Your city water department has a growing population of people to serve and most do a fine job of treating the water, (making it sanitary to drink). Some of the smaller water treatment plants in USA however have problem water to begin with and are out of compliance with the Federal drinking water standards. If you believe that you live in an area with unsafe drinking water I recommend that you have an independent water analysis done by a Company that is not going to try to sell you something after the test is done. Remember an independent laboratory makes money on doing the water tests not on the sale of water treatment equipment and they usually do not make recommendations. Once you have your lab results then you can shop around for the best method of treatment for your particular water problem.
Most tap water has aesthetic problems bad tastes, smelly, or cloudy water. This problem usually is the result of the distribution systems effect on the water after it is treated. A good example of this is to take a brand new 50-foot vinyl garden hose and drink the first 8 ounces that comes out of it. Tastes pretty bad right. You have to remember that the pipes that carry the tap water to your house are buried in the ground and can be miles long and some are very old. Contamination can come from old pipes that extend through a piece of ground that has been contaminated. There are chemicals that can penetrate the walls of pipe and contaminate the water flowing inside. This is not the only way that contamination can take place and it is a chemical form of contamination. You can also have bacterial contamination but it is kept mostly under control in the presence of chlorine.
Filtration systems can remove particles down to a size of about .5 microns. If your tap water has sediment present then you will have to start with a higher micron rating and then filter down in stages 30, 10, .5 so that your final stage fine filter is protected from the larger particles that will foul the .5 micron stage. Just for reference a human hair is about 10 microns thick. Ceramic filters can actually filter out bacteria and viruses but need to be protected from sediment. .5 micron rated filters can remove the relatively large coliform bacteria, e-coli, giardia cysts but has no effect on inorganic Total Dissolved Solids (TDS). These filters by themselves have little effect on bad taste unless they are accompanied by granular activated carbon (GAC). This media acts like a parking lot for organic contaminants but just like a parking lot when full, are no longer usable so they must be changed regularly. You should also consider that sediment will greatly effect the ability of GAC to trap organic material. GAC filters rely on contact time with the water so the incoming water cannot flow too fast through the carbon bed, a slower flow rate is preferred.
Water conditioners also have no effect on TDS. Conditioning works by trading soft sodium or potassium ions for the harder calcium carbonate or magnesium ions. To regenerate the resin in the treatment tank. An ion exchange takes place in the treatment tank. An eye for an eye in this case ion for an ion, excuse the pun I couldn't resist. This effect on the water is permanent and is considered in the water treatment industry as the most effective way to get hardness out of the water. One draw back is the added presence of sodium in the softened water. Many doctors warn patients of the health risks of too much sodium in your diet. Water conditioners do not have any other effect on the water other than a "softening" effect, (the removal of calcium carbonate). These systems can be modified to treat iron and hydrogen sulphide, but the resins in the treatment tank must be modified. High TDS levels in the incoming water can greatly reduce the effectiveness of a water conditioners ability to condition the water. Tap water with TDS levels higher than 1500 parts per million will foul the resin in your treatment tank. You will have to weigh the benefit of treating your water with a softener if your tap water falls into this category.
The EPA considers water containing more than 500 parts per million of TDS to be unhealthy for drinking water. There are three ways to reduce TDS levels in water. First you have distillation which vaporizes the water into a gas and then recondenses it into pure water. This method uses electricity to heat the untreated water to a boiling temperature therefore the system must
be placed in a location with an electrical outlet nearby. Water is stored in an unpressurized storage tank which flows by gravity to the faucet. This method of storing the water can allow your treated water to be recontaminated by airborne contaminants. Some organic contaminates have a boiling temperature that is less than that of water so they will end up in your
condensing chamber as well, unless your distiller has a carbon filter to remove organics before the water enters the boiling chamber. It is impractical to repressurize the water in the holding tank so it can flow to other appliances such as icemakers or instant hot water heaters. This is a major problem for distillers, although they can produce very high quality water.
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