Tips For Choosing Water Filters

Tips For Choosing Water Filters
Tips For Choosing Water Filters

Video: Tips For Choosing Water Filters

Video: Tips For Choosing Water Filters
Video: How to Choose a Water Filter | Ask This Old House 2024, March
Anonim

Choosing a filter for many of us turns into a real problem! What should be guided, we often cannot answer, sometimes the choice is due to bright advertising, product design, and not real benefits.

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Meanwhile, the quality of tap water even in one city, for example, Moscow, differs sharply in different regions.

Of course, we dream of "universal filters" that would purify water from all harmful components at the same time. But what harmful impurities are present in our water is unknown.

Any water, depending on the source of water consumption: for someone it is municipal tap water in the apartment, for others it is water from an artesian well or from a well in the country, someone uses spring water, in each case the water has its own specifics … Therefore, filtration equipment must be selected primarily based on the characteristics of the water and the purpose of using the filter.

There are requirements of SanPiN 2.1.4.1074-01 on the maximum permissible concentration of elements in water. When choosing water treatment, you can be guided by both the relevant SanPiN standards and your own desires. For example, people suffering from urolithiasis prefer to drink distilled water, which does not contain salt, and install filters that completely cleanse them.

A certain quality of water "at the outlet" as a result of filtration can be achieved, knowing only what kind of water was "in" before processing.

First, let's say about common substances that are present with different concentrations "at the inlet" and in tap water, and in a well, and in an artesian well, and in a spring. Next, let us turn to specific elements that are characteristic, for example, of tap water, but are not contained in the water of an artesian well. We will also describe how the excess or minimum content of certain substances affects the health and quality of plumbing, household appliances.

The defining indicators for choosing a filter are: hardness, iron, permaganate oxidizability, pH, manganese. They mainly cleanse them.

A number of elements: phosphates, nitrites, fluorides, active chlorine compounds, hydrogen sulfide, mechanical particles, oil products are characteristic only of this source of water consumption. Of course, the concentration of the above elements differs in each case.

In the book "Angelica", an old Indian leader taught Angelica to define water: how useful, how harmful. So this is the definition that the Indian gave to pure and healthy water - ideally correct, ideally good: "If the water tastes hard, it cannot be good."

There are several indicators that are essential for determining good water or bad water. First: rigidity.

The Indian was right, "hard water cannot be good," but very soft water cannot be good either. Hard water just tastes bad, it contains too much calcium. The optimal level of hardness in water should be 1.5-2 mEq / l.

Hardness higher than 4.5 mg-eq / l leads to intensive accumulation of sediment in the water supply system and on plumbing fixtures, the resulting scale interferes with the operation of household appliances. The likelihood of pipe overgrowth with lime deposits increases, that is, the intended life of the pipeline decreases. Hardness salts, deposited in heating and hot water supply systems, lead to excessive consumption of energy and disable boilers ahead of time.

Hardness can be carbonate and non-carbonate - it is also called temporary and permanent. There is one way to remove temporary hardness, known to every housewife, boiling. Of course, such purification solves many problems, but it also creates others. It is enough to boil water for calcium bicarbonate to decompose with the release of carbon dioxide and precipitation of calcium carbonate. We observe this process every day in teapots.

But when boiling, the appearance of the dishes worsens, scale forms on the heating elements, which significantly reduces the durability of their work.

The constant use of water with increased hardness leads to the accumulation of salts in the body, and, ultimately, to joint disease (arthritis, polyarthritis), to the formation of stones in the kidneys, gall and bladder. In hard water, soap lathers worse, the consumption of washing powder increases.

One of the options for stabilizing the hardness, preventing calcium deposits on the pipes, can be a special magnetic treatment of water, these are (mediaagon) special filters. Although experts recommend using these devices not instead of traditional softeners, but together with them.

Very soft water is no less dangerous than excessively hard water. The most active is soft water. Excessively soft water is able to flush calcium and beneficial organic matter from the bones, including beneficial bacteria. A person can develop rickets, if you drink such water from childhood, brittle bones become in an adult. Water with a hardness below 0.5 mg-eq / l is corrosive to pipes and boilers, and is capable of washing out deposits in pipes that accumulate during long stagnation of water in water supply systems. This gives rise to unpleasant odors and tastes in the water.

However, normally softened water is specially fed into the hot water circuit in order to extend the life of the boiler.

Iron water also cannot be useful. The iron content in water above the standard contributes to the accumulation of sediment in the water supply system, intensive coloring of plumbing equipment. Iron gives water an unpleasant reddish-brown color, impairs its taste, causes the development of iron bacteria, sedimentation in pipes and their clogging.

The high iron content leads to adverse effects on the skin. When washing with hard water, a film of insoluble calcium salt forms on the skin, causing irritation.

Iron should be at the level of 0.2-0.3 mg-eq / l, but if there is a lower limit for calcium, there is no such limit for iron. The lower the iron content in the water, the better for the water quality and for the body. We get enough iron from apples, grapefruits, oranges. That is, food provides us with iron and water can be completely iron-free. The upper limit of iron in water is 0.3 mg-eq / l.

There is such an indicator of water, permaganate oxidizability. It indicates how much oxygen water can absorb, oxygen goes only to oxidize organic matter. Sanpin's norm is 5 mEq / l, however, at a concentration of more than 2 mEq / in water, a sufficient amount of organic impurities is present.

Organic matter is a very good slag-forming agent, organic matter can cause some odors, but in general it is subjective, someone drinks and says "I don't feel anything." If there is a lot of organic matter, then slags with metals are formed. There are many by-products, such as pesticides.

So household filters (iodine, chloraminic, silver) can reduce the number of bacteria in the water, at best, remove organic components as well (Rodnichok carbon filters).

Another significant element of water is pH (pH). If the pH is below 6.5-6.6, pipe corrosion may occur. By the way, in rainwater, the pH is 5.5 and is close to the pH of healthy skin.

So, they mainly cleanse from hardness, organic matter, iron, restore pH and manganese content.

Speaking about specific elements of water, we can name chlorine compounds. Tap water is disinfected by chlorination. But in the presence of a large amount of organic matter, the formation of extremely harmful organochlorine compounds, in particular dioxin, is possible. Accordingly, such water requires disposal of free chlorine.

Artesian wells and tap water may contain a large amount of fine particles (sand, clay, rust). Such mechanical impurities have a significant impact on the durability and performance of plumbing fixtures (cermet-based mixers, pipes, bathtubs, toilet bowls, shower cabins).

Filtration equipment is selected depending on the concentration of suspended particles with their distribution by number and size. In particular, the higher the concentration, the more powerful the sediment filter must be. The average value of suspended particles is about 9-10 mg / l, in case of such a concentration, a sediment filter is not needed.

So, some elements should be removed to zero (iron), others should be left within the appropriate limits (calcium-50 mEq / l).

To select a filter, in addition to information about the quality of water, it is necessary to precisely determine for what purpose the filter is used. It can be used only for purification of drinking water, in this case, you should choose deep-cleaning filters, and possibly a larger-scale application, for domestic purposes: for watering a garden, for a pool, for plumbing, then sediment filters are needed.

If you decide to choose a filter for household purposes, then it is important to know how many draw-off points are in the house, apartment, to be sure of the number of residents, and of course to know what kind of water was "at the outlet". These three requirements make it possible to choose the most favorable filtration system.

Observing all the conditions mentioned earlier, you can choose the filter that suits best, but still it's up to you.

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