Water Filter System Facts And Frequently Asked Questions

Depending on your source water situation, a water filter system could be either necessary or recommended. If you use well water as the source of your water, then a water filter system is necessary. This blog explains exactly why well water is not safe to drink: Is Well Water Safe to Drink? The well water is not safe to drink directly as it normally carries contaminants like bacteria, viruses, heavy metals, sediments and large impurities. Therefore, a water filter system is needed here to remove the contaminants and make the water safe to drink.
If the city municipal water is your water source, then a water filter system is recommended as the city water has gone through the basic water treatment to remove certain impurities in water. Though city water is clean to drink, it might not be safe and healthy in terms of drinking water. Chlorine, the major chemical used to disinfect water in public water treatment systems, often generates chlorine residue and leaves the water with a very unpleasant smell. Besides the chlorine leftover, heavy metals and other impurities from old piping systems may also affect the water quality and contaminate the water eventually

The under sink water filter is a trendy water filtration system that being installed under the kitchen sink. The under sink water filter normally comes with a separated faucet to dispense the filtered water. The system pumps the raw water into the system for filtration and then delivers the purified water out of the faucet. You can find the best under sink water filter via this blog: How to Find the Right Under Sink Water Filter System?

The whole house water filter is more like a pre-filter system that installed at the main water line that enters your home. Whole house water filter is designed to bring purified water to every tap in the home. The filtered water can be used to wash the dishes, make coffee, take a shower and any other kitchen or bathroom scenarios.

Faucet filters are filters that attach to the water faucet. When the faucet is turned on, water will first go through the faucet filter then dispense to you in a purified status.

This is one of the most popular filters on the market. Many people have this type of filter at home for its convenience. The popular water filter pitcher brand include Brita, Waterdrop, Zerowater...etc. This blog compares different water filter pitcher to help you choose the best: How To Choose The Right Water Filter Pitcher Of 2021

The refrigerator filter is the filter that is placed inside the refrigerator to dispense clean water or ice. This type of filter is very ideal for easy cold water needs, simply take water from the refrigerator dispenser and you can enjoy clean cool water without waiting.

If you are on city water and pay your own water bill, you should receive an annual water quality report called the Consumer Confidence Report, known as CCR. If you’re on well water, a CCR would not be available for you, so you should get your water tested. Though there are many do-it-yourself tap testing kits available on the market, those kits are not clear enough for what they test for or how accurate they are. Therefore, the EPA recommends using a certified lab, which you can find on the EPA’s website.

Once you know what's in your water, think about which filters remove which contaminants. Then you can choose a suitable water filter in terms of the place where you want to get purified water. For example, you can buy a water filter pitcher if you want to drink purified water in your bedroom. Or if you need to wash vegetables and fruits with pure water, I recommend you to mount a faucet water filter.

The water pressure normally would not be changed through water filters, which highly depends on the water piping system. As for the flow rate, with traditional water filters, the water flow rate may be affected by the filtration media and layers. Yet, advanced filter design has fixed the problem, especially for filters with composite filter design. Filters with composite design achieve optimal filtration performance with a fast flow rate.

If you use well water as your water source, then you are highly recommended to add a pre-filter as the preliminary filter to remove large impurities like sands or debris. Once the pre-filter is installed, you might want to consider an Ultrafiltration (UF) system or reverse osmosis (RO) system for better filtration. Both the UF and RO systems are effective in removing contaminants like bacteria, living organisms and other small contaminants in water, providing you and your family with safe drinking water.

It differs according to filtration media:
RO: chlorine, taste and odor, sand, rust, solids, TDS, chloramine, limescale, heavy metals, bacteria, viruses, and other most harmful contaminants.
UF: chlorine, taste and odor, sand, rust, solids, heavy metals, bacteria.
Activated carbon: lead, chlorine, fluoride, pesticide, bad taste and odor,
KDF: chlorine, lead, mercury, calcium carbonate, magnesium, chromium, bacteria, algae, and fungi.

Yes. Almost all the water filters need some level of maintenance or replacement. Depending on the filtration media, the service life of a water filter can range from 1 month to 24 months. For example, the filter life of a Brita water filter is around 1-2 months while the filter life of a reverse osmosis filter can last up to 24 months. With the development of filter design, filters for smart water filtration systems barely require daily maintenance efforts. A lot of the filters can be easily installed and taken off without the need to cut off the power supply, some of the systems even achieve a filter replacement for only three seconds.

The NSF certification is the hallmark of water industry standards. An NSF certified product means the product has passed through NSF check and proved to fulfil the features that have been advertised. The NSF certification is not required but voluntary for companies to submit product samples for NSF testing and verification.

TDS stands for Total Dissolved Solids. It refers to the total concentration of dissolved substances in water. Not all water filters can reduce TDS. The two common and effective ways to reduce the TDS in water are ion exchange and reverse osmosis technology.
The working mechanism of Zerowater pitcher is through ion exchange to bring the water TDS to zero. The filter contains an ion exchange layer that replaces the cations with a hydrogen ion and replaces the anions with hydroxyl ions, which eventually forms pure water. The biggest disadvantage of this method is the short filter life as the filter needs continuous exchange of ions to deliver pure water, the average filter life for the ion exchange filter is slightly longer than one month. The advantages of a reverse osmosis system in terms of TDS reduction are obvious by comparison. The reverse osmosis membrane contains pores of 0.0001 microns that are only big enough to allow the passage of water molecules while blocking other foreign components like pyrogens, bacteria, organics, and dissolved solids. The average output of an RO system is around 200-600 gallons per day. Simply turn on the faucet and you can enjoy fresh, clean and healthy water without waiting. Learn what can reverse osmosis remove through: What Is a Reverse Osmosis System and How Does It Work