In many homes you can find a water softener in the basement or utility room. Many people believe that just because they run their drinking water through the softener that it is clean and ready to drink. This is flat out wrong. Water softeners do not filter your water at all. They simple remove a few minerals that make the water taste unpleasant. They are a useful tool in the process of creating mineral free water, but they are not the standalone solution many people believe.
A water softener performs one role in the water cleaning system. It removes the majority of the calcium and magnesium from your water. This prevents the infamous “bathtub ring” from appearing in your shower, giving the impression of cleaner water. In reality, this ring is formed when the ions in the soap react with the magnesium and calcium in the bath water. There is no noticeable health benefit gained from drinking softened water.

The way a water softener works is quite simple. It runs the water through a material which contains a large number of negatively charged resins. Because in the chemical world opposite charges attract, the positively charged calcium and magnesium ions stick to this resin. These ions are then replaced with sodium ions. This is why you must constantly refill the salt container in your water softener. As the water runs through it, more and more of the salt is dissolved into the water until eventually it runs out.

Unfiltered, softened water can actually be harmful to certain people. For those who need a low- sodium diet, the increase in sodium due to their water can be surprisingly large. If you are softening extremely hard water, then the increased sodium intake can be up to 500 mg per day. This can throw off their dietary needs significantly.

Softening your hard well water can be a great way to get better-tasting water. However, you must be sure that you do not believe that the water softener is filtering the water to the point where you know it is safe to drink. A high-quality water filter such as those from Aquasana will remove more than just the excess calcium and magnesium from your drinking water, while retaining the correct amounts your body needs naturally. It will also remove the chemicals that can harm your body. Most of all, it does this without adding salt to your drinking water. Using a high-quality water filter is the best way to ensure that your drinking water is clean and healthy.

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.

Remember those water commercials on TV where crystal clear water comes springing out of a rock, a spring or a waterfall? Those commercials made that water look good. They make you think that clean water simply comes out of nature. That looks so simple and natural, doesn’t it? Getting pure water should be simple. It should be natural because having clean water should come to us free and pure. The opposite is true. A lot of what comes out of nature is not clean or pure at all. It requires a long process of purification before it can be deemed clean and pure. In most cases, the efforts of local municipalities are not enough to ensure pure water. Bottled water on the other hand is sometimes merely an overpriced and bottled version of the same tap water.

Because of this, you must make the necessary steps to have pure water at home. The good news is that this needs not to be a difficult thing. In fact, it can be simple.

Home water filter systems are your best bet for always having pure water at home. The market has a very wide variety of filters. If you want the most inexpensive and efficient type of water filter, consider buying a countertop filter. It is a useful type of water filter for removing many kinds of contaminants such as pesticides, chlorine, lead and mercury. It is also user-friendly and easy to install and replace. You don’t need to be a handy man or a construction engineer to conquer this equipment. For a low price, you get to have a high performance filter.

All you need to do is buy the filter, place it on your countertop. All you have to do next is hook the filter to your faucet. Then you can have filtered water in no time. It is just that easy.

There are two types of countertop filters available. First, you have the ones that need their cartridges changes every three to six months. The second type is a disposable countertop filter that can last from one to three years. And changing the cartridges in these filters is just as easy as installing it.

With countertop filters, you can easily provide pure water at home for your whole family. This simple tool can reduce the risk of cancer and other water-borne illnesses. It is also said that it can reduce the risk of gastrointestinal diseases by 33%. All because of a simple, user-friendly and inexpensive filter.

It doesn’t take long to realize that this simple device is worth the investment. Remember that only you can ensure the water safety of your family with a quality home water filter system. Thousands of families across the country have trusted Aquasana, a leading water filter provider. Aquasana has some of the best filters available in the country. Their filters take your health seriously and is your best defense against the pollutants around you. Trust Aquasana’s countertop water filters, and you will be left wondering how you lived without it.

When you move to a rural area it may be necessary for you to provide your own water. This is a big adjustment if you have never had a well water system before. If you are used to being on city water, then chances are you are used to thinking of water in an entirely different way. Water is something you pay the city to provide like sewage or trash pick-up. Now that you are living farther from a major population center, you have to provide some or all of these services yourself.

On the bright side, you can think of all the money you are saving by providing your own water. On the other side, you may need to invest some of that money into making sure you are getting clean water by buying a good well water filter system. A system of filters is going to be necessary for almost all well water situations.

You do not need to filter all of the water that comes from your well. You can place the well water filter system in a way that you only filter water coming into your house. This one step will save you money by not filtering the water you use to water your plants, wash your car, or to do other outdoor activities. By not requiring your well water filter system to keep that water pure, you cut down on the wear and tear on the filtering mechanism and on the filters that need to be changed routinely.

Making these kinds of wise water usage decisions can save you a lot of money on a cost-per-gallon analysis. The cost per gallon is based on how much the well water filter system costs you plus maintenance costs divided by how many gallons you get between filter replacements and cleaning. No matter how much or how little that amount is, using filtered water is wasted on plants, because most plants cannot tell the difference between filtered and unfiltered water.

The same applies to pool water, since most of the time you take a shower after being in the pool, so there is no point to filter the water than ends up in the swimming pool. Similarly, water used to for cleaning outdoor appliances or for washing the car or the dog does not need to be filtered. Smart placement of your well water filter system will make sure you are only filtering water that will have an impact on your health and the health of your family.

What you need to do is determine how bad your water is and how much filtration you will need to make it safe to drink and use in your house. There is a large variety of water tests out there, and it can be confusing to figure out what tests you need to do. Ask other people in the area what tests they have had done and base your tests on this. You can also hire a professional to test your water. Tests vary from do it yourself home kits to sending a water sample off to a laboratory.

You also need to become more aware of what is going into your watershed. You will find that almost everything in the end has an effect on your water. The watershed provides the water that comes to you through your well water system and you have no control over what kind of contaminants make it into that water before it gets to you.

Water is used by many industries to flush out harsh chemicals. If these chemicals end up in your water supply you need to find a way to remove them instead of drinking them along with your water. A high-quality home filtration system like the ones supported by Aquasana can remove industrial chemicals and other contaminants that should not be part of the water you and your family drink. When you know what sort of chemicals and substances are coming out of your well, tailor your filter system to filter them out.

It’s summer time and it’s HOT! People are drinking more water and trying to stay cool. This sounds like a typical seasonal occurrence, but there are risks involved if you are drinking unfiltered tap water.

Chlorine is a poison designed to kill living organisms like bacteria and virus. This is how the municipalities keep us safe from water borne disease outbreaks. It’s a necessary evil and it’s effective, but only to a point.

Have you ever stopped to think about chlorine resistant organisms; Cysts, parasites… microscopic bugs?

Two of the most common water born parasites are Cryptosporidium and Giardia. These are small protozoan which create a hard shell around themselves, which makes them resistant to chlorine. They come from animal feces in surface water and are much more common than we realize.

These cysts are most dangerous to young children, the elderly and those with weakened immune systems. If infected by these parasites you typically suffer flu like or food poisoning symptoms. Symptoms usually last for 3 or 4 days, with some cases lasting weeks or months. The Center For Disease Control estimates that 50% of the time people are diagnosed with food poisoning or the flu, they have actually been infected with these chlorine resistant bugs found in drinking water.

Here is the real story; EPA officials estimate 850 billion gallons of storm water mixed with raw sewage pour into U.S. waters every year. An additional 3 billion to 10 billion gallons of raw sewage spills accidentally every year from systems designed to carry only sewage. These spills are caused by improper connections, clogs caused by debris, construction accidents and cracks in aging pipes.

Sewage commonly gets into drinking water supplies. Run off from fields and animal feed lots is where most water borne parasites originate. In 1993 more than 400,000 people got sick and more than 100 people died within a 4 week period after cryptosporidium contaminated drinking water in Milwaukee WI.

An easy way to remove these parasites is with a sub-micron home drinking water filter. The parasites are large enough to catch because of the shell created to keep them alive, 3-5 microns in size. A quality water filtration system with an absolute micron rating of 1 micron or less is an easy, affordable solution. Drink parasite, cyst & bug free water with Aquasana Drinking Water Filters!

A lot of people probably wonder what the differences are between Reverse Osmosis Water Purifiers and Selective Filtration Water Filters.

Reverse Osmosis Purification Systems or distillers waste a lot of water during their filtration process; for every 1 gallon of “purified” water, the system wastes about 3-5 gallons. The water passes through a semi-permeable membrane that blocks anything larger than a water molecule. In doing so, the system will remove some contaminants but more importantly, it will remove all of the naturally occurring minerals in the water. Mineral Content in the water improves the pH of the water. When you remove the Minerals from the water you are creating very acidic water. There have been many recent studies on the importance of alkaline(mineral rich) water and your health.

Please Read what the World Health Organization has to say on the subject of alkaline vs. acidic water:
World Health Organization Water Report

Our drinking water filtration systems take out a wide range of impurities and contaminants from the water while retaining the natural occurring minerals that give your water a healthy, balanced pH.

View the performance data sheet for our Aq-4000 Drinking Water Filter:
Aquasana Water Filters Performance

“Nowhere on this planet is there a naturally occurring source of de-mineralized water. This is because we, as humans, are not intended to consume this type of water. Nature knows best!”