Water purification is the process of removing harmful contaminants from water. It can include UV treatment that destroys bacteria, viruses and spores or distillation.
Water purifiers can also remove lead, chlorine, rust sediment, algae and dangerous protozoa like giardia and cryptosporidium. Kinetico’s K5 Drinking Water Station even removes toxins like fluoride, arsenic and perchlorate through FlexFilters.
1. Removes Chlorine
Chlorine is added to public water supplies to kill bacteria and other microorganisms, making your drinking water safe. However, it also adds an unpleasant taste and odor to your tap water, and it can have negative effects on sensitive skin, hair and plants.
Additionally, chlorine combines with natural organic materials in your water to create disinfection byproducts (DBPs) that are linked to bladder cancer. A good water filter removes chlorine and chloramine from your tap water, leaving you with fresh, clean-tasting water.
Granular activated carbon (GAC) is the most effective way to filter out chlorine and other organic chemicals from your water. When your water passes through GAC, the chlorine molecules and other contaminants are drawn to the surface of the activated carbon spheres and held within its tiny pores.
A point-of-use water filtration system like Billi’s removes chlorine and other chemical pollutants through a process of adsorption, leaving you with fresh, clean-tasting filtered water that tastes great. This type of system filters your water at the point where you use it, such as at the kitchen sink.
2. Removes Bacteria
A water purifier can remove bacteria from your drinking water, thus making it safe for you and your family to drink. It can also filter out toxins like chlorine, rust sediment and dirt. It can also kill pathogenic bacteria such as E coli and Hepatitis A as well as non-pathogenic bacteria such as Giardia and Cryptosporidia.
Chlorine is a popular disinfectant, especially for municipal water supplies and private wells. Chlorine works by removing the positive electric charge from the negative side of bacteria cells and destroying them from the inside out. However, it can also leave a chemical aftertaste in your water.
Other methods to remove bacteria include boiling and exposing water to the sun’s ultraviolet rays. While boiling and UV treatment can get rid of most pathogenic bacteria, they are not suitable for use on all types of water.
Filtration is the most effective way to remove bacteria from all types of water. It is fast, efficient and easy to use. It also eliminates unpleasant odors and tastes in your drinking water, as well as reducing the amount of impurities in your water like rust, sediment and dirt.
3. Removes Particles
The drinking water in your home may contain sediment and other particles, chemicals, organic and inorganic substances, dissolved metals and disease-carrying pathogens. These elements can make your water taste bad and leave hard-to-clean residue on dishes, glassware and plumbing.
To remove these contaminants, you’ll need to use a type of active or chemical filter. These filters have been treated so that when they’re exposed to certain contaminants in untreated water, they elicit a change in those chemicals and ions. The resulting changes in the ions allow the filtration system to physically trap and hold those contaminants to remove them from your water supply.
Some of the best water purifiers can also remove microplastics. These plastics can get into the groundwater and harm any living creatures that consume it. Other types of contaminant removal include distillation, which converts water into steam via evaporation, and UV treatment that kills bacteria and other pathogens. Some of these processes may also remove healthy minerals from your water, so look for one that also comes with a remineralizer. You’ll find a wide variety of active and chemical filters to choose from, including granular activated carbon, bone char and ion exchange.
4. Removes Algae
Algae (cyanobacteria) blooms are a growing problem in many bodies of water. They can produce toxins that make people sick when ingested or come into contact with the skin.
Blooms usually occur in the summer because that’s when bacteria and decaying plant matter collect in lakes and streams. They can also be caused by fertilizer runoff. These blooms often appear as green muck in the lake, pond or river, but can also be dark green, yellowish brown or red (in saltwater).
Water treatment plants add chlorine and other disinfectants to their drinking water sources to kill algae and prevent their toxins from entering the distribution system. However, this doesn’t always work. In fact, when cyanotoxins get into the drinking water supply, they can travel all the way to your home.
Fortunately, a water purifier can help. Most filters have a chemical pretreatment process that helps the algae coagulate so they can be removed from the water. These processes include chlorine, chlorine dioxide, ozone and potassium permanganate. These chemicals are powerful oxidants that improve algae coagulation and have the added benefit of inactivating or destabilizing the algae cells and liberating extracellular organic material (EOM). These EOMs can then be filtered out by conventional sedimentation processes.
5. Removes Lead
Whether the water in your home is private or supplied by the municipal system, you want to be sure it’s safe. Lead is a dangerous contaminant that can leach into your drinking water from pipes or solder. Even low levels of lead can be harmful, which is why the EPA set their maximum contaminant level goal for it at zero.
Lead can enter drinking water when pipes and plumbing fixtures corrode, especially in homes with older lead pipes or with higher acidity or lower mineral content water. It can also leach into drinking water from water with high concentrations of lead or with other heavy metals like arsenic and mercury.
The CDC recommends using only cold water for drinking, cooking and mixing baby formula because hot water corrodes and dissolves more of the lead into it. A countertop or water filter that uses reverse osmosis, water distillation or activated carbon filtration when configured for lead reduction can remove most of the dissolved and particulate leads in your tap water. Boiling does not remove lead and in fact can actually increase the concentration because the longer the water sits, the more it will absorb lead from the pipes.