Which Water Purifier should i buy?

With wide varieties of Water purifies present in todays market and also the impurities found in drinking water, making decision to buy an water purifier, becomes really difficult.

So, today i am writing this blog, which will help you in choosing the right water purifier for your house.

So before going to the types of Water purifiers lets understand the common types of impurities present in your drinking water:

Generally drinking water is supplied through various sources, which are from:
lakes and rivers, bore wells, rain water which is harvested and so on. Depending on these sources, quality of water changes, like the hardness of the water, chemicals and harmful micro-organisms present in the water such as viruses and bacteria.

Following table shows common types of impurities present in water:

Generally water that is supplied from Lakes, rivers and harvested rain water has less concentration of total dissolved salt (TDS), whereas water drawn form bore wells will have higher concentration of TDS and other harmful chemicals like: lead, kinds of metal, arsenic and so on.

Other than this, water supplied through pipes and stored water in huge tanks may prone to biological contamination, if the pipes and tanks are old and corroded or if the tanks are not cleaned regularly.

Hardness of water is identified with the help of water testing meter which checks the level of TDS present in water. The testing meter indicates the levels of TDS in terms of Parts per million (PPM).

If the water testing meter show the PPM level between 150 to 300 ppm then your water is soft, where as if the TDS level is over 500 PPM, your water is hard or polluted with some of the above mentioned impurities.

Generally, water supplied through:

• Municipal corporation (specifically in India, Mumbai) the TDS level will be between 1 to 200 PPM
• From bore well or Tanker water, the TDS level will be between 500 to 2000 PPM
• And if the water is supplied from multiple sources the TDS level will be upto 2000 PPM or above. More than 2000 PPM can be purified not by household purifiers but can be purified with large RO plants which are used commercially. These large commercial purifiers can also purify Sea water.

Now lets us know about the types of Water Purifiers:

There are generally 4 types of Water Purifiers such as :

• RO (Reverse Osmosis)
• UV (Ultra Violet)
• UF (Ultra filtration)
• Storage or Faucet/Tap Mount

RO (Reverse Osmosis):

Firstly let us understand what is Osmosis?

Osmosis is the process in which, the solvent naturally moves from an area of low solute concentration (high water potential), through a membrane, to an area of high solute concentration (low water potential)

The solute concentration here refers to the TDS level of the water.

Solute = Its a mixer of many things in water, in this case many Impurities in water.

Solvent = In which many things can be dissolved, in this case Water with less TDS or less impurities.

The membrane has tiny holes (about 0.0001 microns wide) that are large enough for water molecules to pass through but too small for the dissolved impurities (solute) to move across. As a result, water moves across the membrane from the region of lower TDS level to the region of higher TDS level

RO attempts to do the opposite of Osmosis, that is, 

push water molecules from the region of higher TDS level to the region of lower TDS level (hence the name Reverse Osmosis). 

It does this by pumping water into the RO chamber at high pressure, causing water molecules to be pushed across the membrane to the other side while leaving the dissolved solids and other impurities behind. These impurities along with a part of the inlet water are then discharged through another outlet.

Merits:

Its the best purifier for those, were the TDS level and impurities in water is high. (follow the table below for more info)

Demerits:

These water purifiers requires electricity to create water pressure. So in some cases if there is low water pressure, you need to buy booster pump separately for installing and working of these water purifiers.

These purifiers also does too much wastege of water, approx 2-3 litres for a litre of Pure Water.

UV (Ultra Violet):

UV purifiers use Ultra Violet radiation waves to kill micro-organisms present in water, like viruses and bacteria. But these water purifiers do not remove dead bodies of this micro organisms.

Also they are not capable to remove dissolved solids from water. So these can not be used in the areas where there is high TDS level in water.

UF (Ultra filtration):

These Purifiers also has a membrane same as RO purifiers but the holes here are bigger than RO membrane. The holes are about 0.01 microns wide. Because of which these purifiers can not remove dissolved solids and so they can't reduce TDS level. 

They can only remove undissolved solids and also micro organisms likes viruses and bacteria from water.

Merits:

These purifiers can work without electricity as the holes are much larger when compared to RO purifiers. So water can flow through its membrane using its own force of gravity.

And there is zero wastage of Water.

Storage or Faucet/Tap Mount:

These purifiers are simple sediment or sediment cum activated carbon filters. They can remove undissolved solids such as sand, mud, micro organisms and some chemicals.

These units can be directly fitted to your tap. But mostly these purifiers are suitable for the locations where the TDS level of water is low and there is no or minimal biological and sediment contamination of water.

So lastly, Which water Purifier should you buy?

Answer to this is mentioned in below table:

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Source: http://www.vijaypadiyar.in/blog