The Truth About Home Water Purifiers and Filters

By the time you finished reading this you will see that all home water purifiers and filters do not provide the same quality of water. Many products that claim to treat your water do not address all three important factors in water treatment. When evaluating home water purifiers and filters you should consider these three factors for your satisfaction

• Taste and odor
• Removal of contaminants
• Demineralization

Taste

Most home water purifiers and filters will improve the taste and odor of your drinking water. If you are only concerned with taste and odor, you will be satisfied the result using many of the simpler products such as carafe filters and faucet mounted filters that use granulated charcoal filtration. The problem with this style of water filter is that their effectiveness lasts a very short time. You will end up spending more money in the long run with frequent replacement of the filter cartridges. Home water purifiers that use carbon block filters greatly improve the taste and odor and last from 6 months or more. Carbon block filters also greatly reduce the contaminants in addition to improving the taste.

Removal of Contaminants

When you compare the different types of home water purifiers and filters you will find that each type is effective in removing some contaminants and not others. Filters with activated carbon will remove Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) and Trihalomethanes (THM) (by products of chlorine.) Carbon blocks are commonly found in on-the-counter or under-the-sink home water purifiers.

A multimedia, carbon block filter, such as the products produced by Aquasana have several added advantages. A blended media is extruded or compressed into a solid form with a sub-micron pore structure to filter out sediment and cysts like Cryptosporidium and Giardia. This configuration also prevents water from channeling around the filter media as with the granular carbon filters.

Multimedia Carbon block technology is also effective in removing synthetic chemicals such as herbicides, pesticides and common pharmaceuticals that are now being found in our water supply. Reverse Osmosis, another one of the popular types of home water purifier and filters, is ineffective in removing these types of compounds. It is often recommended that one use a carbon block filter in addition to the reverse osmosis filter.

There are only two type of home water purifier systems that will remove bacteria and viruses: distillation and ultraviolet light. Distillation is not effective in removing VOC’s or many other chemicals. Neither will Ultraviolet light systems remove any of the chemical contaminants.

Is It Possible to Filter Too Much from Your Water?

Yes! For healthy water, you must filter out the impurities and leave in the natural minerals that are essential for our body’s health. Drinking water that has been de-mineralized can lead to health problems. Reverse osmosis and distillation type home water purifiers and filters remove all of the minerals present naturally in water.

So there you have it, all home water purifiers and filters are not created equal! What’s the best choice for you? Remember, any filter is better than no filter. Compare effectiveness, cost per unit and cost per gallon to come up with your best choice. I recommend a combination system that uses the multimedia carbon block filter for the most effective removal of contaminants, the best taste and leaving in the important minerals. The best system of this type that I have found for effectiveness and price are the Aquasana home water purifiers and filters.

Home Water Purifiers May Provide The Safest And Tastiest Water.

You’ve probably heard it a hundred times…Drink more water! You’ve probably heard it from your doctor, from the media and even your mother! But how many of us really know just how much water you should drink? Maybe a better question is how much water is it safe to drink? Ordinary tap water has come under scrutiny. Many people believe that home water purifiers are the only way to assure that the water they are drinking is safe and contaminant free. The decision to drink more water can lead one to research and compare home water purifiers.

How much water should you drink depends on a number of factors such as our health, a desire to lose weight, or our life style and our eating and drinking habits. Sadly, you will get a poor result if the water you are drinking is not pure; in other words, free from the many possible contaminants that find their way into our water supply. Indeed, you may be increasing the very problems you are trying solve by drinking more water! Even bottled water isn’t as safe as we’ve been led to believe. Home water purifiers are the only way to have control over the quality of the water you and your family are drinking.

How can we possible know what’s in our water? Most of the chemicals that officials now believe are in the average city tap water are undetectable by the usual methods of testing. Home water purifiers are really the only recourse we have to increase our intake of water and be confident it is safe and of good quality. How much water should you drink depends on many factors!

Increasing the intake of pure water will enhance virtually every aspect of better health. For years I’ve been told that how much water should you drink is a "minimum" of 8 eight once glasses of water each day. If the goal is to maintain a minimum level of health, this eight glass rule is correct. If the goal is to achieve an enhanced level of health, we must consume some level of water above our minimum daily needs. A few of the factors that increase our need for water include the regular consumption of caffeinated beverages, alcohol and sugary foods (well that might be us all!) There are many common ailments that surprisingly have been found to quickly disappear with drinking water.

The world we live in today is much different than it was 70 years ago when the '8 x 8 rule' (eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day (about 1.9liters) was first published in medical journals. The difference now is each day we are exposed to a multitude of toxic chemicals and environmental pollutants that didn’t exist 70 years ago. We are exposed to many of those pollutants in our water supply.

We also live more hectic and stressful lifestyles. WE also consume processed and preserved foods. All these factors require an increased intake of healthy water to offset the damage. Water is the body’s only fluid that flushes out toxins and wastes. Certain health and lifestyle factors interfere with our ability to deal with toxins. Their presence is a call for increased water intake. If the water we are drinking also has toxins, the body cannot do the job of healing and maintaining itself effectively!

Let’s face it, if you're going to drink more water, isn’t better to be sure your drinking water that’s good for you too? Your next step? To take what you’ve just learned and spend some time comparing home water purifiers. After you do, you will realize, as I do now that that there are only a few really good products on the market.


Jayne Bell is the editor of http://www.howmuchwatershouldyoudrink.com. She is fascinated by the many ways in which water is critical to good health and has researched extensively the subject of pure water, home water purifiers, and the health benefits of water. To receive the mini-course, "Five Amazing Ways to Relieve Common Health Problems with Water" go to http://www.howmuchwatershouldyoudrink.com