Not every water purification process is created equal, which is why it's important to know which type works best. This article explains what kind of water purification process is most appropriate for home use so you won't have to invest in one that's below standards.
Our water treatment plants use a overly simplified filtering process, one that's been used since the early 1900s. This technology is extremely old and out of date, which is more the reason to get a quality home water filtration system. Our treatment plants filter water like an average swimming pool does: it filters out all the visible particles and sediment and then adds chlorine to disinfect it.
This leaves it up to us to invest in a quality filtration system at home that utilizes a water purification process that removes whatever is missed at treatment plants. And unfortunately, they miss A LOT.
Through my research, I've found that systems using a multi-stage water purification process removes most of the contaminants found in drinking water. Since many types of contaminants require a different means of filtration, it just makes sense to get a system that includes more than one type of filter.
For example, a sediment prefilter is great for removing sediment, particulates, chlorine, and microscopic particles that give water a cloudy look, bad taste, and bad odor. By clearing out these type of contaminants, the rest of the system can focus on removing more difficult ones.
To remove lead from drinking water, a water purification process like ion exchange works best. Why? Because it removes 99% of all lead ions and replaces them with healthy potassium ions, which is one of those natural trace minerals that our body has evolved to live on.
The most difficult contaminants to remove from drinking water are synthetic chemicals (VOCs), chlorinated byproducts (THMs), cysts, and other types of water pathogens resistant to chlorine. The best water purification process to remove these contaminants is sub micron filtration. The highest quality sub micron filters remove contaminants as small as 0.5 microns. To put that in perspective, that's around 600 times smaller than a human hair!
My family and I own a water purification system in our home that uses all three of these technologies to produce safe, pure, healthy drinking water. A cumulative water purification process like this removes over 99% of all the contaminants listed above and more, and costs less than $100 to get.
