20 years ago, I remember that one of the water products sold in the market was the mineral water purifier. You would buy rocks and pebbles in a container, and that you would purify and mineralize your water by letter water pass through the container.
Fast forward to today, the technology for water purification has become so vast. There are so many options where the common labels are of the following: RO or Reverse Osmosis, UV Sterilization, Ultra Filtration, Microfiltration, Alkaline Waters, Mineral Water, Kangen Water and the list goes on.
To narrow down the rationale why you would get water filters and purifiers for your home, you would need to look into what needs to be filtered out of your water. And this is also the reason why Water Purifiers have several stages of filtration to make sure that these contaminants are safely removed from your drinking water.
4 Important Stages of Filtration:
Normally the first stage would be separating the big solids like dust and sediments from water. This is very common and should be included in all water purifiers.
The 2nd stage separates a functional water purifier from the rest. Make sure that your water purifier has a high quality Carbon Block filter to remove dangerous substances like heavy metals in the form of LEAD, COPPER, ARSENIC; Synthetic chemicals like fertilizers and pesticides and other Pollutants like RUST, FUEL and even CHLORINE — which by default is used to treat our municipal water.
The 3rd stage removes Bacteria and Viruses. The notable filters that are capable of removing bacteria and viruses are the RO (Reverse Osmosis), Ultra and Nano Filters. Micro filters only remove bacteria, but not all viruses because the filter membranes are not small enough.
The 4th Stage filtration usually installs a UV Sterilization Unit so that after bacteria and viruses are strained in the filters, it gets killed and destroyed so that they won’t multiply in colonies inside your water purifier.
So with that settled. Let me now move to the 4 Top Considerations of choosing your Water Purifier for your Home
- Filtration Technology
If the water filter or purifier will not be able to meet the 4 Stages of filtration I mentioned above, better think if the Water Purifier is worth buying regardless if the price is just very cheap. Make sure to have Ultra Filtration as a minimum standard to safeguard your family’s drinking water.
- Ease of Installation
Let’s face it, some of us are really not cut out to do the dirty job of installing home
equipment. Plug and play is no longer just a term for computers, but also for water purifiers as well. There are some well-packaged water purifiers that can be installed in just 3 minutes without the need to do plumbing work on your kitchen sink/faucet. LED indicators tell you when you need to replace your filters so that you won’t end up with smelly water that seems to be more contaminated than tap water.
- Price / Cost Savings
Some Water Purifiers seem to be at the affordable price range of an electric fan or a microwave oven (Php 1,500 to Php 6,000). These water purifiers give substantial filtration, but the long term safety of your water is hard to maintain because it’s hard to know when you need to change your filters. Also these are sometimes hard to install and bulky.
In the price range of a basic 10cubic Refrigerator (Php 15,000 to Php 18,000). You can now get a more sophisticated water purifier. But do take note of the price of the filter cartridges, water smelling like chlorine, or sometimes the amount of water wasted by some RO purifiers.
The price range for an inverter Air-conditioner (Php 30,000 up) is for me the ideal quality for water purifiers. This type of water purifiers offers Ultra Filtration with UV Sterilization to make sure that your water is very safe for consumption even for new-born infants.
- Healthy Water
Did you know that over-filtering water is not healthy? When you remove all the
minerals in water, it would be bad for your health long term. Drinking distilled water or water without minerals may be good for a week or two to detoxify your body, but long term is not healthy for your body.
I hope that this article has been informative. To see more visual information about the importance of water filtration and the types of filters for water purifiers, and a recommended UV Ultra Purifier Unit, kindly check this link: www.uv-waterpurifier.com