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Home Water Purification: Bottled Water Quality Cheap!

By: Trent Barrett You are probably drinking and bathing in contaminated water. Why? Because most raw water supplies are contaminated with micro-organisms, and in order to kill these bugs, city water suppliers must add poisons like chlorine to the water. Unfortunately, the same chemicals that kill bacteria can sicken you or cause other problems, like dry skin. A home water purifier may be the answer to this problem.

This isn't as simple as getting a Pur filter and attaching it to your tap; for great purified water, you should consider at least three different systems. An ultraviolet purifier kills bacteria. A filtration system (like Pur) eliminates many impurities on the cheap. And a reverse osmosis home water purifier eliminates almost every contaminant in your drinking water. These three types of purifiers can be used separately, or in a system that combines two or all of them for even better water quality.

The most basic water purifier is the activated charcoal water filter or ceramic water filter. In each of these filters, water is forced through a granulated chemical (activated carbon or diatomaceous earth, depending on the type of filter). The chemical in the filter grabs onto impurities in the water, allowing purified water to pass through. The result: much cleaner and better tasting water. You can get shower filters that do much the same thing, but with metallic filters instead that work well in hot water conditions. All these water purification systems are the least expensive water purifiers and are adequate in most cases.

If you're more worried about bacterial contaminants, you might want to consider an ultraviolet light water purifer. These devices cast concentrated ultraviolet light rays down through stored water, killing every bacteria and amoeba in it. Sediments and chemicals are not removed, but the water is sterilized and safe for drinking.

Reverse osmosis home water purifiers are based on technology developed by the military to supply submarines with fresh, pure drinking water. In these high-tech filters, passive osmotic filtration lets pure water pass through, with chemicals and impurities staying on the other side. All sediments, most dissolved chemicals, and most biological contaminants are removed from your drinking water. The only drawback: good minerals like fluoride are also eliminated from your drinking water. To eliminate the tiny bit of impurity that can slip through in these filters, an activated carbon and a UV filter are often added to a standard reverse osmosis home water purifier, resulting in drinking water more pure than you can get out of a bottle.

In more complex water filtration systems, multiple water purifiers are used to take advantage of their different strengths. The most common system is based around a reverse osmosis water purifier, but the water coming in is first forced through an activated carbon filter, then allowed into the reverse osmosis filter system. Finally, in the collection tank at the end the purified water is lit with an ultraviolet light, killing any biological contaminants that managed to get through. The results: the purest water you can get on this side of your wallet.