Sick of your water tasting like chlorine, or worried about the purity of your tap water? Or do you just want to save money on bottled water? There are several types of drinking water filters on the market right now, and each has strengths and weaknesses.
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.
Though it's not quite a drinking water filter, you may have an ultraviolet filter added at the end of your reverse osmosis water filter, particularly in places that have contaminated water. A good UV filter will destroy any living contaminants, ensuring that your supply of water is as clean as possible. So the best reverse osmosis water filters actually have three different filters in a series to ensure the purity of your drinking water supply.
Similar to activated carbon drinking water filters is a ceramic water filter. These are based on the same ideas behind commercial water filtration, and use diatomaceous earth to remove contaminants from water passing through them in a similar fashion to activated carbon. The water that comes out is as good as water 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.
About the Author:
Trent Barrett is a consultant who reviews water filters at whole House Water Purifiers. You can visit their homepage to learn more about Home water Purifiers.
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