Tips About Water Filters - Articles - Zimbio

Comparing Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment and Reviews Discussed

Sat, 16 Nov 2008 12:56:00 GMT

posted by your-holistic-life
By David Eastham
People who live on a property plagued with water sources infiltrated with salt cannot give enough praise in their reverse osmosis reviews. Anyone would have to concede to RO systems' ability to clean up such water. For people who do not have that problem, however, the bulky, expensive RO systems are difficult to justify. In this article we want to make a reverse osmosis water treatment comparison with today's more modern technology.

In the area where I live we don't have the salt water problem, however, a lot of folks have well water with high iron or sulfate content. In some cases, either the taste or smell makes it almost impossible to drink. Some of my friends are using RO systems and they think the filtered water tastes great and, compared to what they had been drinking, it does. But, I find it very 'flat' or stale tasting.

A flat or stale taste with filtered water can be tolerated, but it does indicate another issue. You see, the funny taste comes from the lack of minerals in the newly filtered water. RO systems do a very good job of removing minerals...too many minerals, perhaps. We need minerals like potassium and calcium for good health and water needs minerals to remain neutral. Water without minerals is a bit acidic and it will attempt to regain neutrality by swiping calcium from our cells, teeth and bones. Osteoporosis suffers may want to consider mineral supplements or food additives if they are drinking water from an RO system.

Many experts in the areas of health and nutrition feel water stripped of minerals is unhealthy if used on a long-term basis, since cancer seems to only exist in environments which are acidic.

Water is put under pressure in an RO system and forced through a membrane with very tiny pores. So tiny in fact that only molecules the size of a water molecule, or smaller, can pass. It is very crutial to the process that the water pressure be maintained and this may call for an auxiliary pump to be installed.

Even with adequate pressure, however achieved, much of the water still will not pass through the membrane and, with many systems it becomes a costly waste byproduct.

Chlorine, a poison, is used to kill any bacteria in our well water, or our city water, and, since chlorine molecules are smaller than water's, they will not be filtered out using a RO system. Neither will any of the thousands of synthetic organic chemicals that trouble our water supplies today. To remove these items, RO systems must be used together with carbon filtration.

Water passing through a filter of any sort will somewhat reduce the water pressure and this is certainly true of the RO systems. They are very slow and, if you want filtered water for say, bathing, you will need a storage tank capable of maintaining water pressure.

The 'Rube Goldberg' combination of filters, pressurized storage tank, booster pump (maybe), and so forth, leave a lot of things to fail in these systems, and, indeed, it leads to the areas of highest complaints in reverse osmosis reviews... maintenance issues, operation costs and start-up costs.

Ninety-five percent of households in the US get their drinking water from some sort of chlorinated source such as a well or a utility company. If that's the case with you as well, you might want to compare a selective filtration system (also called multi-stage) against the RO system.

These systems use a chemically charged resin which is blended with carbon and extruded into a solid block form. This combination produces an amazingly effective filter technology. In simple English, the bad water flows into the filter system from one end, using normal water pressure, and the carbon removes the bad taste, bad smells, chemicals and drugs. Then the resin, through an ion exchange process, filters out the heavy metals such as lead and mercury, but leaves the healthy minerals like calcium and potassium. After that, you get good, healthy water flowing from the other end of the system.

Good bye booster pumps, storage tanks, maintenance costs, operating costs and mineral supplements. Once connected to your water supply they do their thing, virtually maintenance free, giving you and your family great tasting, healthy water.

Reverse Osmosis Water Filters - Don't Believe The Hype

Fri, 15 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT

posted by mjesales
Reverse osmosis home systems are not the best investment that you will ever make, despite what the ads tell you. Reverse osmosis water treatment as a whole is not everything that it's cracked up to be. Maybe the system was state of the art over a century ago, but there are other systems available that are light years ahead. You have to determine your family's specific needs before investing in something like reverse osmosis home systems. If you are drawing from a well or other such natural source, then you may require the use of one. Just be sure to have your water tested first, in order to let you know what kinds of contaminants you are dealing with. Reverse osmosis water treatment is in all likelihood not the only step that you are going to have to take in order to make your water safe to drink. Chlorine disinfection is most likely necessary, and then even if no other contaminants are found in your water, you will still need a water purification device to protect you from the chlorine. People often underestimate the threat that chlorine poses on our health. Few people remember that it was heavily used as a chemical weapon during World War I, and that is a fact that probably shouldn't be forgotten. Reverse osmosis home systems cannot block chlorine from entering your home. They probably don't mention in the sales brochure that reverse osmosis water treatment is nothing more than sediment removal did they?** End Summary** Click to read the rest of the story

Ozone in the Food Industry

Fri, 15 Nov 2008 06:52:55 GMT

posted by smartozone

There has recently been multiple published incidents where contaminated food products have found their way into the market place and ultimately onto the consumer’s table. When this happens, typically the remedial action is to do a mass recall of any products that are even remotely suspected of being contaminated.

But the damage that happens when a product is recalled is far greater and significant than the direct financial loss the business suffers from mass- recalling and destroying large quantities of their product that is already on the store shelves and ready to be sold.

For example costs resulting for lawsuits launched by the consumers affected by the recalled product (i.e. getting sick from eating tainted food or drinking the contaminated water) can be significant. The bad publicity it brings and the loss of trust in the brand or the manufacturer of the tainted product can present even more significant liability than the monetary loss incurred due to the cost of recalling the tainted product.

Benefits of Ozone in Preventing Food Product Contamination

Ozone is well known for its ability to quickly and effectively kill the majority of microbiological organisms including some that are resistant to chlorine. Moreover, unlike chlorine, ozone leaves no dangerous trace by-products and therefore can be used not only for sanitizing the work surfaces that come into contact with the processed food but can also be used to sanitize the food directly. This can be accomplished by spraying fruits and vegetables with ozonated water thereby sanitizing the food and destroying any organic contaminants that may be present. Also, ozonating the processed meat and meat products will ensure that those products are free of any traces of bacteria or other microbiological contaminants.

Ozone can also be injected inside cold rooms and other storage compartments that house perishable foods. And unlike chlorine and other chemicals that leave the residue even after the sanitization process has been completed, ozone will leave the food residue-free when the food is ready to be packaged, consumed or further processed.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the use of ozone as both a direct and indirect antimicrobial agent for the treatment, storage and processing of foods. – Source: Ozone Cip: Ozone Cleaning in Place in Food Industries, Albert Canut, Andrés Pascual, IOA Conference and Exhibition Valencia, Spain - October 29 – 31, 2007.

Use of Ozone for “Clean in Place” ( CIP ) and Work Surface Sanitization

In addition to keeping the food source clean and free of microbiological contamination, ozone is also effective in decontaminating and sanitizing equipment and common processing areas (benches, tables, floors, racks, processing equipment, etc.).

Published research even suggests the ozone to be more effective than chlorine in sterilizing certain microbiological growth on stainless steel (SS) surfaces (Source: A Comparison of Ozonation and Chlorination for the Disinfection of Stainless Steel Surface, ANNEL K. GREENE, BRIAN K. FEW, and JOAO C. SERAFINI, Department of Animal, Dairy and Veterinary Sciences, Clernson University
- Clemson, SC 29634.)

The above study using the bacterial growth on the milk culture on the stainless steel plate medium found ozone to be equivalent to a 4.6 log reduction for chlorinated sanitizer and a 5.6 log reduction for ozone for P. fluorescens and equivalent to a 4.2 log reduction for chlorinated sanitizer and a 4.4 log reduction for ozone for A. faecalis. While both chlorine and ozone were able to achieve bacterial inactivation significantly above 99% percentile, ozone was found to be slightly more effective for sanitizing stainless steel surfaces in the food processing industry.

Other Benefits of Ozone in the Food Industry

The other major benefit of ozone is that it can be effectively combined with other food sanitation procedures without any adverse reaction or need to change or modify the already established procedures used to sanitize food or perform other CIP procedures on surfaces that come in contact with the food source.

Ozonation can be used in conjunction with a hot water wash of work surfaces as well as prior to the application of chlorine or other chemicals used to sanitize work surfaces. Ozone technology is very portable and does not require more than the initial investment to purchase the equipment (ozone is generated on site using ambient air so there are no storage or shipping costs or considerations). The technology is very scalable making it available to even the smallest food processing facilities and since the storage requirements for ozone has been eliminated.

Ozone in Food Industry – Conclusion.

The benefits of introducing ozone as a means of keeping the processed and packaged food free of microbiological contamination, are well documented. Ozone has been approved by the FDA for both indirect and direct contact with handled food. Ozonation is an inexpensive, portable and very effective technology that can be used as a stand-alone method for preventing food source contamination and it may be used in conjunction with the other cleaning and sterilization processes and as well.

As such the use of ozonation technology in the food processing, packaging or any other application where food could be exposed to the contaminant, is strongly recommended.

What Is Whole House Water Purification-How Does It Work-The Best

Wed, 13 Nov 2008 16:44:47 GMT

posted by smithers2567
by David Eastham

The idea behind whole house water purification is to place a filter system on the cold water supply as soon as possible after it enters your home. This way you will have contaminant-free water in your kitchen, the showers, all over, even for the dishwasher and for washing clothes. In this article we will discuss what needs to be removed from your water, how these systems clean it out and what system would be the best for you.

1. What should you expect for a home water purifier?

You should expect any good house water purifier to filter out at least 99 percent of all the dangerous contaminants and leave you with good, healthy water to drink, cook with and bathe in. Poisons like chlorine and the over 600 carcinogenic byproducts of chlorine, lead, weed killers, sex hormones, antibiotics, chemotherapy medicines, etc., all of which have been found in water supplies.

2. How do these systems remove the pollutants?

You need to know home water purifiers are not just one big filter. They are made up of a number of filters, each of which has an assigned task. The first filter the water encounters is called a pre-filter and its job is to clean out any large globs like dirt, debris from pipes, etc. that could harm later filters.

Next, will likely be a carbon filter of some type. Activated carbon is recognized by the EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, as being the best available technology for removing chlorine, THMs, and VOCs (volatile organic chemicals).

In order to remove the remaining pollutants the third step usually will involve either distillation, reverse osmosis, or what is referred to as selective filtration or multi-stage filtration utilizing an ion exchange process.

The distillation process works by heating water until steam forms and that steam is moved to a separate chamber to cool and return to a liquid state. During the process bacteria is killed and inorganic compounds such as lead, potassium, calcium, etc are removed. The process cannot handle organic chemicals very well so distillation must be used together with carbon filtration.

Only three or four gallons a day is produced by these units so you can see they are very slow. Also, the electricity needed makes them have a relatively high energy cost.

Reverse osmosis units push water against a semi-permeable membrane with very fine pores, the size of water molecules. The process rejects certain contaminants, minerals, and even a large part of the water itself. Most SOCs, such as herbicides and pesticides, are smaller, molecularly, than water and will pass through the membrane and will not be filtered out. That is why these systems must be used in combination with a carbon filter.

Most reverse osmosis systems produce only a gallon or two of filtered water an hour and will waste two or three times that for every gallon produced. They require a storage tank to create any volume of filtered water and, sometimes, a booster pump as well to maintain pressure. Initial costs for the various components and maintenance costs make these units about equal in cost with distillation.

Both distillation and reverse osmosis systems remove all the minerals from the water, including the ones your body needs. When the minerals are removed, the water changes it acidity and will tend to re-balance itself by stealing needed minerals, like calcium, from the body. For this reason, many health experts consider this water unhealthy.

The third system starts with the adsorptive power of activated charcoal and it is blended with a chemically charged resin to create a very different, but highly effective, filter media.

Its final form is extruded into a solid block of carbon composed of sub-micron pores. Chemicals like chlorine, drugs, pesticides, etc., physically bond to the surface of the charcoal thru adsorption, and minerals such as lead are chemically altered by the resin, through an ion exchange, allowing them to be filtered out as well. Finally, even very tiny cysts such as Giardia or Cryptosporidium, and any remaining inorganic contaminants, are trapped by the sub micron pore structure.

Selective filtration is it not designed to handle salty water, but, since most of the nation does not suffer from that problem, it’s usually not a big issue.

Big pluses with these systems are their initial cost and their low operating costs. They process water very quickly, with a very small loss of water pressure, so they don’t require booster pumps or storage tanks.

3. What is the best technology to use to get the job done for you?

No question about it, if you have a salt water problem, I don’t think you can beat a reverse osmosis system. It is what is was designed for years ago, and it does a great job.

But, if you are like most of us on a city water system or a chlorinated well, I think the selective filtration or multi-stage system is the way to go. The initial cost is less, and, since they do their thing almost maintenance free, they operate inexpensively, only requiring periodic filter changes.

About the Author: David Eastham has done many hours of research on such subjects as selective filtration to discover the best way to give you good, clean drin the world ofkin the world ofg water. Follow him for his picks as the best dollar for dollar buys, and the best products overall, in the world of whole house water purfication systems.

Whole House Water Purification, What They Do & How, What's Best

Wed, 13 Nov 2008 17:03:00 GMT

posted by petesy71
By David Eastham
The idea behind whole house water purification is to place a filter system on the cold water supply as soon as possible after it enters your home. This way you will have contaminant-free water in your kitchen, the showers, all over, even for the dishwasher and for washing clothes. In this article we will discuss what needs to be removed from your water, how these systems clean it out and what system would be the best for you.

1. What should a good home water purifier do?

You should expect any good house water purifier to filter out at least 99 percent of all the dangerous contaminants and leave you with good, healthy water to drink, cook with and bathe in. Poisons like chlorine and the over 600 carcinogenic byproducts of chlorine, lead, weed killers, sex hormones, antibiotics, chemotherapy medicines, etc., all of which have been found in water supplies.

2. How are these systems able to get out all of these pollutants?

Before we start I want you to know these are called systems because no single filter can do all the work. There are a series of filters in any system that do the work and they all begin with a pre-filter for removing the large particulate matter that could jam the filters that follow.

When it comes to removing the harmful chemicals compounds nothing is better at the job than activated charcoal. The Environmental Protection Agency has long recognized activated carbon as the best technology for removing the chemical bad guys, so, a carbon filter is likely to be next.

In order to remove the remaining pollutants the third step usually will involve either distillation, reverse osmosis, or what is referred to as selective filtration or multi-stage filtration utilizing an ion exchange process.

The distillation process works by heating water until steam forms and that steam is moved to a separate chamber to cool and return to a liquid state. During the process bacteria is killed and inorganic compounds such as lead, potassium, calcium, etc are removed. The process cannot handle organic chemicals very well so distillation must be used together with carbon filtration.

Only three or four gallons a day is produced by these units so you can see they are very slow. Also, the electricity needed makes them have a relatively high energy cost.

In the process of using reverse osmosis, water is pressed against a semi-permeable membrane about as thick as a piece of cellophane. This membrane will only allow objects the size of a water molecule or smaller to pass through. Even much of the water is rejected along with all minerals in the water and other contaminants. Organic chemicals will not be filtered because of their small molecular size, so, a carbon filter must always be used.

Most reverse osmosis systems produce only a gallon or two of filtered water an hour and will waste two or three times that for every gallon produced. They require a storage tank to create any volume of filtered water and, sometimes, a booster pump as well to maintain pressure. Initial costs for the various components and maintenance costs make these units about equal in cost with distillation.

Each of these systems, distillation and reverse osmosis, strip the all minerals out of the water, even the ones beneficial to your body. When minerals are missing from drinking water, it becomes slightly acidic and will leach calcium from the body in an attempt to neutralize itself. Consequently, many health professionals caution against drinking such water.

The next system builds on activated charcoal's adsorptive power by mixing it with a resin that has been chemically charged to produce a tremendous filtering material.

Its final form is extruded into a solid block of carbon composed of sub-micron pores. Chemicals like chlorine, drugs, pesticides, etc., physically bond to the surface of the charcoal thru adsorption, and minerals such as lead are chemically altered by the resin, through an ion exchange, allowing them to be filtered out as well. Finally, even very tiny cysts such as Giardia or Cryptosporidium, and any remaining inorganic contaminants, are trapped by the sub micron pore structure.

Brackish or salty water cannot be handled by selective filtration systems. However, this would only be an issue with about 5 percent of households in the U.S.

Selective filtration does not require any electricity and, since the system operates quickly, they don't need storage tanks either. Also, they barely impede the water flow so no booster pumps are needed. Another big factor is they cost less to purchase and operate than either of the other two systems.

3. Which system will work best for you?

No question about it, if you have a salt water problem, I don't think you can beat a reverse osmosis system. It is what is was designed for years ago, and it does a great job.

If you don't have the salt problem, you will be happy with the selective filtration process. They are very compact, less expensive to own and operate and, if they are installed properly, they work virtually maintenance free.