Domestic & Commercial Water Filtration Systems – what you need to know!
When the topic of poor water quality comes up in conversation, it is usually the Municipality that takes the blame for supposedly “not doing their work properly.”
The reality is, that they generally do a reasonably good job. If one looks at the volume of water that the Municipality produces for the needs of their cities, by far the biggest portion of it is used in industry, and domestically in our washing machines and toilet flushing mechanisms etc. Only a very small portion is used for human consumption.
For this very reason, there is no financial incentive to polish all the water to a standard which may be considered as a top quality drinking water. It has therefore become an international trend, to polish one’s drinking water at the point of use, and that is where we come in.
Apart from “polishing” the water we consume, there are benefits to purifying the water we bath in, and shower in, simply because one’s body is able to absorb chlorine via the skin. To suit this need, we are also able to supply and install purification units that will service the whole house.
Also there are different types of water purification media. With municipally treated water we generally use a combination of GAC (Granular Activated Carbon) and KDF (Kinetic Degradation Fluxion – a high quality copper and zinc alloy). Through a process of oxidation and reduction this media is able to remove high percentages of bacteria eg. e-coli; harmful heavy metals, such as aluminium, lead etc.’; and chemicals such as chlorine. (how does it do that?) Take chlorine as an example: Through oxidation and reduction, chlorine interacts with the zinc, to form Zinc Chloride. Chloride is non-toxic, and Zinc is beneficial to our bodies.)
The other common purification medium is Reverse Osmosis. RO was originally developed to remove salt from water (all desalination plants use RO). It is a great technology when applied in the correct environment, such as brak water from boreholes.
The reason we don’t usually use RO on Municipal water, is that most municipal sources are derived from surface water collected in dams. The salt content is usually well within World Health Organisation Specs for potable water, so we use the GAC/KDF alternative which is designed to remove the other contaminants.
The drawback with RO, is that there is a considerable amount of waste water involved, which is why we try to avoid it in our municipal area. A total of 4 litres goes to waste, for every litre purified for consumption.
Just a final thought. If you own an expensive, imported diesel motorcar, are you going to fill the tank with 50ppm diesel or the cheaper 500ppm diesel?
I know what your answer would be…………So why treat your body any differently? It is worth far more to you, than any luxury motor car”.
Article: Mark Bilsbury (Pure Water Solutions – East London)