How to select the right drinking water system for your home/business
1. Only purchase systems that are certified by a third party under industry standards.
Industry Standards: The drinking water industry uses NSF/ANSI standards for third party certification of these systems to insure that the end user is getting the performance they want/need.. Without this third party certification there is no assurance that is the case. Links – www.wqa.org & www.nsf.org Both have data bases of certified products listing the tests that were conducted. Only tests listed on the manufacturer’s performance data sheet are certified.
The primary standards to look for are:
Standard 42 Aesthetic Effects - Taste/odors and Particulate filtration
Standard 53 Health Effects - VOC’s, MTBE, THM’s,
Lead, Cysts,
2. Review Treatment Technology.
Filtration - Definition: A mechanical barrier that traps
particulates. The measurement yardstick is a micron. (One micron = 1/25,000ths
of an inch). Therefore a 1 micron filter is capable of filtering 1/25,000
of an inch if the filter is designed to prevent water from bypassing the
filter. When you are analyzing filters look for the reduction percentage
after the micron rating especially for Health related items such as lead
and cysts.
Adsorption – Definition: Is a physical
and mechanical process that traps the totally dissolved organic contaminants
in channels and pores of activated carbon. Most of the inorganic minerals
are not removed through adsorption. These natural minerals give water
its taste and flavor.
Activated carbon comes in a large variety of designs and carbon base materials. Only a properly designed activated carbon filter can insure it is removing the health related contaminates.
Education is your key to selection of the right drinking
water system for your family or business.
Use these quick links to further your water education...
Reverse Osmosis R/O – Definition: Reversal of the natural osmosis process which plants use to remove nutrients from the soil with the addition of pressure.
This process uses membrane technology with pressure placed on the untreated water side of the membrane. This creates a rejection (average of 90%+) of the very small dissolved contaminants (minerals & heavy metals)which are then flushed to a waste drain.
A range of water going to drain versus produced drinking water is typically in the 3:1 ratio. Production is rated in gallons per day.
Removal of these inorganic minerals lowers the pH and requires that the R/O treated water be plumbed with non-metallic piping/tubing to prevent leaching of heavy metals.
