It has been said so many times that water is life but a few of us actually drink the required content of water every day. On average, most people only drink 4 cups or glasses of water in the USA while the required amount is 8 cups of water daily. As much as people may want to get to this level, it is inconvenient to have to carry water bottles everywhere every time. The situation is worsened by the fact that tap water is not always the best option in many places because it is not clean.
In most places, tap water is considered to be downright dangerous for human consumption. The reason for this is because people do not use the right filters for their tap water. In this article, we will give some of the water filter base guides to help you filter your tap water so that it is safe for drinking at any time of the day.
Why you need to filter your own tap water
Many people think that tap water is clean because it has been purified by municipal authorities. However, this cannot be further from the truth. In essence, water pipes and systems are only tested in the beginning and when the results are satisfactory, the system is allowed to run. Most of the water pipes in most cities are over a decade old and this could be one of the sources of contaminants. Due to the many years they have been installed, they may have accumulated bacteria and other disease causing organisms.
These could lead your tap water to smell and taste funny. In addition, the water systems are often located way in the outskirts of the city for aesthetic conservation. Due to the long distance the water has to travel to get to the houses, it may accumulate dust, germs and other contaminants along the way.
Use of chlorine for water purification by municipal authorities is an outdated method that is not very effective in water purification. Even though it is able to kill most of the bacteria in water, there are some strains of bacteria that are resistant to chlorine action. These will be able to survive and get to your tap water leading to disease outbreaks and infections.
Use of reverse osmosis for water filtration
There are several water filter systems that have become quite common in the United States. They are simple to install and use but they are all different in how they operate. They all use different principles to operate but what they have in common is that they are very effective in cleaning and filtering water. The four main are distillation, activated carbon, ion exchange and reverse osmosis. In this article, we will focus on reverse osmosis as a method of water filtration.
Reverse osmosis for water filtration
This system of water treatment involves the use of more than one filter. There are a total of five filters involved in this filtration system. The first filter is used to block out physical contaminants like dust, debris, plant materials and rust, materials that are destructive to the RO membrane. The second filter is a carbon filter whose purpose is to block the passage of chemicals and chemical products. Some of the chemicals blocked by the filter include chlorine and fluoride.
There is a second carbon filter is thicker than the first and it is used to trap the smaller particles in the water. The next filter is the reverse membrane filter. This filter is able to block the particles in the water based on their molecular weight and size and their ionic charges. The last filter in the system is used to block viruses, bacteria, bad taste and smell of the water and also bad tasting chlorine present in the water. There are other models of the system that contain another filter that regulate the pH of the water.
Conclusion
There are different types of water filters you can install in your tap water system to ensure that the water you get is completely clean. The choice of the system to use depends on the cost, the required quality of the water and the availability of the materials required for the filtration system. The reverse osmosis filter is one of the most commonly used filters and it is very effective in cleaning tap water and making it completely safe for consumption.
