Buying guide for Water Purifier

Water type - hard water or soft water?

Example sources of hard water are underground water, drawn from bore wells, or supplied from Tankers. Hard water may contains fluoride, arsenic, other heavy metals. The example sources of soft water are river water, lakes, rain harvesting, or supplied by municipality.

Types of water purifiers - RO, UV, UF?

If the water type at your home is hard, then you should consider RO water purifier. If it is not hard, i.e soft water then RO is not required. If the water contamination level is high then consider UV water purifier. But if the water is hard and contamination is also high then buy RO + UV water purifier.

In short,

• If the water is hard and have high contamination, consider RO + UV purifier.
• If the water is hard and low contamination, consider RO purifier.
• if the water is soft and have high or low contamination, consider UV purifier.

There are many water purifiers available in the market for domestic use. Each water purifier type address a specific need such as the type of water is hard of soft, contamination level in your area water. The thumb rule is first you need to know what type of water available in your area, contamination level for that knows what type of water purifier is suitable. Poplar water brands manufacturing a combination of various water purifying technologies, from that you can choose a suitable one. I am furnishing list of water purifying technologies and their details as follows.

• RO
• UV
• UF
• Activated Carbon

Quick Comparison on Water Purifier Types

RO Water purifier

In RO water purifier, water pushed through the RO membrane using high-pressure pump and forces water to cross RO membrane. RO water purifier removes invisible impurities which make water hard, salty such as arsenic, sodium.

UV Water purifier

UV water purifier uses ultraviolet rays to deactivate microorganisms, a pathogen which cause water-borne diseases. UV water purifier does not help to make soft water from hard water, it just puts effort to kill microorganisms and pathogens.

UF water purifier

UF water purifier uses hollow fiber membrane. When water passes through these fiber membrane, suspended solids, other impurities are retained in fiber. UF does not kill pathogens or microorganisms. It suitable for public supply water in which dissolved salts are very low. UF effective only when it use with other water purification technologies. UF works without electricity and does not use any chemicals.

Activated Carbon water purifier

Activated carbon water purifier made up of charcoal granules, absorbs pesticides and herbicides. Activated Carbon water purifier works without electricity. Activated carbon water filter works by removing chemical such as chlorine in water when passing through carbon granules and improves the taste of water and removes bad smell.

Alkaline water purifier

Generally, water PH(Potential of Hydrogen - the amount of hydrogen present in water) values range between 1 - 14. Water with a PH value less than 7 consider as acidic and more than 7 consider as alkaline and equals to 7 consider as neutral. Alkaline water purifier uses Electrolysis process - decomposition of hydrogen and oxygen ions by passing an electric current through it.

Alkaline water consist of small hydrogen clusters, that are easily can digest by the human body and make the body hydrated efficiently. Alkaline water neutralizes the acid in the human body, therefore makes the stronger metabolic system, slows aging, reduces allergic reactions, makes healthy bones, and mainly increases the oxygen levels of your blood.

Which purifier to choose for hard water?

The biggest myth about hard water is it not safe to drink, causes health hazards and effects on human internal organs. The NRC (National Research Council, United States) reveals that hard water can be served as a dietary supplement for calcium and magnesium. According to WHO (World Health Organization) there is no evidence, proof that hard water cause health hazards. The next question arises is do we need water purifier to treat hard water? Not at all, although if you want use RO water purifier it will improve the taste, smell, color and atheistic of water, not more than that.

When to choose RO based water purifiers?

Choose RO water purifier if and only if water contains dissolved solids like fluoride, arsenic, lead which causes serious health problems. How to know is your contains these dissolved solids or not? Best way to test your home water is in laboratories. Search for nearest laboratories in Google by “water testing laboratories in + your city name”. For instance, Whaters.com is well know water testing laboratory in Mumbai. Depending on the water test report, if water contains fluoride, arsenic, lead more than suggest range, you have to go for RO water purifier.

When to choose UV based water purifiers?

In case, water contains water borne diseases causing bacteria, viruses and other pathogens, go for the UV water purifier. If water contains dissolved solids like arsenic, fluoride, lead along with the contaminants bacteria and viruses etc go for the RO + UV water purifier.

When to choose gravity based water purifiers?

In case of following scenarios

1. If you don't have installation feasibility for RO, UV water purifiers like running water, optimum water pressure, electricity
2. If you are frequently reallocating home to home and you have no time to make water purifier installation by a technician.
3. Most important one is, your budget is limited to 4000 rupees.

Water purifier installation feasibility

To install the water purifier, you should have a place to wall mount water purifier and have electricity inlet and water inlet with continuous water supply and sufficient pressure.

Budget calculation

Basic RO or UV water purifier starts from Rs 6,000, it will go up-to Rs 20,000. But if your budget is low, you can consider Chemical based, gravity water purifier.The best example is Pureit. They will do the particular job very well. But if water at your home is hard, then you cannot use gravity based filter. One alternative is to buy soft-water outside and use gravity based water purifier.

Water Purifier for travel

While traveling, hiking, camping it always hard to find purified water, mineral water bottle. One of the solution is boil the water, but it is a time consuming process as well as it is hard to do. An alternative solution is carrying specially designed water purifier for traveling. These are light weighted, small sized one. There are many types of water purifiers for traveling. UV hand held water purifier is about pen size kills water borne disease causing bacteria and viruses. Other model is bottle, type in which unpurified water have to store, on squeeze you get purified water.

Undersink Water Purifier

The only the thing that makes Undersink water purifier is it's installation place. As its name, this type of water purifiers mounted under, beneath the sink. The only reason for mounting under sink is to optimizes the kitchen space and maintain kitchen ambiance. Undersink water purifiers powered with RO, UV, UF, Activated Carbon and Sediment filter which usually used in traditional any other wall mounting water purifiers. For more information like it's advantages and disadvantages, installation you can refer our other article on What is Undersink Water Purifier.

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