Choose Home Water Filters Based On Truth - Don't Let These Lies Cause You Uncertainty
Making and selling home water filters is big business. Is there any surprise that there are plenty of lies floating around in this industry? When choosing a home water filter, start with a list of the things you need. Then shop around your favorite store to find a list of drinking water purifiers which can fulfill these needs. After that, check the NSF database to make sure the claims made by the manufacturer about their water filters are true. Knowing about the different technologies used for the purification of drinking water in your home can be helpful, but is secondary to the steps described above. Anyway, below is a list of the lies commonly told about drinking water filtration.
Lie #1: Carbon home water filters and reverse osmosis water purification do not get rid of microbes. Only UV technology can achieve this.
Truth: Most municipal water supplies are chlorinated to kill microbes. Only the cysts of Giardia lamblia and Cryptosporidium are immune to chlorine water treatment. Both of them can be removed by any reverse osmosis home water filter. Carbon home drinking water filters can also remove these cysts, but they need to be rated 1 micron or smaller. UV technology does not actually kill these cysts. They merely deactivate the genes needed for Giardia lamblia and Cryptosporidium to procreate.
Lie #2: It is very easy to maintain your home water filter. All you need to do is change the filters every 6 months.
Truth: The frequency for changing the water filter cartridge varies depending on the cleanliness/dirtyness of your water supply as well as the quality of your home water filter. Obviously, the more dirty is your tap water, the more often you need to replace your water filter cartridges. Less obviously, the better your home water filtrations system, the faster it becomes clogged up with sediment and other contaminants, the sooner you need to replace your water filter cartridges.
Truth: Seeing someone else demonstrate changing the water filter cartridge always looks simple. Doing it yourself for real six months later, the first time, especially if you have lost or misplaced the manual, can be a nightmare.
Truth: The better the quality of your home water filter, the more complicated the replacement procedure is. Consider the Consumers Digest best buy, the Aquasana water filter. Besides replacing the water filter cartridge, you also need to replace the O-ring seals. Preparing the new parts, removing the old parts, correctly placing the new parts so that they can form a proper seal ... everything needs to be done precisely according to instructions for the drinking water filtration to work according to specifications. If you are not able to follow the instructions in detail, you are better off with the partial protection of the cheap Culligan faucet water filter instead.
Lie #3: Water filter pitchers are not effective at purifying your drinking water. They only remove some of the chlorine and lead, and do not remove other chemicals and cysts at all.
Truth: The true capability of the pitcher depends on the specification. For example, there are high-end PUR and Brita water filter jugs which can remove chlorine, lead, mercury, herbicides, pesticides, nitrites, nitrates and cysts. Of course you have to pay more for these more capable water filter cartridges.
Lie #4: Chlorine gas was so poisonous to human beings that it was used as a chemical weapon. Now it is in our water supply. Studies also show that drinking chlorinated water can cause certain types of cancer.
Truth: Chlorine was one of the first poison gasses used in World War One. Some soldiers died from it. But both the German army and the Allied armies stopped using it because it was not powerful enough and it was also difficult to use. Modern water treatment plants do not use chlorine gas for killing germs in our drinking water. They use several different chemicals which slowly release chlorine when mixed with water. The concentration is high enough to kill germs but not high enough to harm most people.
Truth: When there are organic compounds in the water during the chlorination process, potentially carcinogenic compounds like trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids can form. However, for this reason, part of the water treatment processs involves the removal of organic compounds before the chlorination process. In addition to that, there are government regulations which require regular monitoring of the levels of these carcinogenic compounds in the municipal water supply.
Lie #5: The most expensive and least effective water filter against chlorine is reverse osmosis.
Truth: Reverse osmosis drinking water filters are the most expensive means of decontaminating drinking water. However, it is also one of the most complete ways to decontaminate your drinking water.
Truth: Some types of reverse osmosis home water filters use filter materials that degrade or rot in the presence of chlorine. That is why a good RO filter will have a cheap carbon pre-filter to remove the chlorine.
Lie #6: The best filters for home use balance the mineral content by using an ion exchange system.
Truth: "Balance the mineral content" is marketing speak. It doesn't actually mean anything.
Truth: Resin ion exchange systems remove heavy metals, nitrites and nitrates by ionizing these dangerous chemicals and then replacing them with ions of safer chemicals.
Lie #7: If you buy my XYZ brand home water filter, it will enhance the pH balance of your drinking water and you will have these beneficial health effects.
Truth: Normal drinking water is supposed to have a pH of 7. That means it is not acidic and also not alkaline. Any water that is not at pH 7 means that it has been contaminated by some chemicals. Any decent home water filter should remove these chemicals and bring the pH balance of the water back to 7.
Lie #8: Resin ion exchange systems remove harmful lead and copper by replacing them with useful sodium and potassium ions. They will also remove all other types of contaminants.
Truth: Resin ion exchange systems can remove lead if that is what they are designed to do. They can also remove copper if that is what they are designed to do. However, there is no guarantee that a resin ion exchange unit rated to remove lead can also remove copper and vice versa. Ditto with any other chemicals involved (e.g. nitrites and nitrates). How they work, i.e. what they use to replace the lead ions or copper ions also depends on the design and is part of the manufacturer's patent. In other words, it is a commercial secret. What is known about these systems is based on expired patents and results of early academic research and development.
Lie #9: Reverse osmosis water purification will not remove contaminants like pharmaceutical drugs because they are smaller than water molecules and will not be blocked by the porous membrane of the filter.
Truth: Water is H2O, which means it contains 2 hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atoms. Apart from gaseous molecules, water is one of the smallest molecules around. Salt is NaCl, which contains 1 sodium atom and 1 chlorine atom. Salt will not pass through the RO filter. Any pharmaceutical drugs are long chain molecules. Ditto with any organic chemicals like herbicides and pesticides. These are all even larger molecules than salt. That means they, too, will not pass through the porous membrane of the RO water filter.
Lie #10: Prolonged consumption of RO-purified water or distilled water can lead to multiple mineral deficiencies.
Truth: This will only happen if you specially and deliberately eat foods which do not contain any nutrients for a prolonged period of time. Most people get most of their trace minerals from their food.
Lie #11: Reverse osmosis home water filters are only effective at removing chlorine and some other dangerous chemicals.
Truth: Look at Lie #5 and Lie #9.
Lie #12: There are many health concerns with drinking demineralized water over the long run. Demineralized water is a mildly acidic liquid, so drinking this over the long-run has adverse effects on your health.
Truth: See Lie #10.
Truth: One of the digestive juices inside your stomach is hydrochloric acid.
Truth: Whether demineralized water is mildly acidic or mildly alkaline largely depends on which guru you follow or which salesman is trying to sell you his brand of home water filter.
Lie #13: The reverse osmosis membrane cannot remove farm or factory runoff. Only carbon-based home water filters can do this.
Truth: See Lie #3. What was said about water filter pitchers also applies to carbon-based water filters.
Truth: See Lie #5, Lie #9 and Lie #11 about RO filters.
Truth: Pure carbon-based home water filters cannot remove heavy metals and nitrites/nitrates. However, they are good at removing sediment, chlorine and organic chemicals. They are also reasonably cheap. That is why most high-end point-of-use home water filters use carbon filters to do most of the water purification and add an ion exchange unit to remove specific contaminants like lead, copper, mercury, nitrites or nitrates.
As you can see, there are many lies being thrown around about home water filters. What is actually said depends on which salesman and which company he represents. It can actually be pretty funny when a salesman selling drinking water purifiers using two different technologies (e.g. carbon water filters and RO water filters) gives contradictory facts.
When you want to buy your own home water filter, remember the basics. Start with your requirements. Find the models of home water filters which fit those needs. Check the NSF database to confirm that the product specification is actually certified to meet your needs.