Archive for the 'Carbon Filter' Category
Are the Most Expensive Water Filters the Best Ones?
When it comes to taking care of your family, nothing is more important. Most people would agree that you can’t put a price tag on the health and welfare of your family. Just because it is important does not mean that you should throw away money on an idea without checking it out.
Getting clean water is an important goal. It is important for your family’s health and it is important for your pocketbook. You could throw your money away on buying bottled water to try and meet your family’s needs but in the long run even the most expensive water filters cost less than bottled water does.
One reason bottled water is so expensive is you are constantly buying and throwing away those small plastic bottles. That is why buying a filter from a company such as Aquasana is the environmentally friendly way to go as well. Bottled water is often bottled directly from municipal water sources, meaning that it is no better than drinking water directly out of the tap.
It is smart to be a savvy shopper when looking for the best water filter for your home. As is true with other purchases, a high price tag does not mean that the most expensive water filter is the best one. One reason that more expensive filters can be more trouble than they are worth is that they are sometimes unnecessarily complex, meaning there is more that can go wrong.
The most expensive filter systems are whole house filtration systems, and depending on what company you get them from, they have different weaknesses. Some of them are so expensive that it becomes hard to justify the cost. On the high end of the spectrum, expensive water filter systems can cost as much as twelve thousand dollars.
On the cheaper end there are some available for a little over a thousand dollars. For that, you get clean water in every place in your house that you use water. The company may also include incentives such as free laundry soap for long enough for you to pay off the system.
A whole house system is worth the money if they are provided by a dependable water filter supplier like Aquasana and if they take advantage of a cost-effective water filtration design. Carbon-filtration whole house water filter systems are the most efficient and cost-effective designs for whole house water filter systems. Aquasana has a number of carbon-filtration water filter solutions that will fit your clean water needs as well as your budget.
Next, we can consider under-the-counter and mid-range systems, which instead of thousands of dollars are a more affordable couple hundred dollars per unit. These come in a variety of types and are somewhat prone to have clogs. The important thing to do is to read customer reviews of the system you are looking into and see how reliable they have proven to be.
The most inexpensive filters are point-of-use filters such as faucet filters and shower filters. You can install these yourself and if something does go wrong, they are easy to replace. They can be as cheap as forty to fifty dollars. Many studies have shown that these filters clog the least out of all the types. This proves that it is not how much you spend on something, it is the quality you get out of it. You will find there are many filters on the market from companies such as Aquasana. What is most important is to do your homework before making an investment in a water filter.
Electrodeionization: Close, but no Cigar
Electrodeionization is the process of removing as many ionizable particles from a liquid as possible. In layman’s terms, this means removing as many particles as possible from the water. The way it works is quite simple. The water is run through a membrane coursing with electricity. The electric current causes the majority of the ions in the water to attach to the membrane and the resulting water is extremely pure.
Pure water may sound like an ideal objective, but in reality it is not the goal you are looking for when filtering your drinking water. Pure water contains nothing but water. This means that it is extremely absorbent. When you drink pure water it goes through your body absorbing as many minerals and nutrients as it can. This is exactly the opposite of what you want it to do. When you drink properly filtered water it should be providing your body with nutrients and minerals. Water is one of the top sources of certain minerals. When you remove them from the water, although you are still hydrated, you will not be as healthy as those who drink properly filtered water.
In order to remove all the contaminants from water while retaining the helpful minerals and nutrients, you need to use a proper water filter. Manufacturers such as Aquasana create filters which are “smart” about what they remove from your water. They use a fine granular carbon filter which absorbs the chemicals that you do not want in your water while leaving the healthy minerals in the water. This means that the water can provide you with the nutrients and minerals rather than taking them from your body.
If, after testing your drinking water, you find there are high levels of contaminants, then filtering with electrodeionization is certainly a better solution than drinking contaminated water. When looking at it, however, electrodeionization is neither the cheapest nor the most effective method of filtering water. It removes too much from your water, forcing it to take away the very minerals that the water should be providing. A high-quality water filter such as those from Aquasana is a much better investment for your drinking water.
Questions and Answers About Aquasana Water Filters
Is the AQ-4500 suitable for well water? I have a whole house filter for sediment already installed for all the water in the house, but want to have a drinking water-specific system at the kitchen sink.
Aquasana systems are designed for municipally treated water supplies or potable water supplies, meaning it needs to be free and clear of bacteria. As long as there is are no harmful levels of bacteria in your well water the drinking system will be fine to use. If, however, bacteria is an issue, we would recommend using a UV water purification method at your point of entry and the AQ-4000 in conjunction with that.
Can a countertop system be retrofitted into a marble countertop?
I am interested in buying the Complete Countertop Filtration System Model # AQ-4000. However, I have a commercial 3-compartment sink in my kitchen. I am wondering how long the hose is. I am concerned it will not reach and I will have no place to set the filter. An under-the-sink filter will not work, that is why I am looking at the countertop (to set on the drainboard).
The AQ-4000 deluxe countertop system comes with a diverter hose assembly that is 26″ long. However, we also have a longer hose that is only $10 more.
What level of PSI are the whole house filter system and fittings rated for? The local water company has our water pressure very high. Also, does the filter decrease the level of water pressure and, if so, by how much?
The EQ-300 Rhino is rated for a minimum pressure of 20 psi, not to exceed 100 psi. One system is sufficient for a home up to 3,500 square feet and can handle up to 3 1/2 bathrooms with no loss in water pressure. If your home is larger than that, you would require a second unit that would be installed in parallel. This doubles the capacity of the system putting you at a flow rate of 14 gallons per minute. Below is some additional information on the system as well.
The whole house units (point of entry) are not set to the same standards as the drinking filters (point of use). The reason is because the point of entry systems filter at the point of entry; that water runs back through your plumbing so some portion of whatever your plumbing contains, i.e., lead, will be reintroduced into the water supply. Therefore, we are tested and certified by Under Writers Laboratory for the removal of the most prevalent contaminate, which is chlorine. However,
because of the activated carbon that is used, we know that things such as herbicides, pesticides, and industrial solvents (VOCs, SOCs, and THMs) are reduced at least 90%. Our testing info from UL can be found here: http://www.aquasana.com/assets/Rhino_Whole_House_Water_Filter_Certified_Performance_Data.pdf
The system itself is tested and certified for 300,000 gallons, which for an average family (4-5 people) will last 3-5 years. Of course, the less people in your home, the longer the system will last. Once you use the capacity of the system, you will replace the main filtering system, which you can easily do yourself.
Where can I buy one of your systems in Alberta, Canada? Will it be as good of quality as reverse osmosis water? How much for replacement filters, how long do they last, etc.
http://www.aquasana.com/assets/Performance+sheet.pdf and our California Health Department Certificate here: http://www.aquasana.com/CA_Cert.pdf.
Can your water filters be used in conjunction with a salt-based water softener?
A water softener does not replace essential minerals. It pulls them out and replaces them with sodium. According to Hamilton and Whitney’s Nutrition, “soft water [water with the minerals removed] appears to contribute to a higher incidence of hypertension and heart disease in areas where it is used. Hard water [that retains its beneficial, naturally-occurring minerals] may oppose these conditions.” Our system does not use salt. It is a carbon-based system which actually removes the contaminants and leaves in the naturally occurring minerals so you can maintain your pH balance.
Our system will help with the hardness although it is not a water softener; it is a filtration system. It doesn’t necessarily reduce the calcium per se, but it inhibits the effects of the calcium. The media in the top canister is KDF55 – a mineral alloy which changes the structure of the calcium. Changing it from a calcite form to an argonite form prohibits scale build up caused by the calcium.
You can use a softener in conjunction with the unit. However, many times the unit itself negates the need for the softener. I would also recommend a .35 micron filter that would come after the whole home unit which will reduce the calcium whereas the .5 micron filter will not.
I just had a whole house water softener installed in our home. I am considering your shower filter, and would like to know if the salt from the water softener will interfere with the functionality of the shower filter. I would appreciate any technical information that ensures me that this filter will or will not work for our use. If it would work, would the filter need replacing more often due to the salt? Would you please send me a copy of performance testing of this shower filter?
There are no standards that are currently set for shower filters, therefore there is no testing data available at this time.
Are There Hidden Drawbacks to Drinking Ultra Pure Water?
It is very important to have drinking water that is clean, pure, and healthy. Many people understand that the water they get from the tap is not clean or pure, so they make ways to have their water purified. You must also know that what is clean, pure, and tasty is not necessarily healthy. Cleanliness is good for you. Too much cleanliness is not. Remember the saying too much of a good thing can be bad? Well in this case, it is.
You want pure water but not ultra pure water. Water purifying companies have been trying to do their best and beat all the other competitors in providing the filter than can remove the most contaminants. There are many options out in the market such as distillation, reverse osmosis, and bottled water. These are the three most common types of solutions people use to avoid drinking contaminated tap water. No matter what kind of filter you use, make sure you do not have ultra pure water.
Ultra pure water is very expensive. Reverse osmosis and distillation are some of the most popular filtration methods used to produce ultra pure water. With a reverse osmosis water filter, strong water pressure is needed for the unit to function properly. This requires lots of water and constant maintenance as well. Because this process is also slow, meaning that it takes a long time before water is cleansed, you would need a storage tank to store water during the slow process. If you include a carbon filter system to reverse osmosis as most water filtration experts recommend, that can cost a lot and would also require costly and frequent maintenance.
Ultra pure water strips important minerals from the water that your body needs. One of the good things we get from drinking water is the essential minerals that our body needs. Our body needs these minerals from the water. When the filtration process releases ultra pure water and you drink it, your body becomes acidic. It craves for the minerals that it doesn’t get from the water.
These minerals include magnesium, potassium, and calcium. Once your body is acidic, it takes the minerals from your bones to make up for the loss it has from the water. In essence, your body is stripped of minerals when you drink ultra pure water. When your body is acidic, your body weakens because it tries to neutralize the acidity. As if that is not bad enough, an acidic body lacks free radicals. In a body with low free radicals, cancer cells can multiply rapidly.
Now that you know how important it is not to drink ultra pure water, you need to make sure that your water does not cause you to lose essential minerals. Take a good look at your water filter system and make sure that you are not drinking ultra pure water. Aquasana is one of the country’s leading water filter providers. The water filter systems that Aquasana supports only remove contaminants from the water and leave the minerals that you need in the water.
What is the Most Effective Type of Residential Water Filter?
Water is one of those things that people don’t think about until something is wrong with it. The main thing that determines the quality of your water is where it comes from. Many homes are hooked up to a personal or communal well. These wells tap into the groundwater which means whatever chemicals end up in the ground end up in your water.
There is a two-pronged approach that is very effective to treating problem water. The first solution is to be aware of what is going on in your environment and control what sort of chemicals end up in your ground. The second and most necessary solution is the use of a residential water filter. To determine how much filtering your water needs, it is important to have your water tested. The first time you have your water tested for contaminants, it will probably be necessary to have a professional come out and test the water. After that, you should test your water twice a year to see if there are any changes in the chemical levels. Depending on your environment and water source, you may need one or more pieces of equipment.
A UV residential water filter will kill any bacteria or germs in your water. You may need a water softener, which will filter out hard water and prevent the damage to your pipes that hard water causes. Additional types of residential water filters may be necessary to filter out things such as iron or pesticides.
The important thing is to treat the water before it enters your house. Clean water puts less strain on pipes and helps water-using appliances last up to twice as long. Clean water also has health benefits throughout the home. It has much more cleaning power and gives your soap the most possible cleaning power. Dirty water can clog your pores and cause dry skin. It is just much less of a headache having one effective residential water filter instead of having to install different kinds for different uses.
Most people within an urban area are hooked into a city water system. While city water is filtered, it also has chlorine added to it which affects its taste and dries out the skin. There are also contaminants in the water that get through the limited public water filtering that can still cause many health and lifestyle problems for your family. In general, tap water is not up to most people’s quality standards. This is why bottled water has become so popular. Bottled water is expensive and not as healthy as it is advertised to be. Filtering it yourself is much cheaper, healthier, and allows you to use as much as you want.
The most common residential water filter is a faucet filter. This filter directly addresses the taste issue at relatively little expense. If you want to remove all kinds of contaminants completely you need an inline water filter. This is the most effective residential water filter because it intercepts all of the water in the home and removes contaminants before they reach your drinking water, your shower, or your clothes- and dish-washing machines. An inline water filter costs more up front but they have a long service life. Faucet water filters are inexpensive but there is an added cost to get fresh filters. Above all, use a reliable residential water filter supplier like Aquasana because you will have a feeling of confidence that the equipment you buy will serve you well, keeping your family safe year after year after year.
Why Should I Consider Charcoal Water Filters?
When you start researching the best kinds of home water-filtering systems, you will certainly hear a lot about charcoal water filters. Most of us think of charcoal as those little black bricks that we use to barbecue hamburgers and hot dogs in the summertime. It is true that the charcoal that is used to make campfires and for grills is the same substance that does a great job filtering water for human consumption. It’s a good idea to know more about how charcoal water filters work so you can make an informed decision before you invest in your own water filtration system.
The heart of any home water-filtering system is the filter itself and that is where a charcoal water filter stands out. As you may know, charcoal itself is the outcome of a process of where wood and other organic matter is heated together in an oxygen-free system. A lot of things come out of this refining process, but charcoal is one of the most useful products of that burning and has a lot of diverse uses including water filters.
Charcoal often has air pockets buried inside the hard black material. That combination is one reason charcoal is such a great medium for fires used to make those hamburgers. Along with how well charcoal burns, the characteristic that makes it so great in the form of a water filter is it traps gases and contaminants in any water that passes through the filter. Aquasana charcoal water filters take advantage of the natural ability of charcoal to trap unwanted contaminants to produce a superior filtering product.
When a charcoal water filter is designed, the manufacturer generally uses a variation of the material called activated charcoal. Activated charcoal has been processed so it is even more porous than conventional charcoal. That additional processing makes activated charcoal very good at trapping unwanted substances that are in the water so they do not make it to your tap.
Activated charcoal water filters can absorb a tremendous amount of substances and trap contaminants for quite some time before you should change the filter out. For example, just one cc of charcoal can trap 90 times that much water contaminants in a very small space. That makes an activated charcoal water filter a tremendously efficient water purification system for your home.
Another quality of charcoal water filters that makes this design a good choice is that they do not filter out the natural minerals in your drinking water. We get a lot of minerals from drinking water that are essential to health. If a water filtration system were to remove those minerals, you would have to find ways to replace that source of nutrition or there could be negative health repercussion for you and your family. If you select a charcoal water filter design when you buy a home water processing system, you don’t have that issue to worry about. The health benefits are the primary reason that Aquasana supports charcoal water filter systems for the benefit of its customers.
When shopping for a high-quality water purification system, you can have confidence if the styles or models you are considering use the charcoal water filter approach to water purity. It is a design of water purification that has been in use for quite some time and it has been proven time and time again to be reliable and healthy in keeping your water healthy for you and your family to drink.
What is the Difference Between Water Filtration Methods and Water Purification Systems?
One thing that can hold you back from finding out the best solution for contamination of your drinking water is learning the terms. There are a number of technologies used to take the contaminated water that is in the water reservoirs of your community and turn it into clean water again so it is suitable for consumption by your family. It may be easy to write off the water filtration industry as a sham when in fact, the best way to guarantee clean and healthy water for your family is to install a home water purification system such as those Aquasana has in stock. It helps to sort out what the differences are between what is being done at the water processing plant and what you will get when you invest in a water purification solution from Aquasana.
Very often water filtration and water purification are terms that are easily confused or intermixed when talking about the same thing. The water processing facility for your community has some methods at their disposal for filtering the water that will come out of the faucets at your home. One water filtration approach that has been used in different ways is boiling the water.
This is a method of water filtration that is recommended in a crisis situation where you must take contaminated water and filter it yourself. By boiling the water, you kill off most of the bacteria or other living things in that water that could make you sick. Then you can take the water as it cools and pour it through a cloth to filter out impurities before drinking it. The boiling method is not a good way to filter the huge amount of water that must be filtered by your city’s water processing plant because it is too costly, too much of the water is lost to evaporation, and the overhead of manning that kind of filtration system would be too difficult to handle with the limited resources they have.
Instead of using boiling, most water processing facilities that cities have add chemicals to the water to kill off bacteria and other dangerous viruses and parasites that could be living in the water that they are providing to the community. This method is workable because it does kill dangerous microorganisms living in the water. The downside is that it is not 100% effective, so some water contamination still gets through. In addition, the chemicals that are added then become a form of water contamination as well.
Water purification is one term that is used for many of the most effective home water processing systems such as those Aquasana can provide. Within that category of solutions for water contamination, there are a number of designs. A method that many have regarded as most effective uses activated charcoal filters to purify the water before it comes out of the water faucets of your home. An activated charcoal water purification system takes advantage of the ability of charcoal to trap odors, microorganisms, and chemical water contamination and only allows clean and healthy water to get through.
It is no wonder that the activated charcoal water purification system is the water purification system that the Environmental Protection Agency of the federal government recommends for homeowners who wish to invest in a home water processing solution that they can count on. Aquasana has a variety of activated charcoal water purification systems that they can show to you to fit the home water processing solution you need to your budget and your need for clean water as well.
