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I am looking to invest in a good water filtration system as I spend way too much on bottled water. I'm looking for something affordable that truly cleans the water. Any suggestions?
Distillation with carbon filter "polishing" - removes almost everything except contaminants that can be carried by the steam or have similar boiling points to water. The carbon polishing removes many of the remaining volatile chemicals.
Reverse osmosis - only allows water molecules and smaller to pass. Pre-filtration with carbon required to remove chlorine that can destroy the membrane. Very close to distillation in effectiveness and less of an energy hog.
Many people believe the pure horsecrap that drinking water without minerals will kill you. If you feel strongly, stick a seashell in the collection container, so the water will pull a tiny bit of calcium out. In reality, we don't get sufficient minerals that our bodies need from water. We get them from foods, especially green leafy veggies.
Doulton and other CERAMIC filters with post filtration carbon filtering. The ceramic filters prevent anything larger than a nanometer from passing. That means giardia and other harmful bacteria are eliminated, by viruses could in theory pass. That is addressed by adding silver to the ceramic matrix as a biocide. Again, the carbon filter is to absorb any volatiles. The Doulton ceramic filters saved thousands of people from cholera in 19th century England. They are listed as "esthetic" filters, but apparently due to the much higher cost and continuing testing required to maintain the next rating up in water safety.
Various carbon filter systems including block carbon, Berkey, Pur, etc. These are "esthetics" filters that will improve taste but should not be considered as able to make dirty water safe to drink. (The Berkey claims a lot, but there are numerous reports of failure of the adhesion, allowing untreated water to pass. Additionally, the supposed testing that was done for Berkey is highly questionable.)
New York City water is considered to be some of the best in the country, and is certainly safe. An inexpensive esthetic filter is all you need unless you plan on storing the water for more than a couple of days. Sink faucets and other sources of contamination add small amounts of bacteria to water at the home. It doesn't have time to reproduce to any danger level in common use.
New York City water is considered to be some of the best in the country, and is certainly safe. An inexpensive esthetic filter is all you need unless you plan on storing the water for more than a couple of days. Sink faucets and other sources of contamination add small amounts of bacteria to water at the home. It doesn't have time to reproduce to any danger level in common use.
NYC water is considered some of the best tasting water in the country. As for being safe. Define safe. Other than Flint, MI and a couple of other cities that are only now realizing their water is not safe, I can't think of a single municipality in the U.S. where water isn't 'safe' to drink. And? SOMETHING is causing all the cancer that we experience in the U.S. and a large part of that just might be in the water. How would we know? There are some 80,000 possible water contaminants, thousands of which are known to possibly cause cancer but the amounts to trigger disease are unknown, and in any case there is no way to test for the presence of these things. No, my friend, ESPECIALLY in NYC, you need a lot more than an aesthetic (note spelling) filter on your faucet to truly consider your water 'safe'.
Aesthetic and esthetic are both proper. Check it out. Frankly, your supposition makes zero sense. NYC water is probably some of the most tested in the world. The political fallout from rich bankers and stock brokers getting sick in a waterborne disaster is far greater than any illness or developmental issues of the poor in Flint. An individual building might have pipes or faucets with a problem, but suggesting NYC water unsafe compared to other areas (which is what you did when you specified "ESPECIALLY") is crying wolf in the middle of an ocean.
Perhaps there is something in the water in Portland that makes people irritable?
We bought a new house with 2 greensand filters....then it runs through two more cartridges, one 10" another 18".....used to be charcoal, but I went to 1 micron (I cant remember the filter material now), and then a reverse osmosis. Needless to say it was custom set up because the well water is so bad, but the water comes out about 50ppm minerals......we can tweak it and make it a bit better, but our water guy said too close to zero water actually becomes like acid? It can bond with a lot of stuff at below 10ppm and lower. Anyhow.....the system was about 15K....and maintenance has been pretty good. Just add pot perm every 3 mos., and a very teeny tiny amount of conditioner for the ro filter.....have had it 11 years and everyone always asks about our water, and how we make such good coffee......secret ingredient is good water. Need a new ro filter about every 10 years is rule, anyhow I replaced one because I accidentally ran the system dry.....killed it. Filters are about 1000......installed, but Im gonna try to do it myself as it comes in a bag and looks like it just goes in like any other filter.
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