There are countless benefits of drinking of pure and clean water. It is very important to choose a right kind of water purifier for your home. Water purifier can be from just a plain and simple water filter with a cartridge to the more advanced membrane along with UV sterilisation.
There are many different types of water purifiers available in a market. And selecting a right kind of water purifier depends on the quality of water supplied at your home and types of impurities present in it. You need to first check the level of Total dissolved solids (TDS) in the water coming at your home. TDS is basically the amount of ions, metals, salts, minerals and chemicals dissolved in water.
Dissolved chemicals can be hazardous to your health if not dealt in a timely manner. Many people worry about the germs present in the water but at worst germs can only lead to cholera. And that is curable with antibiotics. But chemicals present in the water can even lead to permanent damage to your body. Usually, these chemicals do not have an odour or any colour, so they go unnoticed. These chemicals can lead to slow poisoning. So always remember precaution is better than cure. The best protection against these diseases is having a water purifier at your home.
We will explain you three main type of water purification process widely used in India. After you understand the difference between them you can select the right fit for your home. But firstly, it is important to understand the types of impurities available in water.
There are mainly and only four kinds of impurities available in water. They are
- Physical Impurities– Impurities that are visible like Dust, Mud and Sand.
- Chemical Impurities– Impurities like Colour, Odoour, Smell and Bad Taste
- Microbiological Impurities– Bacteria and Virus
- Hardness– Calcium, Magnesium and other such elements.
To purify the water with above impurities, Purifiers widely used in India are:
RO Water Purifier (Reverse Osmosis)
The RO water purifiers are generally a machine that uses a set of various filters for purification of water. A RO water purifier is termed as RO system because they use the Reverse Osmosis (RO) membrane which is the main part of the purifier. Set of various filters used in RO water purifier are Sediment filter (For Physical Impurities), Carbon filter (For chemical Impurities), UV Lamp and UF Membrane (For Microbiological Impurities) and mainly RO Membrane (For Hardness). RO System requires electricity to operate. It uses electricity to boost the pressure of the tap water. The RO water purifier works well if there is a lot of water supply at your home. If you input three litres of water into this water purifier, then you will get one litre of pure water and two litres of dirty water. This dirty water can be used to clean your home or for other household chores. A RO system can work great with almost any source of water if it has some advanced technology such as TDS Contolling system and pH Balance Technology. A RO can be categorized into Three Types:
- Plain RO System
Plain RO Systems are generally a combination of Basic Filters like Sediment and Carbon Filter along with RO Membrane and UV+UF or only UF Filters. These RO system does not have the capability to adjust themselves for various sources of water and are generally suggested to be installed at places where input TDS value is more than 1000 PPM. They cannot be adjusted to suit clients taste due to non availability of TDS Controller system and client is often stuck with the bitter taste of RO System.
- TDS / TDES Controlled RO System
TDS Controlled RO System are a one step advanced system than Plain RO that uses a Mechanical device called TDS Controller by which Client has the option to adjust the taste of water according to their needs. These systems can also be installed at any count of TDS Value because either the input TDS is 200 or 1000, these system can provide water of demand-able TDS range. It is suggested to keep the output TDS range between 50-120 PPM.
- Alkaline / pH Balanced RO System
pH Balanced RO are the most advanced system in RO Industry that has all the features of Plain and TDS controller based RO System and they also eliminates the problem of other system of lowering down the pH levels in Output Water. When water is filtered out from RO Membrane, not only metals gets filtered out but due to removal of essential minerals as well, pH level in output water flows down to Acidic Range (6-6.9 pH). Regular consumption of low pH water can be hazardous to health. pH Balanced RO uses a special cartridge that enhances the pH Level back into the output water and the water is not only pure but becomes healthy too.
UV Water Purifier (Ultraviolet Rays)
The UV water purifiers generally uses basic filters like Sediment Filter and Carbon Filter along with a UV Lamp that is made to emit Ultraviolet rays. When water is made to pass through the UV chamber, the ultraviolet rays deactivates and disinfects Bacteria and Virus. The UV water purifier requires electricity to operate but unlike RO water purifier it does not require additional power to boost the tap water pressure and works well under normal pressure. UV Water Purifiers are made to remove Physical, Chemical and Microbiological impurities only and is incapable of removing Hardness and that is why it is suggested to install UV Water Purifier for Tap water under 200 PPM TDS Value and not on bore water because bore water is naturally Harder than tap water. It kills bacteria and viruses present in the water. But the dead bodies of these bacteria and viruses stays in the water itself and that is why advanced UV Water Purifiers also uses a UF Membrane along with UV lamp so that the dis-mental state bacteria virus could not get into the pure water tank. The UV water purifier system is compact and can be easily maintained. This technology is cost effective and chemical free. It does not change the taste of water like RO does. The UV rays travel through the water to kill the germs.
The disadvantage of UV water purifier is that it doesn’t remove Haardness from water and thus cannot be installed in places where TDS value is more than 200 PPM.
UF Water Purifier (Ultra Filtration)
This is the third type of water purification technology available in the market. It works well without the electricity. So if you live in the area where you face power cuts you might want to prefer this technology over the others. Unlike the UV water purifier, the UF water purifier completely kills and removes all the bacteria and viruses present in the water. This water purifier works well with normal tap water pressure. The only drawback with this system is that it cannot remove any dissolved metals in the water. This system works well with municipally supplied tap water. When you are absolutely sure that your water does not contain any Higher TDS or toxic chemicals such as arsenic or heavy metals then you can choose UF water purifier. If you are not sure about the dissolved solids in the water, then RO is the best option available for you. The UF water purifier filters out all dust particles present in the water and makes it safe for drinking.
UF and RO are both membranes. UF membrane water purifiers are as good as RO water purifiers when used with public or municipal tap water. Pipe water will not have problems with dissolved salts of toxic chemicals. In the UF membrane, the filtering holes are large hence it cannot filter out salt molecules. Unlike in an RO membrane, the filtering pores are so small that it can even remove the salt molecules present in water. The UF membrane is so small that it can even filter out the smallest living organisms present in water such as viruses.
The UF water purifiers are quite long lasting and work up to 10 years before they require any major service by any manufacturer. Water from UV water purifier is better than boiled water as in boiled water the dirt, germs, eggs stay in the water but UF membrane filters all of it out.
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