Thursday 1 May 2008

Compare Home Water Purifiers Before Buying


Before buying a home water purifier, you should understand them. Purifiers are devices that will filter contaminants out of your tap water supply so you can drink pure, unadulterated water. When you compare home water purifiers, you'll quickly discover that there is a great variety of difference between the types, both in how they look and function and in what contaminants they filter out of your water. You should always purchase the one that works best for you.


When you compare home water purifiers, start by looking at how they work: do they attach to your faucet or do you use them in a special pitcher? A few home water purifiers even attach to the main line of your home, but these are not common. In each case, you should consider how you need to use your home water filter: drinking only, or cooking as well? Do you want refrigerated water anyway? Do you need exceptionally easy-to-use filters? In some cases, you can even find home water purifiers that do special things, like add flavor to your water.


Compare home water purifiers by the method used in filtering your water. Start with the two most common: activated carbon filters and reverse osmosis filters. Other filter types are the KDF-55 or the greensand iron filter; a fifth, the ultraviolet filter, is used primarily in hospitals and industrial settings. For most home water filters, reverse osmosis and activated carbon are the most likely types of filter. Each filter type has a somewhat different action on water and generally removes different contaminants.


Investigate activated carbon filters. This filter takes advantage of the very high reactivity of activated carbon to other chemicals; its slight positive charge attracts the slight negative charge of the contaminants in your water, and it draws contaminants to itself to eliminate impurities in the water. The two most common types of activated carbon filters are the granular activated carbon (GAC) and the powdered block carbon; both are excellent at purifying water, but you'll find the powdered block removes more contaminants and lasts longer. These filters eliminate radon, some heavy metals, some hydrogen sulfide, chlorine, volatile organic compounds such as pesticide, sediments, and bad tastes and odors.


While reverse osmosis purifiers are more involved to install, they also make much better purifiers, delivering water of bottled water grade. The osmotic barrier inside these purifiers is an ultrathin membrane that allows the passage of water, but not of contaminants, so that you wind up with pure water on one side and significantly more impure water on the other. Most reverse osmosis home purifiers consist of the purification system (with an activated carbon filter in addition to the osmotic filter) and a reservoir that delivers purified water directly to your tap. In addition to the contaminants removed by activated carbon, reverse osmosis purifiers remove bacteria, viruses, arsenic, chlorine, fluoride, nitrates, iron, and all heavy metals.


Never install a home water purification system unless you've checked the installation price, when and how you use your water filter, and what impurities you really need removed from your water. Once you determine this, you can start to enjoy clean pure water out of your own tap.


Trent Barrett is a consultant who reviews water filters at Best-Home-Water-Purifiers.com You can visit their homepage to learn more about Home Water Purifiers


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