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Introduction
Water is undoubtedly one of the most vital components of our daily lives; surprisingly enough, it is also one we frequently ignore when it comes to health and wellness. Have you ever turned on your tap, filled up your glass and pondered on whether or not it is actually safe to consume it? Many home-owners often take its safety for granted but its potability can vary greatly depending upon the origin, purification method, infrastructure of the locality as well as the condition of the pipelines in our home.
Safe drinking water is not about breaking the bank or shelling out money on the newest technical water purification systems; the shrewd idea is to know your water better, anticipate factors that can contribute to drinking water issues, as well as choose a purification process suitable to meet your household’s needs.
KNOW THE SOURCE OF YOUR WATER:
The step towards obtaining safe drinking water is to know the source. Your home can receive it from; a municipal water supply, borewell, groundwater, well, tankers or it can be from a mixture of any two or more sources. Every water source has its individual peculiarities, a groundwater source for instance contains naturally dissolved minerals and the older pipeline networks are liable to impart contaminations.
Seasonal phenomena such as variations in water level due to prolonged or intermittent heavy rain or falling groundwater levels and disturbance of the public water supply system cause some degree of fluctuation of water arriving in your home.
Understanding the quality of water that you consume will allow you to equip yourself to take proper precautionary measures and install the correct device to purify your water to potable quality as and when necessary.
TEST THE WATER THAT YOU CONSUME:
Although, we all think water can be judged based on its appearance, clear drinking water often contains traces of substances, chemical components as well as microbes which can neither be sensed via their odor or taste nor can we see these particles. Your household water quality concerns can effectively be identified with water-testing at a certified laboratory. The outcomes can provide important data for parameters like TDS level, Hardness, PH, and contents for specific substances dependent on the test carried out.
This kind of test would be highly reliable if your home draws from a well or bore well.
To select a water purifier not based on brands and persuasive advertisement but to select them based on tested results would ensure you gain value for money as well as quality.
PICK A PURIFICATION PROCESS SUITED TO YOUR WATER:
There’s no one size-fits-all formula for every household’s needs in selecting a water purifier system and every purification process is meant to cater to a specific aspect of water impurities.
Reverse Osmosis (RO):Â Purification that makes use of a semi-permeable membrane filter that effectively removes even the dissolved particles contained in your drinking water; especially required when a significantly large amount of dissolved solids are to be removed. RO is usually ideal for water in regions where RO is widely considered for water needs but it is not meant for every home where high levels of dissolved salts or other kinds of impurities require more advanced purification processes.
Ultra Violet (UV) Purification:Â Purification that inactivates bacteria and virus in water. If you’re dealing with microbes in the water then, the same process of water purification may add value by removing additional contaminates if installed along-side any RO filter. Unlike any RO filtration technique, the same filters out the presence of dissolved salts.
Ultrafiltration (UF):Â If your household water contains just moderate levels of dissolved impurities (less compared to water that needs RO), then, a UF is a suitable method which removes the suspended impurities from the drinking water, depending on UF membrane quality.
Here, we must ensure we understand how the process of purification is ideally suited to our household’s water and not just opt for the highly developed purifier.
LOOK BEYOND BRAND NAME:
A popular brand of water purifier may not necessarily deliver the desired results for your household. The quality of incoming water, type of purification technology employed by the purifier, rate of filter replacement, repair service, electricity consumption of the purifier, along with overall life cycle cost needs to be factored into the decision. Moreover, it’s worth verifying that the manufacturer truly indicates the capability of removing specified contaminants as advertised, something a genuine product will typically list outrightly.
DON’T OVERLOOK THE IMPORTANCE OF MAINTENANCE:
Every water purification system needs proper upkeep to offer continuous results. There’s a finite lifespan for all RO membranes, filter elements and cartridges. These components, if not replaced adequately, your purification system might stop delivering its optimum value, the maintenance of a filter depends directly on the specific technology utilized, on its usage volume as well as the potability of raw water.
Thus, in the case of any purifier, one must consider not just the purchase cost but replacement costs along with the electricity consumption of the unit along with potential service costs and possibly, even waste water.
A purifier that has minimum maintenance may be preferable on a long-term basis.
Tap Water, Bottled water or filtered water?.
One shouldn’t have to decide only between the tap water flowing from their faucet or packaged bottled water. If the water supply by the public authority has adequately passed all purification levels as deemed appropriate, then this alone could fulfill most water requirements for home consumption. But should one not completely trust water from their locality either due to its inherent chemical or biological impurities, or perhaps have a fear of contamination via old household pipes, a filtration setup may provide an apt solution.
Packaged water might seem convenient and quick during your travels or when clean potable water is simply not available in an urban setting, but over the course of daily domestic usage, home purification systems may ensure continuous and better management of water supply while significantly minimizing use of single-use plastic containers.
Choice of system entirely hinges upon the availability and characteristics of the local water supply, and your specific domestic need.
Make drinking pure water an integral part of your routine:
Acquisition of reliable drinking water is merely a single factor in cultivating healthy water-intake routines. Make potable water conveniently accessible in your home, ensure reusable bottles are cleaned often as well as safely stored to prevent contamination. In cases where there is utilization of a purifying unit, regularly ensure the recommended maintenance is executed without undue procrastination and don’t assume all purifiers function at their peak without maintenance. All these small yet significant steps will impact your overall health, as it has to do with a necessity that is directly associated with your entire constitution, a liquid of which humans are over 70% composed of!
A PRACTICAL BUYING GUIDE:
Prior to purchasing a home-based water purification system, ask these few five fundamental questions:
From what source does my home receive water?
Has my water been previously tested?
What are the common water-quality issues with my source?
Which is the most relevant purification process to tackle issues of water contamination at my source?
What is the estimated time frame, as well as upfront financial burden, for ongoing upkeep and servicing of the system to function at full efficacy?
These questions, when answered carefully, will certainly help one avoid costly blunders related to selecting a water purifier for one’s home, that one was primarily convinced to buy either based on its intricate stages of purification or well-known brands.
THE TAKEAWAY:
This search of an optimum purification system begins with an unfeigned analysis of the current water supply you and your household receives. One can’t be sure that the water that arrives home today at a particular time might fulfill certain standards; there is no single purification system which could fulfill every household’s specific needs. Rather than looking for one specific purification process such as multiple layers or filter brands as an answer for better water quality, one needs to determine one’s particular water issue and choose a water purifier well suited to address those specific concerns at their home, at best, look for something convenient.
The selection, maintenance of this purification system and the type it contains needs to go hand-in-hand.
If ease of operation and continuous maintenance is not one of your preferences, then services like DrinkPrime could ease the pressure with their subscription based plans which also include servicing.
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