Are you worried about the quality of your drinking water? If you’re not, you should be. A three-year study done by the Environmental Working Group found 316 contaminants in over 20 million tap water tests, and 200 of the contaminants were unregulated chemicals. Harmful pollutants in your drinking water can cause a variety of adverse health issues. If you think bottled water is any better, think again. Bottled water is regulated even less than regular tap water and is not held to as strict of a standard. Most of it is just filtered tap water, anyway.
Buying bottled water is also extremely bad for the environment and contributes to the global plastic crisis. Instead, an eco-friendly solution for great-tasting, healthy, and safe drinking water is getting a filtration system. With an effective filtration system, nearly every impurity is removed from your water, leaving it clean and healthy.
Where Can You Find a High-Quality Water Filtration System?
Before you buy a water filter system, consider a few factors. Does it remove all impurities and have an adequate filtration rate? Is it cost-effective to operate and easy to maintain? An affordable water filtration system that checks all the boxes is The Berkey, which features a gravity-fed carbon filter system. There are seven different models to choose from to fit your specific needs and budget, and its specialized micro-pore filtration system removes a whole host of contaminants, chemicals, and sediment from your water to keep it tasting cool and crisp.
Does Your Home Need a Filtration System?
If you are experiencing specific issues with your water or water delivery system, then you may need a filtration system put in place. If your water has a funky taste or smell, it could be polluted with harmful chemicals or mineral residue. If your clothes come out of the wash looking dingy and drab, and you have to scrub extra hard when it comes to cleaning, then you may have issues with the quality of your water. Or, if you have well water, a good way to check if you need a filtration system is to have a water quality test to determine the chemical composition.
What Are the Different Types of Water Filtration Systems?
Before you make any purchases, it’s a good idea to do a little bit of research on the different types of water filtration systems available today. Which system will fit best in your home is dependent on the size of your house, your personal preferences, and any financial limitations you may have? Here are some of the different water filtration systems available today that will make your water clean and safe to drink.
Carbon Block Gravity Filters
One of the most effective methods of water filtration is by using a carbon adsorption gravity filter. They are excellent at removing pathogens, bacteria, and parasites while extracting harmful chemicals and pesticides right out of the water. They are the perfect choice for your home, but they are also useful for camping, outdoors, or in emergencies. You can pour dirty lake or pond water into a gravity filter, and it will come out clean and safe to drink.
Another great benefit of gravity filter is their ability to reduce the amount of minerals, nitrites, and nitrates in water, as well as lead and mercury. They can attach to a sink but are usually a standalone style filtration system where water flows downwards by gravity through carbon block scrubbers. Carbon adsorption filters will remove any bad taste or smell from your water and are one of the most popular choices among homeowners for a filter system.
Reverse Osmosis
The reverse osmosis method works by forcing water through a porous membrane, which then filters out anything larger than a water molecule. An RO system effectively removes arsenic, lead, fluoride, and almost all other toxins found in city tap water. Since they also remove minerals, sometimes they can leave the water tasting a little flat or bland. Still, there are versions available that add some harmless minerals back in to alkalize and restructure the water for better taste.
The only drawbacks to a reverse osmosis system are the initial price and cost of operation. Unfortunately, RO systems waste one to three gallons of water for every gallon filtered. They aren’t a great choice if you want crisp and fresh water straight from your tap, so to fix that, invest in a system with a carbon pre-filter added on for a much cleaner taste.
Water Softener Systems
A water softener filtration system utilizes an ion exchange process that lowers the hard metals found in municipal city water. The water is filtered by replacing hard metal ions with sodium ions, which softens the water but leaves it fairly salty. A great alternative to that method is using a potassium chloride softener system to filter water safely without adding more sodium.
Distillation Method
Another method of filtering water is by distilling it. The distillation method uses heat to turn water into steam, which is then turned back into a liquid state, with all contaminations left behind during the evaporation process. However, since it requires heat to clean water properly, distillation is not a very cost-effective method and requires the most amount of energy to operate.
Whole House Filtration Systems
Did you know that more contaminants are absorbed through our skin in the shower than from drinking tap water? If you want an affordable way to save on water costs, invest in a filtration system for your entire home. They’re installed right onto the water main, and they filter all of the water for your house including bathroom, laundry, kitchen, and outdoor hoses.
Installing a filtration system for your entire house reduces the amount of rust, metals, sediment, and sometimes even chlorine from your home’s water. They are the most affordable system when looking at long-term operating and energy costs.
Benefits of Water Filtration: Reduce Contaminants
Installing a water filtration system in your home brings numerous health benefits. The most obvious benefit is having your home’s water filtered to a clean and safe state for consumption. The various filtration methods can reduce contaminants, chemicals, and impurities found in tap water, including hard metals, minerals, sediment, volatile organic compounds, fluoride, pesticides, mercury, lead, chlorine, bacteria, pathogens, and a whole host of other common pollutants.
Removing the chemicals from your drinking water will, in turn, make you healthier. It revitalizes your skin and creates a noticeable difference in the health, growth, and shine of your hair and nails. With cleaner water, you also will have improved air quality in your home, and it makes food taste better and also improves digestive health.
Environmentally Friendly
According to a study completed by The Pacific Institute, over 17 million oil barrels go into making a year’s worth of plastic water bottles. Sadly, due to the poor recycling habits of Americans, 2/3 of those water bottles will end up in a landfill or polluting the oceans, and on average, they won’t disintegrate for over 450 years. The global plastic crisis is real, and by using a filtration system instead of buying bottled water, you can do your part to reduce your carbon footprint. Filtered water is safer than bottled water since the two industries aren’t held to the same regulations or standards.
Increases the Life of Your Plumbing
Installing a filtration system in your home will make your plumbing systems last longer. Lowering or completely eradicating the minerals, heavy metals, and chemicals from your water will reduce the amount of damage and abuse to your pipes and plumbing system. However, it’s not just your pipes that can be affected by unfiltered water; significant appliances like your dishwasher, washing machine, or refrigerator ice maker are also at risk.
Access to Clean, Fresh Water
With a filtration system, you can have peace of mind knowing that you have safe and healthy drinking water available for your family anytime they need it. City tap water is treated with added chemicals like fluoride and chlorine and can also contain lead, all of which are harmful to the human body and can cause headaches or worse. A filter system removes these impurities and pollutants from your drinking water. If your chosen method leaves your water tasting flat, then get a carbon pre-filter to make it crisp, cool, and refreshing.
Install a Water Filtration System for Clean, Healthy, and Great-Tasting Drinking Water in Your Home
If the well water or tap water in your home smells bad or leaves a funky aftertaste in your mouth, then you should consider investing in a water filtration system. There are several different methods and designs to choose from, and they all reduce the chemicals, contaminants, and impurities in your drinking water.
Unfiltered water is harmful to your health, and with a filtration system, you can have immaculately clean and fresh water every day. When your drinking water is clean from impurities, you will have healthier, rejuvenated skin and thicker, glossier hair and fingernails. Using a water filter is eco-friendly, helps reduce the amount of plastic garbage in the environment, and also saves on energy costs in the long-term. Install a water filtration system in your home, and you will never go back to drinking bland and tasteless tap water again!
