Water news for a thirsty world…

 

Many people are very interested in investing in a water treatment system for their family, but often get confused by the different machines and processes that are involved in improving water quality. No one machine can get rid of everything that’s in your water, but knowing what the most common water treatment processes are will help you to sort through the jumble and find exactly what you’re searching for out of your water. 

 

Reverse Osmosis Systems: Reverse Osmosis, or “RO” for short, is a filter process that uses water pressure to force a solution through a membrane containing microscopic pores that allow water–but not impurities–to pass through to your faucet. the typical Reverse Osmosis filter removes particles as small as around 1 Angstrom. For scale, the diameter of an average human hair is around 1 million angstroms. Due to the microscopic size of these pores, Reverse Osmosis is excellent for the reduction of the following contaminants: Aluminum, Bacteria, Bromide, Calcium, Chloride, Copper, Cyanide, Fluoride, Iron, Lead, Manganese, Magnesium, Mercury, Phosphate, Potassium, Silica and Sodium, among other things.

 

Water Softeners: As mentioned in an earlier post, a typical home water softener operates on the principles of ion exchange. Hard water passes into the softener unit and through a bed of small resin beads no bigger than sand grains with usually are coated with potassium or sodium ions. When the water passes through the resin, the calcium/magnesium ions trade places with the sodium/potassium ions, softening the water in the process. With this process, a softener removes Calcium, Magnesium, Lime and iron from your water. The typical water softener does not include anything that filters to the extent of a Reverse Osmosis system, so someone wanting filtered soft water would need to add an RO as a separate stage. 

 

Activated Carbon Filters: Carbon has a long history of use as an excellent absorbent of contaminants and is considered perhaps that most powerful adsorbent known to man (adsorption is when a gas of liquid solute accumulates on the surface of a solid or liquid, forming a film). Activated carbon has been slightly positively charged and heat-treated to improve Carbon’s natural absorbent properties. It is often used as a standalone filter to reduce or eliminate bad tastes and odors, chlorine, and many organic contaminants in municipal (pre-treated or chlorinated) water supplies to produce a significantly improved drinking water. However, activated carbon filtration will still not remove as much as a Reverse Osmosis filter would. 

 

Water Deionizers: Deionized water, also known as demineralized water, is water that has had its mineral ions removed, such as cations of sodium, calcium, iron and copper,  and anions such as chloride and bromide. Deionization is a physical process which uses specially-manufactured ion exchange resins which bind to and filter out the mineral salts from water. Because the majority of water impurities are dissolved salts, deionization produces a high purity water that is generally similar to distilled water, and this process is quick and without scale buildup. However, deionization does not significantly remove uncharged organic molecules, viruses or bacteria, like an RO system would. 

 

So What’s Right For Me?

Selecting the right combination of water treatment solutions for you is not a difficult process. If you’re simply looking for better water for drinking, your solution would be either an activated carbon filter or an RO system, depending on your budget and taste preference. If you’re looking for a more comprehensive solution that includes protecting your home from scale build-up and improving the quality of laundering and dishwashing, you may want to consider a softener combined with an RO system. Some people add a whole house filter to this setup for the best water possible.  And if you simply want the purest water possible for particular process, say for an aquarium or to clean that collectible car of yours, your best bet would be Deionized water. It’s all up to you! 

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