The most basic key to survival is water. Approximately 60% of our bodies are made up of water, and every cell, organ, and tissue use it to maintain bodily functions. Without water, we would cease to exist.
While we know how essential water is to our overall health, ensuring your water is contaminate-free is just as critical as ensuring you are drinking the proper amount. Unknowingly, a number of contaminants including chlorine and heavy metals might be lurking in your water, waiting to wreak havoc. However, not only is selecting the proper filters important, ensuring you properly maintain your system through regular filter replacement is crucial. So, before pouring your next glass, consider how significant what you are putting into your body truly is.
Selecting Your Water Filters
The most important thing to consider when selecting which water filters are best suited for you and your family is your water source.
Before coming out of your faucet, municipal water has gone through water treatment processes like chlorination. However, that does not mean the quality of water cannot be vastly improved. It simply means the water is not hazardous. Two common concerns for those on municipal water are chorine and chloramines being present as well as hard water minerals such as calcium and magnesium which can cause scale buildup to attach on surfaces to cause lime deposits.
Those who are on well water must be much more diligent about ensuring their water is safe to drink since it has the potential to be exposed to a variety of contaminants such as lead and iron. Filters suggested for those on municipal water is also suitable for those on well water. However, because of additional concerns with untreated water such as hardness materials and sediment, more complicated treatment may need to be applied for those on well water.
Water Filters Explained
One way to ensure you are getting the cleanest drinking water and safest daily water usage possible is by using water filtration systems. However, with so many different kinds, it is difficult to know which is best suited for you. At iSpring, we carry a variety of filters to meet our customers’ varying needs.
Polypropylene (PP) Sediment Filter
Use: PP filters are one of the most commonly used filters in water filtration and are often used as the first line of defense in the filtration process because they intercept large particles and impurities, allowing for higher flow rates than equally sized carbon or media filters.
Removes: sediment, dirt, sand, silt, rust, iron and scale particles
Life Span: Usually up to 12 months depending on different water condition
Activated Carbon Filters
Use: Activated carbon filters are commonly used in water pitchers and in bottled water and are recognized as one of the best technologies for treating synthetic organic materials like pesticides, herbicides, and other pollutants. The main function of activated carbon is to control the content of disinfection by-products in water by adsorption.
Removes: small precipitates, chlorine, chloramines, and other organic substances and toxic chemicals
Life Span: Usually 6-12 months depending on different water condition
Ultra Filtration (UF) Membrane
Use: UF is a pressure-driven barrier used to prevent contaminants from making their way into your water.
Removes: solids, bacteria, viruses, endotoxins, and other pathogens; additionally, when appropriately combined with other purification technologies in a complete water system, UF can remove colloids, pyrogens, proteins, and macromolecules larger than the membrane pore size (0.01 microns) from water.
Life Span: Usually 1 year depending on different water condition
Reverse Osmosis (RO) Membrane
Use: Having a smaller pore size than ultra filtration membrane, which is only 0.0001 micron, reverse osmosis (RO) membranes work to remove contaminants by using pressure to force water through a semi-permeable membrane. RO membranes are one of the most effective water purification methods.
Removes: up to 99% of over 1,000 contaminants in water, including lead, chlorine, fluoride, arsenic, asbestos, calcium, sodium, and more
Life Span: Usually 2-3 year depending on different water condition
Ion Exchange
Use: If reducing the amount of heavy metals in your family’s water is your concern, including lead, iron and manganese, our ion exchange filters are highly effective. These filters use ion exchange to attract positively or negatively charged dissolved inorganics to a bed of electrically charged resin and exchange them with hydrogen and hydroxide which form H2O.
Life Span: Usually 6-12 months depending on different water condition
Ultraviolet (UV) Filter
Use: Another concern many customers have, especially those using well water, is eliminating harmful microorganisms from their water. This can be achieved with a UV water filter.
Removes: Microorganisms like E. coli, giardia, and other bacteria
Life Span: Usually 1 year depending on different water condition
Alkaline Filter
Use: Typically an alkaline water filter is used in conjunction with our RO system since the RO membrane removes not only harmful pollutants but also minerals. The alkaline filter will restore minerals such as natural calcium and magnesium and will create better-tasting water.
Life Span: Usually 6- 12 months depending on different water condition
Filter Maintenance
It is important to keep in mind, your filtration system is only as good as the filter itself. Therefore, to get the best performance out of your filtration system and the purest water possible, it is essential you replace your filters regularly.
In the article “Why It’s Important To Change Your Water Filters,”the National Sanitation Foundation points out that unchanged filters cause you to lose the benefits of filtration and you will be using filters that no longer treat the contaminants.
If filters are unchanged for too long, it can make the water quality worse than the quality prior to being filtered and may breed bacteria and other dangerous microorganisms. Dirty filters also run the risk of depositing contaminants that are trapped in the filters back into the water and pose serious health risks. Sediments trapped in the filters can also slow the water flow.
Each of our filters come with a suggested filter life. However, factors such as water source greatly affect the filter’s lifespan, so it is suggested you check them regularly for discoloration or buildup and change them as frequently as needed.
While there is a suggested time frame for each filter, it is also important to consider how many gallons pass through each filter as that is often a better indicator to the necessity of a replacement.
iSpring’s Peace of Mind Customer Service
We know selecting a water filtration system and the appropriate filters can be a daunting task, and we want you and your family to have the utmost confidence in our company, customer service, and products.
We are a family owned company located outside of Atlanta, GA that strives to provide our customers with high-quality drinking water at an affordable rate.
If you need assistance in selecting which filtration system best addresses your water concerns or if you encounter any problems with purchased products, we encourage you to reach out to our knowledgeable staff who will provide you with support. At iSpring, we stand behind our products and offer extended manufacturer warranties as well as lifetime free technical support. Our goal is, and always will be, to maximize your user experience.