Water contamination is a hot topic nowadays. Just a few days ago, it was reported that a cancer-causing chemical was found in hundreds of the well water in California. In a separated occasion, residents in Jeanerette, Louisiana experience rust colored water from their tap water.
The tap water no longer safe as compared to a decade ago. Most people are aware about the seriousness of these problems and taking preventive measures to keeping their family safe. One of the way is to get a reverse osmosis water filter system.
Why Reverse Osmosis?
Reverse osmosis is a common and effective method in removing 99% of contamination
dissolved in the water. It uses pressure to force contaminated water to pass through the fine membrane leaving only pure water after filtration.
dissolved in the water. It uses pressure to force contaminated water to pass through the fine membrane leaving only pure water after filtration.
This method is proven and has been used for more than a decade. Many of the system are fully certified by NSF and WQA on their effectiveness and quality on removing contamination.
Which Is Suitable For My Home?
There are so many reverse osmosis water filter system for home in the market right now. While
most of the system works well in most cases, there are some system might be good in city water but bad in well water source. Here are the 5 factors that you should consider before buying a water filter system.
most of the system works well in most cases, there are some system might be good in city water but bad in well water source. Here are the 5 factors that you should consider before buying a water filter system.
1. Source Water
The source water pretty much dictates the types of reverse osmosis system that you need. There
are two types of source water in US, city water and well water source.
are two types of source water in US, city water and well water source.
If you living in urban areas, in most cases the water source comes from a nearby water treatment plant. City water has been treated before channel to homes. Hence, it is often contain less contamination.
In this case, reverse osmosis system such as Waterdrop brand is good enough to do the filtration. Those are consider entry level of reverse osmosis water filter system for home.
For other sub-urban areas where private wells are the main water source, the contamination normally are quite high where it consists of living microorganism, virus and bacteria.
To get rid of these contamination, a system with UV light sterilizer is highly recommended to eliminate the microorganism in the source water. You can consider waterdrop brand which is great for well water source.
2. Water Pressure
Water pressure is a crucial factor for a reverse osmosis system to work correctly. Sufficient 
pressure is needed to push the source water through the membrane to filter off the contamination and produce clean water.
pressure is needed to push the source water through the membrane to filter off the contamination and produce clean water.
Most of the urban housing are able to meet the minimum water pressure requirement of all reverse osmosis system. However, if the source water pressure is less than 40PSI, you will need to look for models that comes with a booster pump.
3. Filtration Quality
The rejection ratio of reverse osmosis water filter system differs from companies due to the technology differences. Apart from the reverse osmosis membrane filter, there are pre-filters and post filters that will determine the effectiveness of the entire system.
Most company claims that their system are able to removed up to 99% contamination from thesystem. One method to gauge the effectiveness is using a total dissolved solid (TDS) meterto measure the filtered water against the source water.
TDS measure is a good method, but shouldn’t be the sole method to gauge the effectiveness.A reverse osmosis system with alkaline remineralization is often having higher TDS as compared to those that don’t have the feature.
Another method is to check their certification in WQA and NSF if they are certified by these non profit organization. You can find the details of certification and test that was done on the system.
Last but not least, check on your community’s Consumer Confidence Reports on the water quality in your area. You should be able to know what are the contamination are in the source water. Using the information, you can choose the suitable reverse osmosis water filter system for your home.
4. Flow Rate
Flow rate depends on many factors such as water pressure and water temperature. Most of the reverse osmosis system is able to produce 50 gallons per day (GPD) at a optimum condition. For most cases, the amount is about 10-20% lesser as stated.
5. Budget
Before buying any water filter system, you should consider two types of cost, the initial cost and 
maintenance cost. Initial cost is pretty straight forward as it is the initial purchase price of the filter while maintenance cost are cost for filter and faulty parts replacement.
maintenance cost. Initial cost is pretty straight forward as it is the initial purchase price of the filter while maintenance cost are cost for filter and faulty parts replacement.
For most cases, the maintenance cost will be higher if the replacement of filter is frequent.
评论
发表评论