Although there is no scientific data available that supports harmful effects, there have been many investigations into the potential for problems to occur.

The Effect of Sodium Salt on Septic Systems

Common knowledge supports that higher levels of sodium salt can have a direct impact on bacterial life forms. For instance, most bacteria usually found in fresh water ecosystems would be unable to live in a high salinity environment like an ocean. For this reason, concern was generated that septic systems that rely so heavily on bacterial action may be effected by high concentrations of sodium.

These concerns seem to be unwarranted. First, a typical residential sized water softener discharges between 40 and 70 gallons of water per regeneration. Through much of the regeneration process, fresh water is discharged, containing no salt at all, so the total concentration of salt is very dilute. However, during some stages of regeneration, the sodium concentration can reach as high a 5,000 to 10,000 ppm for brief periods of time.

To see if this level of sodium effected microorganisms typically found in aerobic on-site septic systems, a study was performed that exposed these microbes to a worst case scenario of 10,000 ppm brine solution. The study concluded that "there were no statistically significant differences in the metabolic activity of the microbial community", and that it was "unlikely that failures in domestic water treatment system are the result of exposure to the brine from home water softeners." (1)

Other studies indicate that the effect of putting softened water into septic system can actually be beneficial. There is a very low amount of sodium contained in softened water. For every grain of hardness removed, approximately 8 ppm (parts per million) of sodium is added. Although some naturally occurring water sources have very high sodium levels, softened water normally has a slightly elevated sodium level vs. untreated hard water. While this concentration is normally insignificant at typical hardness levels, these higher sodium levels are more in the optimal range for septic system bacterial growth, and can promote bacterial development.(2,7)

The Effect of Increased Water Volume from Water Softeners on Septic Systems

While the volume of water discharged by a water softener during the regeneration process will vary depending on water pressure, pipe diameter, and softener design, water softeners typically use 40 to 70 gallons of water during regeneration. Questions have been raised as to what effect this increased volume of water (hydraulic load) may have on septic system performance. Did the flow rate and volume of water softener entering the system during water softener regeneration adversely effect the normal settling process, and allow solids to enter the drain field?

Investigations by NSF International determined that the additional volume of water due to softener regeneration is not sufficient to cause any harm to septic tank systems. In fact, water softener regeneration flow rate and volume is lower than the typical discharge from an automatic washing machine.(3) Further, old style "time clock" based water softeners regenerated as set on a calendar basis, normally one to two times per week - the newer generation of metered (on demand) water softeners measure household water consumption, and only regenerate as needed - this further reduces the amount of water discharged into the septic system.

The Effect of Water Softener Salt Discharge on Percolation in Septic Drain Fields

There has been some anecdotal evidence that sodium added to septic systems by a water softener may have negative effects on the ability for the drain field soil to percolate properly.

Many studies have been performed to investigate this issue (2,4,6), and seem to indicate that water softener regeneration discharge does not interfere with drain field percolation, but may actually improve percolation in finely textured soils. This may be due to a higher calcium concentration found in softener regeneration discharge. When this "calcium rich" water enters the drain field, it sometimes increased the porosity of the soil (dependent on the type of soil present), improving the percolation process. To further support this finding, gypsum, another calcium rich material, has long been used for this same purpose.

Conclusions and Recommendations

The results of our review are corroborated by a fact sheet published by the Environmental Protection Agency(5), that points out the following:

a) High concentrations of calcium and magnesium in the softener backwash water have no deleterious effect on the biological function occurring in the septic tank and may, in some cases, be helpful.

b) The additional volume of wastewater generated is added slowly to the wastewater stream, and does not cause any hydraulic overload problems.

c) Soil structure in the soil absorption field is positively affected by the calcium and magnesium ions in water softener effluent.

Based on a detailed evaluation of information and studies performed in this area to date, we conclude that water softener regeneration discharge does not negatively impact common on-site aerobic septic systems. Slightly elevated levels of sodium in regeneration discharge do not seem to effect septic system microorganisms, and may indeed benefit the septic process.

Other matters seem to play a much more important role in proper septic tank function. You should always minimize the amount of household cleaners that enter the waste stream. Whenever possible, reduce the use of soap and harsh chemical cleaners, and consider "natural" products containing low levels of phosphates. If you already have a water softener installed, remember that you can reduce the amount of soap use substantially - by as much as 50% to 75% - soap no longer has to work as hard to remove the minerals already removed by a water softener. Avoid using a garbage disposal with an on-site septic, as minimizing these types of organic wastes will reduce the load on the system. And finally, reduce when possible the amount of water flowing into the system from showers, baths, washing machines and dishwashers.

Work in this area is on-going, and a symposium discussing this issue is scheduled for March, 2006 in Chicago. A joint task force has been established between the Water Quality Association (WQA) and the National Onsite Waste Recycling Association (NOWRA) to plan and oversee joint activities and investigate any future findings. Failures of specific on-site septic systems will also be examined by this task force in order to determine the cause.

In conclusion, and after reviewing a range of scientific studies to gain a present-day understanding of this issue, it appears that owners of onsite septic systems can continue to enjoy the benefits that softened water provides, without concerns of system damage.

Bill Cordonna is president of CAI Technologies, based in the Philadelphia, PA USA area. CAI is composed of two groups, the Catalyst Technology Group and Water Treatment Group. Founded in 1991, the company is a global provider of environmental systems and consulting services for emission control and water treatment. Bill can be reached at 215-679-0470 or by email at cordonna@gmail.com

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Which Water Purification Systems Are Best? - A Comparison of the Three Most Common Technologies

Fresh water is essential to our health and comfort. Not only do we rely on it to stay hydrated, we use it in many other ways including bathing, cleaning and cooking food, and laundering our clothes. Fresh water has long been a concern of both public communities and private individuals, and several different water purification systems and treatment technologies have been developed to help ensure that tap water is safe for human consumption. But how do these different technologies compare?

Whether you get your water from a well or a city system, water sources can become contaminated by bacteria, runoff, and improper treatment. Even if water isn't contaminated, it may contain iron and other hard minerals that cause discoloration and can build up in the body, or chlorine that leaves an unpleasant odor and taste. Consequently, many people choose to treat or filter their water to improve flavor and protect against contaminants.

Chlorine is commonly used by municipal water treatment plants and is effective in killing many different bacteria. However, it is not effective against some organisms such as Cryposporidium and Giardia. Both of these organisms can be found in lakes, rivers, and ground water and can cause serious intestinal illness.

As mentioned, many people feel that chlorine leaves an unpleasant taste and smell. In addition, there have been numerous cases where the city water supply became contaminated despite the fact that it was treated. People with city water supplies often use other water purifiers and home water filters to ensure that their water is pure and tastes good. The three most common options are carbon filters, reverse osmosis water filters, and ultraviolet light water purification.

Each of these technologies uses a different approach to treat water, and they each have different levels of effectiveness against various contaminants. One may work well to remove chemicals but be completely ineffective against bacteria, and vice versa.

In reality, there is no single filter or treatment that will eliminate every contaminant from your water. The best approach is to have your water tested for contaminants and then purchase a home water purifier that guards against the particular contaminants that cause you concern.

Another option is to combine treatment technologies. Most higher-end systems use a combination of carbon filters and one of the other treatment technologies to achieve the best results. Let's look at the different technologies to see where each is effective.

Carbon Filters

Carbon is one of the most powerful absorbents available and it has been used for many years as a means of removing impurities. The absorbing powers of carbon can be further enhanced by adding a slightly positive electrical charge. This is known as activated carbon, and it is used in many standard home water filters. As the water passes over the positively charged carbon, the negative ions of the contaminants are drawn to the surface of the carbon granules and removed from the water.

Activated carbon filters typically use granular activated carbon (GAC) or powdered block carbon. Both work well for filtering and purifying but carbon block filters have been shown to remove more contaminants. Either type of activated carbon filters help reduce or remove a wide variety of contaminants, including:

o volatile organic chemicals (VOCs)

o pesticides and herbicides

o chlorine, radon, and other chemicals often found in tap water.

All of this protection comes in a relatively inexpensive package. You can purchase carbon filter systems that fit on your faucet for about $30, or you can choose a whole house water purification system that utilizes carbon filter technology for around $100.

However, unless they are densely compacted, most carbon block filters are not effective at removing heavy metals or bacteria. For this reason, many people consider combining carbon filters with one of the other types of water purification systems.

Reverse Osmosis Water Filters

Reverse osmosis, also known as hyperfiltration or ultra-filtration, was developed with U.S. government funding as a means of desalinating ocean water. A reverse osmosis water purifier uses a semi-permeable membrane that allows pure water to pass through it, while contaminants are trapped by the tiny pores in the membrane.

The process requires that the water be pressurized to help force it through the membrane. Most standard residential water systems have sufficient pressure. Like activated carbon filters, reverse osmosis also uses charged particles to help filter out impurities.

The effectiveness of a reverse osmosis water purifier depends on the density of the membrane. A membrane with larger pores will obviously let larger impurities pass through. It is also important that the membrane be cleaned regularly for proper functioning.

Higher quality reverse osmosis water filters use a process known as crossflow to allow the membrane to continually clean itself. Crossflow directs some of the water downstream from the membrane, sweeping the rejected contaminants away so they do not build up and block the membrane.

There are two types of membranes commonly used in reverse osmosis water filters --Thin Film Composite (TFC) and Cellulose Triacetate (CTA). TFC membranes are noticeably more effective the CTA membranes but they tend to be less resistant to the deteriorating effects of chlorine. This problem can be avoided by using an activated carbon pre-filter to remove the chlorine first.

Reverse osmosis water purifiers come in different sizes and styles including countertop and whole house water purification systems. They are capable of filtering out a long list of contaminants including:

o chlorine and other treatment related products

o bacteria

o salts, sugars, proteins

o dyes

o heavy metals

One drawback of reverse osmosis water filters is that they are more expensive than carbon filter treatment systems, with the average home system costing around $300. Also, the purification process is usually somewhat slow due to the use of pressurized water. It can take an entire day to produce 15 gallons of purified water. And a typical reverse osmosis water purifier may need up to 8 gallons of untreated water to generate a single gallon of purified water.

UV Water Purification

As the name implies, ultraviolet light water purification systems use ultraviolet (UV) light to treat water and render microorganisms harmless. The UV light comes from a high intensity lamp that is usually enclosed in a protective quartz sleeve. When water passes through the water treatment system, the UV light damages the structure of any organisms and makes them sterile.

Although a UV water purifier requires electricity to operate, it draws about the same amount of energy as a light bulb. However, the lamp bulb itself needs to be replaced every year to ensure adequate intensity.

While whole house UV water purification systems are effective on most bacteria, viruses, molds, algae and other organisms, they do not remove chlorine, heavy metals, VOCs, or other chemicals. And countertop UV systems, which expose the water to UV lighting for less time, do not always remove all organisms.

UV water purifiers average around $700 for a whole house system, making them more expensive initially than other types of treatments. In addition, without a pre-filter system, contaminants can build up and reduce the intensity of the UV lamp. For these reasons, many people combine UV water purification systems with carbon filters, which also increases the costs.

As you can see, each of the three common water treatment technologies has its advantages and drawbacks. Deciding which is best depends on your budget and the type of water contaminants you want to remove or prevent. A test of your tap water will help you determine the appropriate water filtration system for your needs.

About the Author:
C.J. Gustafson is a successful writer for Water-Filters-N-Purifiers.com, providing consumer information on home water filters and water purification systems. She has researched and compared a variety of?systems such as reverse osmosis water filters to help remove iron from her well water.

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