Clean, safe and pure drinking water at home is essential for your well-being. Water which is a vital ingredient to life also happens to be a good solvent. It has the ability to dissolve substances that comes in contact with it. And these could be chemicals, pollutants etc. which can be life threatening if consumed. Now, water also itself contains plethora of organisms like bacteria and viruses and if swallowed, can lead to water borne diseases. Though the tap water that you receive in your home is purified at source, it could still get contaminated while it is being transported to your house through pipelines, tankers etc.
Contaminated drinking water can be a cause to number of fatal illnesses. According to UNICEF (India), water-borne illnesses like diarrhoea and worm infections are the two major health conditions for Indian school children that affect their learning abilities. In India, there is extensive natural occurrence of arsenic and fluoride in groundwater – both harmful chemicals. Boiling water destroys pathogens but cannot eliminate dissolved solid and chemical impurities. A water purifier that ensures safe drinking water is therefore a must.
The questions arises when you have a so many purifiers available in the market and don’t know which one to opt for. And, like every big decision, purchase of a water purifier for your home must take your time and efforts in finally coming to a single right conclusion. After all, it is a matter of your health and the health of your loved ones.
Every water purifier offers something different. However they all run on either reverse osmosis, ultraviolet light or filter technology. One also needs to understand that a water purifier should not only purify the water but also keep it consistent. While keeping a check on your health, make sure the purifier is for the environment too.
Electric v/s Manual, Storage v/s Non-Storage:
Purifiers can be manual or electric. Purifiers that use Reverse Osmosis or UV filtration usually are electric water purifiers. If you stay in a region with frequent power cuts, a manual water purifier may be a better bet for you than an electric one. Electric filters are also usually more expensive than the non-electric manual ones. Electric filters use pipeline water and usually cannot be used to store water. On the other hand, electric filters are convenient and ensure continuous safe drinking water. Like, the revolutionary new range of Whirlpool® RO Water Purifiers that comes with S.A.F.E (Silver AntiMicrobial Filtration Enhancer) which uses the Unique Silver Impregnated Ceramic Cartridge and protects the stored water from microbial re-contamination. So that you get water that isn’t just pure, but stays pure for longer.
According to Wateruse.org, below are three main techniques of water treatment used –
Distillation – Distillation is the process of heating the water until it boils, capturing and cooling the resultant hot vapours, and collecting the condensed vapours. The impurities will “accompany” the steam and end up in distillate. This method is not new; mankind has been applying distillation for thousands of years. Not all modern distillation equipment’s are the same. If you are interested in treating your water by distillation, you should choose good or advanced water purifiers for better result. The problem with the method of distillation is kind of slow comparably to reverse osmosis and UV water treatment method.
Reverse Osmosis – The tap water passes through a semi-permeable membrane that ranges from 90 to 99% of components originally present. This practice originally designed for industrial uses is becoming very popular today in domestic water purification. In practice, a portion of the water allows the rejection of impurities selected initially by the membrane, polyamide TFC. Very powerful, it is nevertheless sensitive to chlorine and must be protected with active carbon filters. Its life is about 5 to 8 years under normal conditions of use. This principle is also quite slow and requires a substantial pressure.
UV water purification – UV water purification technology is probably the most cost-effective and most efficient on the market today. It allows homeowners and business owners to remove a range of biological contaminants in their water supply. The UV water treatment offers many advantages over other forms of water treatment for microbiological contaminants. Most importantly, it leaves no chemical in water, it produces no by-product, and it does not change the taste, pH, or other properties of water. Consequently, in addition to producing safe drinking water, it is not harmful to your plumbing and septic system
Always keep in mind that your water purification needs predominantly depends upon the water quality in your region. An ideal purifier not only destroys all the germs but also filters out all the chemical and other impurities from the water in your region. Therefore, the purifier that works great in one city may not be the best solution for another one. Hence, it is crucial that you select the right water purifier that ensures safe drinking water for you and your loved ones.
