Which water purifier is right for your home?

Water is an amazing solvent. It has a tendency to dissolve substances that come in contact with it like chemicals, salts, metal, impurities and so on. Water that is supplied to your homes is purified at the source but during transmission from the source to your taps it gets contaminated. The pipeline that carry water to your home are usually underground. With time the pipelines wear out  and develop cracks. In many areas water lines and sewage line are very close to each other. Water thus dissolve microbes and impurities and gets contaminated, which if ingested causes water borne diseases. Therefore it becomes very important to purify water further before consuming it.

There are many types of water purifiers availabe in market today. Each type of water purifier meets specific needs like some can remove only harmful chemicals but not microbes, some can remove both, some run on electricity while some are manual. There is no “one fit for all” type water purifier. Also the cost of these purifiers varies a lot depending upon the technology employed.

Type of water purifiers availabe in market are:

Candle filter type

Water purifiers with candle type filter have a very basic operating mechanism. The candle has very minute pores. Any particle which has the size larger than the pores gets blocked out and cannot pass on to the clean side. It does not require any electricity for operation. But the downside is that it fails to block microbes and so water still needs to be boiled before consumption. Also the candle needs to be cleaned up frequently for effective operations.

Activated carbon filter type

 This  water purifier use activated carbon filters for purification process. The carbon filters can remove chemicals like chlorine, pesticides and impurities to a great extent. The filtration changes the taste and odour of water. It does not require electricity for operation. But it is also not very effective in removing microbes from water.

UV technology type

Here water is exposed to the UV rays that kills almost 99% of the microbes present in water. UV technology does not change the taste and odour of water. But it cannot remove the chemicals and impurities dissolved in water. Therefore most good brands of water purifiers in India combine the UV technology (to kill germs) and activated carbon filters (to remove dissolved chemicals). The UV water purifiers run on electricity.

RO (Reverse Osmosis)

This is the most widely used water purification method but an expensive one. There is a semipermeable membrane in such purifiers that separates germs and dissolved chemicals from water. RO alters the taste of water. It also remove some essential mineral from water. There are certain brands of RO which claim to retain the essential minerals in water. The semipermeable membrane require regular care and maintenance. To know more about RO process refer to “How does RO water purifiers work” RO technology is advisable in the areas where the quality of water is hard and high in TDS.

The decision on type of water purifier to be installed in home should depend upon the quality of water in an area. Some areas have soft water supply and so a water purifier with UV technology and activated carbon filter would be sufficient.

To know more about water purifiers refer to Ideas by Mr.Right