August is National Water Quality Awareness Month, and to celebrate, The Plumbing Works wants to help educate you on the importance of having a water treatment system in addition to helping you understand the difference between some of the most popular options available.
Installing a water filtration system in your Reading, PA home helps prevent you and your family from consuming polluted water straight from the tap, and it helps you save money by no longer needing to purchase bottled water as drinking water. Buying the right water filter for your home can help rid industrial chemicals, pesticides, microorganisms, and other contaminants that commonly end up in your tap water. Not sure which water filtration system is right for you? Check out the list below.
Reverse Osmosis
Reverse osmosis filtration systems are great for removing harmful toxins like asbestos, as well as large amounts of metal, salt, other minerals, and microorganisms. How does it work? It removes these contaminants by pressurizing and passing the water through a semi-permeable membrane. This membrane pushes the water molecules through while trapping the toxins you don’t want in your drinking water. The filters for this system should be replaced once a year, and the reverse osmosis membrane should be replaced every 3-5 years.
Carbon Filter
Not all carbon filters are created equally and which one is best for you depends on the chemicals your treatment plant uses as well as how environmentally-friendly you’re looking to be. Activated carbon filters do not all use the same base material, some are made from coal and others are made from coconut shells, which is a much more environmentally friendly substance.
Regardless of the material used for the base, they produce the same results. Activated charcoal filters remove lead, copper, some pesticides, and chlorination byproducts from the water by pulling these positively charged impurities from the water and bonding them to the negatively charged carbon. While activated carbon filters can also reduce the chlorine taste and odor found in treated water, only a catalytic carbon filter is powerful enough to rid water of chloramine. Do keep in mind that carbon filters should be replaced about every 6 months.
Three-Stage Filter
A mixed-media filter, also known as a three-stage filter, can be made from a variety of substances and often consists of a mix to capitalize on removing impurities and toxins found in the water. The various stages focus on removing different impurities, such as a sediment or gravel filter to remove larger particles, a second filter composed of copper and zinc to turn chlorine into chloride, and finally a carbon filter to remove microscopic particles. Because of their design, this filter does capitalize on removing more particles than a sand filter, and it often lasts longer than a traditional sand filter.
Kinetic Degradation Fluxion (KDF)
This type of filtration system uses copper and zinc as its base and is designed to diminish the amount of heavy metals found in tap water, such as iron and hydrogen sulfide. This type of filter also helps prevent bacteria and algae from finding their way in your drinking water, and effectively removes chlorine. While this filter does perform better at higher temperatures compared to a carbon filter, it does not do as well removing chloramine.
Whether you’re new to Reading, PA or you’ve owned your home for a while, it’s important to test your drinking water and ensure it’s good quality. When was the last time you had your water tested? Find out if you have clean water or could benefit from a water filtration system, and call The Plumbing Works today!
