Choosing Great Drinking Water Filters
Tap water isn't the purest water; we all know that. If you're tired of the chlorinated taste and want something better, but don't want to pay the price of store bottled water, why not pick up a drinking water filter? You can find many different types on the market today, from very simple systems that do a good basic job to complex systems that deliver bottled-water quality water to your kitchen sink.
The activated carbon drinking water filter, like Pur brand, is the cheapest. A connection that attaches directly to your kitchen sink faucet will cost you around $30, and filter replacements half or less that amount. Activated carbon filters force your tap water through layers of activated carbon; the carbon grabs onto water impurities, retaining them while allowing your purer, better-tasting water to move on through. Cryptosporidium and dangerous bacteria are among the organic contaminants filtered out by these devices, and some inorganic toxins are also removed. Beneficial minerals, like fluoride and calcium, remain in your water, giving it a clean fresh flavor and adding to your health.
If you want to remove other contaminants like chlorine or lead, you need to move up a level, to an reverse osmosis drinking water filter. These filters are very different from the carbon filters; they install under your counter, and your water generally comes from a second faucet that draws from the reservoir of purified water created by the osmotic filter. Ordinary tap water enters the filter at the back, often runs through a carbon filter, and then goes through a series of osmotic filters that allow pure water in, but block everything else. Water that still has contaminants gets rinsed out of the filter system later, and the purified water goes to the reservoir for use. These filters are so powerful they can filter salt out of ocean water, and in fact were first invented to use on submarines to provide a consistent supply of drinking water during long voyages.
Reverse osmosis drinking water filters are very slow, but produce a pretty good quantity of water in the reservoir, and it is easily of bottled-water quality. You can figure on your osmotically-purified water costing you about five cents a gallon in most places, a large improvement on buying it in the store. Water that is rejected should be directed into your gray water storage if you have one, where it can be sprayed on your garden and lawn.
Ultraviolet drinking water filter systems are often added at the end of reverse osmosis filters and other types of water filters to eliminate living contaminants like bacteria from your water. These work by shining powerful UV light into your water, killing everything in the water before it reaches your faucet. These are particularly good additions to reverse osmosis water filters; biological contaminants are one of the few things that can get through these filters, and a single plasmodium can contaminate your entire reservoir.
Ceramic filters are a type of drinking water filter that use diatomaceous earth, a natural silicon filter commonly used in commercial water treatment. This filter works similarly to an activated carbon filter, capturing your contaminants before they reach your faucet, and the resulting water is at least as good as that from an activated carbon filter.
Your perfect water filter depends on your tastes and budget. Spend a lot on bottled water? The osmotic is probably for you. Just want to filter out your tap water? A ceramic or carbon drinking water filter will probably be just fine.
Article Source: http://www.search-raven.com
About the Author
Trent Barrett is a consultant who writes for Home water purifiers. You can visit their homepage to learn more about home water purification systems
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by: TrentBarrett
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