What would you do if you didn’t have a constant supply of clean, healthy water in your home? After all, you can use it to wash dishes, bathe furry pets, serve refreshing glasses of water to guests, and many more domestic and personal activities.
But when you’re trying to find ways to combat potential contaminants in your water, you might end up getting a bit confused by all the tech industry jargon. For example, one company might call its product a water filter, while another company might call it a water purifier. But actually, filtration and purification are somewhat different terms.
Of course, your ability to distinguish the two depends on your understanding of the two terms. That’s why it’s best to know the specific differences between each type before buying. The right system will help you adequately protect yourself and your family from the adverse effects of possible contaminants in your drinking water. Fortunately, we are here to help.
In this article, we’ll help you understand the difference between a water filter and a water filter so you can buy with confidence and get the results you want.
The difference between water filter and water purifier
Water filters and water purifiers can remove certain impurities from drinking water, providing several incredible health benefits. However, each option has its own different water treatment process.
Water filter
Water filtration is the use of physical barriers or filters to separate contaminants from water. Depending on the size of the contaminants, the pores of the filter can retain them by only allowing water to pass through. Many water filtration systems use activated carbon to stop unwanted microscopic contaminants from entering your drinking water. Since most toxic water impurities are carbon-based, water filters can be very effective in keeping your water safe and healthy. Also, to some extent, filtration helps improve the texture of drinking water.
With this in mind, water filters are effective at removing even the tiniest physical and biological particles, including bacteria and microbial cysts. This is due to the filter’s ability to trap dust, bacterial cells and other microscopic physical contaminants. While water filters generally remove more impurities than other systems, they are ineffective against chemical pollutants. Chemical pollutants and some bacterial toxins and viruses can easily pass through the pores due to their small particle size. However, there are water filtration systems that can block these smaller-than-usual impurities.
Water filters use a combination of different media to attract contaminants and keep them from entering places like your kitchen sink. Whole house filters connect to your main water line to reduce pollutants throughout your home. Most whole-house filters, like whole-house water filtration systems, start filtering water with a sediment pre-filter that traps sediment, silt, sand, clay, rust, and other debris. Afterwards, the water flows through the KDF media, which filters out some water-soluble heavy metals and even chemicals like chlorine. From there the water flows to a coconut shell activated carbon filter. This filter removes pesticides, herbicides, PFOA, PFAS PFOS, haloacetic acids, chloramines, chlorine and other compounds that may be present. In the fourth stage, the system eliminates channels while creating more contact time.
A remarkable and unique feature of whole house water filters is that they are highly customizable to your needs. To enhance their functionality, you can:
1. Add a water softener to reduce scale in salt-free pipes;
2. Install UV filters to eliminate bacteria and viruses lurking in the water;
3. Add a sub-micron post-filter to minimize residual sediment and organic particles in the water.
There are other types of filters for different situations. Shower filters are great for treating the water that comes off your shower head. There are even drinking water filters that fit on countertops, in refrigerators, and under sinks.
Water Purifier
Like a water filter, a water purifier removes impurities from the water. However, water purifiers focus on killing biological contaminants in the water with the help of iodine or chlorine. Additionally, water purification involves processes such as ultraviolet treatment, distillation, deionization, and reverse osmosis.
Water purifiers can remove most pollutants based on their size, charge, and other attributes. Purification processes such as distillation and UV treatment are very effective. They remove all impurities from the water, thereby enhancing the texture, taste and consistency of the water. In a way, purification is the ideal way to ensure your water is absolutely safe.
Water filters are said to remove all pathogenic bacteria from the water. Still, eliminating bacteria doesn’t mean your water is safe to drink. Today, drinking water sources are being contaminated with dangerous chemicals such as pesticides and fertilizers. Such compounds can be harmful to human health as most of them cause cancer. Thankfully, water purifiers use a variety of methods to remove such harmful substances from water, including:
·Ultraviolet treatment: By using ultraviolet radiation, ultraviolet technology can damage the DNA of living organisms such as cells, viruses, and spores, rendering them harmless.
·Distillation: In this process, water is converted to steam by evaporation, which is then condensed into a liquid in another vessel. This method helps to separate many chemicals from the water and also kills viruses and bacteria.
·Deionization: This is a multi-process water purification method that filters various solids based on their ionic charge.
·Reverse Osmosis (RO): RO works like a filter, but instead of using media to trap pollutants, it forces all water particles through a small semi-permeable membrane. By doing this, it filters out any particles that are too large to enter the system. Filterpur reverse osmosis systems filter water through four stages. In the first stage, the filter blocks all sediment and larger pollutants in the water. Next, it uses carbon filters to filter out our chloramines, chlorine, pesticides, herbicides, and more. The system then uses reverse osmosis to remove metals such as lead, mercury, iron, aluminum, fluoride, and more. In the carbon filtration stage, the system completes the cleaning process by eliminating any other contaminants that entered the previous three stages.
Final thoughts
Creating and maintaining a clean and healthy water supply is an important aspect of healthy living. By understanding the difference between a water filter and a water purifier, you can find a system that suits your needs, which will hopefully give you the results you want. While both types of water treatment systems are excellent, it’s best to find a system that includes both a filtration element for a wide range of impurities and heavy metals, as well as a purification element for overall water safety and taste.
Post time: Jan-04-2023