Recently, the ecology is getting worse. Due to this factor, the level of water quality has dropped significantly.
Tap water contains a lot of contaminants that are harmful to human health, namely rust, bacteria, heavy metal salts, and other elements. Boiling water only partially removes these impurities, so many people think about additional methods of protection. The installation of a water cleaning system is one of the most effective solutions. Thus, the question of how to choose a water filter arises.
How do Filters Work?
Filters are essential for every house because they help obtain drinking water that meets all norms and standards. It is a multi-stage system consisting of several elements that are responsible for cleaning at different levels.
- Mechanical filters cope with the physical removal of sand, clay, debris, rust, and many other insoluble particles from liquid. Such purifiers are part of any water filtration system. Coarse and fine filters are distinguished within this group.
- Chemical cleaning models help clean water from micro and macro elements by starting a special chemical reaction. Most often, they deal with excess iron and manganese in the liquid.
- Biological products are presented in the form of ultraviolet sterilizers; their task is to destroy bacterial and fungal compounds.
Common Liquid Contaminants
Lead is a chemical element contained in the environment. It is found in rocks, soils, natural waters, the atmosphere, living organisms. In addition, lead enters the environment as a result of human economic activity, including the tetraethyl lead used in fuel, which comes from exhaust gases. Through the atmosphere, the ocean receives 20-30 thousand tons of lead per year with continental dust.
Contamination of groundwater with arsenic is widespread. Significant arsenic contamination of drinking liquid is observed in many regions. Today it is known that at least 140 million people in 50 countries drink water with arsenic concentrations higher than the WHO recommended level of 10 μg/liter.
Human industrial and economic activity with its framing chemicals are the main reasons for the chemical pollution of liquid. Plants dump waste and wastewater into reservoirs. Treatment facilities do not retain all toxic elements.
People use pharmaceuticals in their everyday lives. The pace of medicine consumption increases. This leads to water pollution with xenobiotic compounds with a wide spectrum of biological activity. Most of the pharmaceuticals used in different spheres of causal life, medicine, and veterinary are constantly discharged into domestic wastewater unchanged or in the form of active metabolites. These drugs include antibiotics, hormones, antidepressants, analgesics, and anticancer drugs. Treatment facilities can’t effectively cope with the amount of substances and remove these compounds from wastewater, which contributes to their migration into freshwater bodies.
Fluorides are chemical compounds of fluorine with other elements. The main source of fluoride is salt in drinking liquid and food. Once in the body, they spread with blood to all organs.
Things to Keep in Mind when Choosing a Home Filter
Before purchasing goods for your living premises, be sure to consider the below-mentioned points on how to select the best whole house water filter:
- Type of the required product. They distinguish whole house and under-sink models. Different products treat only drinking liquid or all the water in the home.
- The number of bathrooms. Cleaning filters have different capacities. Thus, you should calculate how much water will pass through filtering elements.
- The number of people living in a house. This is necessary to calculate the average total of used water.
Types of Filters
- Faucet products
These are removable nozzles that are installed directly on the faucet. Depending on the type of product, its capacity may vary from 30 to 300 liters. The main benefits of such purifiers include ease of installation, low price, and compactness. However, it removes not all particles, and the water flow rate decreases.
- Shower filters
These devices effectively reduce chlorine, scale, and sulfur odors, and help prevent skin damage. Once your shower filter is installed, you will likely notice that your skin becomes softer, your hair looks better, and there will be significantly fewer streaks around your bathtub and faucet, as the tool will absorb a huge amount of minerals and potentially dangerous chemical impurities.
- Whole House purifiers
This option is installed in the plumbing system that supplies the whole house with water. Thus, filters clean all the liquid that enters the houses.
- Countertop filters
This type of purifier consists of two main elements. A small container is put into a larger one. Water flows through the cartridge from a small to a large. The filtering process is simple. Under the influence of the force of gravity, water from one vessel overflows into another. The filter element is filled with a special filler, which makes it possible to purify water. The filler is selected based on the quality of the tap liquid.
- Reverse osmosis purifiers
Reverse osmosis filters are called complete water purification systems since they absorb the maximum amount of impurities. Liquid passes through a special membrane under high pressure, but no microbes, viruses, mechanical impurities, carbon, hardness salts and the like can pass through its pores. Thus, we get almost 100%-clean liquid purified from all impurities, including microbes and viruses. Such water is absolutely safe for the human body. However, the cost of such filters is much higher in comparison with products of other types.
- Under-sink models
Such purifiers differ from all of the above options because they save space in the kitchen due to a direct connection to the water supply network. Also, a special tap is installed in the kitchen to the sink or countertop, from which you can get purified liquid. Filters that are installed under the sink have a very high potential for water purification. This is due to the fact that filtration takes place in several stages.
The quality of water depends on the type of purifier used for filtration. To get the highest quality of liquid, you need to select the most suitable filter. Now, you know how to choose the best water purifier. Remember to analyze the water that you are going to filter, as well as understand the mechanism of operation.