What You Need to Know About the Latest Water Filter Systems for Your Home

February 11, 2022

A lot of hard cash and manual labour is needed to make your home comfortable, so a cool carafe full of freshwater should make for a nice reward at the day's end. When the tap water spills out as a milky-white fluid, does all that effort feel as if the money's spiralling down the proverbial drain? A filtration system is required to put the finishing touches on your back-breaking efforts, something that imbues the life-giving liquid with a fresh, sanitized appeal.

Whole house water filtration systems scrub your mains water supply free of floating contaminants, sediment, and other undesirable elements. Typically, they're replaced every few months. If that action doesn't take place, as advised by the filtration system's user manual, expect flow rate problems and taste changes. Interestingly, there's another option, but it doesn't apply to every filtration system, unfortunately.

How Do You Select a Water Filter?

Remove ambiguity by knowing what's contaminating your water. The quality of the water entering your building depends on many factors. Naturally occurring minerals are a common problem, but they're relatively harmless, although they will damage plumbing fixtures over time. Risk factors increase significantly if the pollutants contain bacteria or heavy metals, but even a water-protecting chemical agent like chlorine can cause problems.

Water Filter Options for Your Residence

Now that you know the nature of the problem, you can fit the right filter for the job. A filter loaded with activated carbon (charcoal) provides an equitable solution for most waterborne risk factors, so chlorine, hard water, and most microbial contaminants are stopped short. A reverse-osmosis device takes this filtering regime further bypassing the dirty water through a series of permeable membranes.

Use a Nationally Accredited Solution

Activated carbon or reverse osmosis, the filter type obviously matters, but even when superior technology is selected, the product still needs to meet set industry standards. In the case of home water filtration, look for the NSF Certified sticker and make sure your shortlisted products are stamped with an AS/NZS4348 or AS/NZS3497 standardized label. Of course, these accredited institutions will vary according to the nationality of our audience.

Water Filter Location

Again, usage patterns are a deciding factor. If the water is relatively clean but someone desires a fresh-tasting drinking source, then a water carafe or on-tap filtration solution will probably only require a carbon activated cartridge, something that can be replaced periodically. Under-sink Point Of Use (POU) systems represent the next step up, for these permanently installed fixtures are more than enough for this basic application.

Should heavy metals and bacterial contaminants be part of the hazardous water mains problem, then a Point Of Entry (POE) product is mandated. This filter is installed right at the location where the water pipe enters the building, so every pipe and hose is protected, including the water that's entering your refrigerator.

Sediment and dirt have blocked the pores inside the filtration media, so a quick wash and rinse will open up those tiny, micron-sized apertures again. However, do also remember that other contaminants float in mains water lines. If the dubious substance is chlorine, then you'll taste the stuff. If the dirty filter is allowing bacteria or heavy metals through, taste and cleaning routines may not be enough. Consider the condition of the municipal water when taking the filter-cleaning route.

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