When you’ve decided to purchase a system for filtering your water, the options available to you can be really confusing. Many sites throw options at you without really explaining their differences; it’s important to do research and know what you’re doing, though, because water filtration methods vary in terms of what they achieve and what they cost. And if you’re going to buy a system, you want to get the one that’s right for you and your specific needs.
The first thing to do is establish the quality of your water and determine to what extent your water needs to be purified. You can get a report on your local water’s statistics from your water company, for starters; they are required by law to provide you with this information. But you can also examine and test your tap water on your own. A visual examination of your water – run water into a clear glass and look at it carefully – can give you a fairly good starting point. Is the water cloudy? Discolored? Does it smell odd? These things can indicate problems with your water. Also, if your sinks and tubs show discoloration near the drains, this can indicate the presence of undesirable elements in your water.
You can also buy home water testing kits at hardware stores. These aren’t usually as accurate as professional lab tests but they’re certainly valuable and an inexpensive way to confirm your basic assumptions about your water.
You want to be aware of heavy metals (lead and iron, for example), bacteria, nitrates, or chlorine. Testing will also bring to light the presence of pesticides or other runoff materials that you would want to remove from your drinking water. Once you have established a sense of the contaminants in your water supply, then you’ll be able to choose a filtration system.
There are a couple of relatively easy and convenient options, and we’ll be discussing them in more detail in our next posting.
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