Let me ask you a simple question, does your health and that of your family concern you? Well then, consuming tap water is not a wise decision especially when you have no idea of what it contains. Drinking bottled water is expensive so really there is no excuse for you not to have a home water treatment system.
The problem is that there is a large amount of misinformation out there regarding home water filters. Therefore it's important you grasp some basic information to understand which system is best for you and your family.
The three main types of home water filters are distillation, reverse osmosis, and carbon block or granular filtration. It's important to compare cost, effectiveness, efficiency, and speed when shopping around for the best water treatment device for your home.
When it comes to cost reverse osmosis runs from around 18 to 24 cents per gallon. Distillation runs from around 20 to 26 cents per gallon. Using a home water filter is substantially cheaper than drinking bottled water or using a pitcher-style filter like the Brita, which would run you about 25 cents per gallon. However, it's possible to have a steady supply of clean, filtered water for even less.
A carbon water treatment system is the least expensive out there, costing less than 10 cents per gallon. Carbon filters are also speedy compared to other water filtration methods. Carbon filters produce up to 30 gallons of clean water per hour and don't waste any water in the process.
This makes them the best water treatment devices on the market in terms of cost and efficiency. In contrast, reverse osmosis units produce less than a gallon of clean water per hour and waste two to three gallons of water for every gallon they produce.
The best water treatment device for your home will also depend on your health concerns. Reverse osmosis and distillation were invented to produce mineral free water for the printing and photo processing industries. They started to purify water for human consumption but not without a cost to health. Drinking demineralized water can lead to numerous health problems.
Demineralized water produced by a water treatment system like reverse osmosis is an acid with a pH below 7. By drinking this your body tries to compensate by extracting minerals from elsewhere. This can lead to multiple mineral deficiencies. Furthermore, when your body is in an acid state versus an alkaline state, free radical production increases. This in turn leads to an increased risk for cancer.
The best water treatment device will remove the impurities from tap water but leave in the essential minerals. As such, the best system for the job is a carbon block filter. This system is most effective at filtering out contaminants while leaving in the beneficial trace minerals.
Reverse osmosis and distillation strip water of its minerals. These methods also fail to remove both organic and synthetic chemicals hence need to be used in conjunction with a carbon filter.
Do yourself a favor and shop carefully when you look for a water treatment system for your home. There are a lot of mediocre products out there but if you keep this information in mind, you are bound to find a product that stands head and shoulders above the rest. Remember that when you consider all the factors such as cost, effectiveness, and efficiency, carbon filtration systems come out on top.
