water filter system

The tap water that comes out of your faucet is perfect. Get a filter or be a filter. Which of these two sentences are more true? Both are partially true.

In many places, tap water does not taste good. In other places, tap water has tiny amounts of substances you would not want to drink - and over a lifetime might have an affect on you.

There are many kinds of potential problems in tap water. Even if your city provides good water, it has to travel a long way through old pipes on the way to your house.

I use a whole-house ten micron sediment filter to filter all water going into my house. I change the filters every five months, and they are filthy and red-colored, because of the rust and dirt in the water. When you use a whole-house filter, shower heads and faucet screens don't clog. Whole-house filters are separate from drinking water filters.

All reverse osmosis water systems require both sediment and carbon pre-filters. All filters need to be changed. Plan on changing sediment and carbon filters every six months or sooner, and reverse osmosis membranes every 2-3 years.

It's best to buy a dissolved solids meter, and test your water every month to make sure the system is working right. Pure water will measure zero parts per million of dissolved solids. Tap water will usually measure at least 200 parts per million.

Don't get a liquid chemical test set, get a $25-$50 portable battery-operated tester with a LCD readout. These cheap meters only show the total dissolved solids in water - they do not tell you what is in the water.

Water filter systems and replacement filters are available on Ebay and Amazon, and many other places - even retail stores.

The hardest parts of installing water filters are connecting to the supply side of the water into your house, connecting to a drain line for the waste water, and installing a clean water faucet onto your sink. The rest of a water filter installation is easy.

You may need a plumber, or to buy a system where they will install it for you. The best systems have clear plastic casings, so you can see how dirty the filters get. The best systems also use standard-sized replacement filters, so you don't have to buy tiny, expensive, and proprietary filters.

Reverse osmosis water filters require both a sediment and a carbon filter in front of them, to screen out the dirt and most of the junk, before the water enters the reverse osmosis filter.

A sediment filter blocks particles larger than five or ten microns. That's an improvement over tap water, but it does not help the taste, or filter out tiny or dissolved nasty stuff in the water. The next step is a carbon block filter.

Almost all carbon block filters are activated. Activation is a process where high pressure steam is passed through coal to purify it so that it becomes almost pure carbon. Carbon is the fourth most common element in the universe, and is needed for life. Carbon makes an excellent filter, especially when extruded into a solid block.

Activated carbon block filters strain water to trap much more particles than a sediment filter can. Activated carbon filters have a positive charge to attract chemicals and impurities. As the water passes through the positively-charged carbon, the negatively-charged contaminants are attracted and bound to the carbon.

Activated carbon block filters strain out sediment, dirt, bacteria, algae, chlorine, some pesticides, asbestos, and much more. They filter sub-micron size particles, making quality water that tastes good.

The water passing through activated carbon blocks still has some particles, chlorine, nitrates, fluoride, and other dissolved junk. The next step for the best quality water is a reverse osmosis filter.

Reverse osmosis filters force water through 0.0001 micron-wide holes, through semi-permeable membranes. Long sheets of membranes are sandwiched together and rolled up around a hollow central tube in a spiral.

The reverse osmosis filter removes 99% of the remaining junk in the water. It takes almost everything out, even the calcium and magnesium in the water. Most often a small carbon filter is used after the reverse osmosis filter, to improve the taste and catch a bit more of that 1% of junk the reverse osmosis filter lets go though.

Even after sediment, carbon block, and reverse osmosis filters, water is still not perfect. Chloramines and metal ions, while reduced, may still be in the water. For this reason, some systems include a final deionizing (DI) filter.

DI filters are usually cartridges filled with plastic-like resin crystals that grab the remaining ions in the water. After the DI filter, the water is very pure.

Reverse osmosis water filter generate waste water, and they produce only a few drops of clean water per minute. For this reason, most reverse osmosis systems have a storage tank to accumulate water. All reverse osmosis systems have a drain line for waste water, that is "wasted". The waste water can be used for plants, dumped down the drain, etc.

Ultra-pure water can grow algae very easily. When you take chlorine and other nasty stuff out of water, tiny microbes and sunlight can combine to make a perfect environment to grow harmless algae.

The quality of water filtered this way is cleaner than even distilled water. Some people think pure water tastes flat. Some people add a tiny amount of sea salt to pure water. For me, no salt is needed, pure water tastes like water should.

The Internet has baseless scare stories about how ultra pure water is dangerous. Hogwash. If you inject pure water, it may hurt you. Drinking pure water does not hurt anyone unless they are fasting.

The instant that pure water hits your mouth it's no longer pure. Nothing is better for making coffee, cooking, and ice cubes, than using pure water.

My observations over 20 years show that pets, plants, and people really like it. When growing sprouts - with pure water, I found they grew twice as fast as with tap water.

The truth is that ultra-pure water is missing minerals. If you get calcium and magnesium in your diet, you are more than ok. Ultra pure water has no lead, copper, barium, or other garbage.

For me the trade-off is clear. What I want from water is water. As long as you get calcium and other minerals from food or supplements you should be fine. Also, too much copper is not good for you, so why get it in your water?

Tag : water filter,pur water filter,reverse osmosis water,drinking water filter

Water filters are available in a huge and sometimes confusing range of types and prices. The technical terms used are sometimes confusing and before making a major purchase you should satisfy yourself that the water filter has a large enough capacity to handle all your drinking water needs.

Home Water Filters vary from simple jug or bottle filters with a basic charcoal filter up to serious water processing filters that will produce crystal clear water of far higher quality than municipal tap water.

Cost is a major factor of course but there are some outstanding bargains in home water filters.

Remembering your budget, think about how much you spend every week on bottled water. Bottled water comes in either 2 litre or 5 litre plastic bottles and according to which plastic the bottler uses can have a strong taste from the plastic material. Many brands of bottled water are just bottled tap water. Municipal tap water normally contains various chemicals and possibly micro-organisms

The average family drinks from 30 to 40 litres of water every week and that works out at over $1500 a year! That is for basic supermarket bottled water â€" Fancy imported water would double or treble that cost. That would buy a pretty fancy tapwater filter.

Here is a breakdown of the different kinds of water filter available:

Jug type water filters - commonly the Brita is the most popular and is a good choice as it comes with a good filter cartridge. It is possible to use cheaper supermarket cartridges but these often leave an after taste and do not last as long. There is a counter top model which uses the same Brita filter and has a larger reservoir for filtered water/Filters last around 2 months. Most jug type filters are designed to fit into a refrigerator door. Lids on this type of filter are sometimes fragile.
Cartridges are widely available.

Refrigerator Filters - these are plumbed into a refrigerator.This is an easy to use filter that needs to be change every 6 months. Main advantage is that cold drinking water is always available on tap

Under sink water filters. These are plumbed in to your kitchen faucet and provide clean water on tap. They have the disadvantage of not removing micro-organisms. Should be changed every 2 or 3 months, Cost around $30 for new cartridge. Some units have a charcoal and a ceramic cartridge and the charcoal cartridge needs changing regularly. The Ceramic cartridge needs cleaning and can normally be reused.

Multi stage filters. These are usually a multi part filter system which may have three different filters. These are usually pumped systems so they need an electricity supply. First is a sand or gravel filter that removes organic matter (peat etc) next is a charcoal filter which cleans larger particles and is followed by a ceramic filter that filters out many micro-organisms. A refinement to this type of filter is a UV (Ultra Violet) filter that kills microbiological creatures like Giardia and Cryptosporidium which are the two main causes of stomach upsets from the water supply. Multi stage filters are basically similar to the filters used to filter water in aquariums for tropical fish but are on a larger scale. They can also be fitted as under counter units.

A further advanced filter is called the reverse osmosis filter. Although this filter produces excellent quality water, but the process is rather slow and can take a time to process enough for a large family.

Whole House Water filters are much larger but work on the same basis as multi stage water filters. They are correspondingly more expensive and many whole house water systems are designed for different house sizes. These will filter all water coming into your house and can also be incorporated with a rainwater collection system to cut down your water costs and needs. Think about how many bathrooms, toilets and water dependent machines you own (dishwasher, washing machine etc)when making your decision.

Advances in water filtration are always being made but these are the basic categories of water filters currently available

Tag : water filter,pur water filter,water filter system,reverse osmosis water

Water streams are good substitutes for bottled water because it is economical (bottled water can cost hundreds of dollars/person in 1 year) environmentally friendly (because of the absence of plastic bottles for throwing), and it is convenient to use.

Here are the different types of the water filters:

Faucet stream Filters - the filter is placed directly to the top; the advantage of using this filter is the use of block-carbon filter for good and fine filtration. It is convenient to use because of the flip lever for clasping the unfiltered and filtered water. But this type of filter has its own disadvantages; it is prone to leaks, it has to be light to keep from hanging to the spout. Water flow needs to be controlled; opening tap to full can cause high pressure that can cause the filter off from the spout.

Pitcher stream Filters - this is a type of water jug that has an added top section for holding the filter, water is placed into the top then the water flows through the filter and be collected under. The advantage of this type is the reliability and long lasting, there is no possible high pressure of water that may cause stress to the filter. It is also easy to use because there is no installation that to be required and it is portable and able to be placed inside the refrigerator.

However, the disadvantage of this pitcher water filter is the need of refilling manually; it has a limited capacity that has to be refilled every day or few times in a day; when the gravity drips, it will take longer before the stream is filtered.

Counter-top Filters - this type of filter is large and about a foot in height, there is a hose that is fixed from faucet spout in able to divert water into the filter. The valve will permit the water to flow and switched to the filter and out by the faucet.

There are lots of benefits from this water filter system, it is convenient like the faucet to use; it utilizes block-carbon filter to produce fine filtration; there is no weight and size limitation and more reliable than the faucet filter. The disadvantage of this water filter is the difficulty in attaching the filter to the water spout of faucet outlets that are not standard.

Under-Sink Water Filter - the advantage of this type of water filter is similar as the advantages that you can get from the top water filters, but the added advantage of this filter system is the filter that is placed under the sink and it does not occupy counter spaces.

The disadvantage of this is the possible water leakage, because the filter is placed between the faucet and the water mains. It is not possible for switching unfiltered and filtered water if not using two faucets and the most difficult of everything is the installation of the filter.

Tag : water filter,home water filter,pur water filter,water filter information,water filter system