What Contaminants Do You Want To Target?

If you’ve decided you need a home water purifier, the next step is to decide what type of contaminants you want to filter out or protect against. Are you concerned about bacteria and other microorganisms? Do you want to remove chemicals and compounds such as chlorine? Maybe you know your water contains sediments and high mineral content. Or perhaps like many people, you’re concerned about all of these things and you want a comprehensive home water purifier/filtration system.

Bacteria and microorganisms

If bacteria and other organisms are your targets, then you want to consider home water purifiers that use UV technology. Of the three most common water purification technologies, UV is the only one that effectively immobilizes bacteria. However, it does not remove sediments, chemicals and other contaminants.

Chemicals and sediments

Home water purifiers that use either carbon filters or reverse osmosis technology will remove suspended solids such as sediments, dissolved chemicals, and many other contaminants. Of the two, reverse osmosis is effective on a wider range of contaminants. However, neither of these technologies is effective at removing bacteria.

For a comprehensive home water purification system, it is important to combine UV technology with one of the other options. A carbon pre-filer is the most common choice. It’s also critical that you change your home water filters regularly and follow manufacturers’ maintenance schedules. If you don't routinely change the filters on your home water filters and water purifiers, you could wind up creating an even bigger problem with bacteria than the one you may be trying to avoid in the first place.