in Health / Wellness (submitted 2010-07-29)
Due to the state of our drinking water, interest in whole house water filters is way up, and taking an interest in ensuring clean water for your family is great so long as the filter you buy is the right one for the job.
Some unscrupulous companies out there are willing to sell you products that don’t meet your home water purification needs. Let’s take a look at what they are trying to sell you.
The goal of any countertop, under counter, or whole house filter is to aid in the removal of the literally tens of thousands of harmful contaminants that are present in our groundwater and reservoir system. The vast majority of these pollutants are chemical, but there also are toxic metals present. Further, you need to be aware of microscopic organisms that have survived the chlorine disinfection process.
Your whole house water filter or point of use units need to feature the filters necessary for the removal of as many toxic and carcinogenic contaminants as possible. You have to be careful about what you buy, because many of the filtering systems being offered do pathetically little when it comes to removing contaminants from your water. You don’t want to make the expensive mistake of buying one of these.
What you need to watch out for are those companies that are trying to push what is called a reverse osmosis filter system as a home purification system. This is the sort of system that is used by certain industries such as car washes and photography labs, because the water they use cannot contain any particulates that would ruin the finish of their products. Demineralization is what this system is designed for.
Reverse osmosis whole house water filters will remove the mineral content of your water, but will do little else for you other than waste water and electricity. The porous membrane filters these appliances use to filter your water cannot remove any of the microscopic organisms that may be present, and only due to an activated granular carbon pre-filter can they remove some of the chemical contaminants.
The filters these home systems use are no different from the ones used by the water treatment facilities, in that they cannot remove anything from your water of equal or lesser molecular weight than the water itself. Without the activated granular carbon filter, these appliances would remove nothing that threatens your family’s health. However, more than just that one filter is needed.
The reverse osmosis system of whole house water filter typically does not feature the multi media block that is supposed to work as a companion to the activated granular carbon filter to guarantee the removal of all chemicals. This system will also not use a submicron filter to remove any threat posed by microscopic organisms in your water, and an ion exchange for removing toxic heavy metal traces.
Reverse osmosis whole house water filters don’t offer you the complete protection that a system incorporating this quartet of filters does
whole house water filter system