You already know there may be a problem with your water, or you wouldn't be searching on "drinking water station.
" You may even know that one of Ralph Nader's research groups, after a review of documents, pegged the number of toxic, and even cancer-causing, chemicals in our water at about 2100.
Are you aware that prescription drugs are more and more being found in our water? "Drinking water station" is one company's name for their reverse osmosis water filtration unit.
There are two main types of water filtration systems for home use-reverse osmosis, and carbon block, also known as activated carbon or activated charcoal.
There are other systems, such as distillation, ultraviolet, ionization, magnetic, and others but they're not widely used.
The reverse osmosis systems are the most widely sold, due to good marketing, but in this writer's opinion, the carbon block systems are the better value.
Reverse Osmosis Systems Water is forced through a membrane, which has pores small enough to filter out most, but far from all, contaminants.
Unfortunately, many of the worst ones are smaller than water molecules, so they aren't filtered out through the reverse osmosis process.
These are the "VOCs", or "volatile organic chemicals"-such things as herbicides (weed killers), pesticides (bug killers), and most pharmaceuticals.
Because they don't catch these "VOCs", a carbon filter is added to the reverse osmosis drinking water station, which adds to their complexity -so why not just start with a carbon block system? Furthermore, because it's difficult to force water through the membrane, a decent flow at the faucet can't be obtained without a pressurized storage tank, which adds to the complexity, and takes up additional room In order for the membrane not to get clogged, a great deal of water is used to flush the sediment and other contaminants on down the drain, so that about 3-10 gallons of water is wasted for every gallon filtered.
Maintenance can be an issue with this kind of drinking water station.
Tiny imperfections in the membrane often let contaminants through, and the membrane itself is subject to attack and deterioration by the chemicals and chlorine in the water.
Reverse osmosis systems also remove the minerals our bodies need, and that tend to make the water taste good.
Finally, the AMA has determined that reverse osmosis systems actually concentrate the very dangerous mercury and aluminum.
The operating cost of a reverse osmosis drinking water station is significantly higher than the carbon block type-typically over $.
25 per gallon.
(The best-selling carbon block filter operates at about $.
09-$.
10 per gallon.
) Carbon Block Systems A drinking water station using a carbon block filter system-also called activated carbon or activated charcoal-provides clean pure water at a substantially lower cost than any other method.
A pound of carbon has up to 150 acres of surface area.
Contaminants, which have a negative charge, are attracted to the carbon, which has a positive charge, where they are captured, or filtered, out of the water.
Carbon block filters will reliably filter out the volatile organic chemicals, prescription drugs, chlorine, lead, and virtually all other dangerous chemicals and toxins, including the cysts of the parasites giardia and cryptosporidium.
Reverse osmosis systems salespeople like to state that carbon filtration won't filter out heavy metals, but that simply isn't true.
High-quality block carbon filtration units are generally certified to remove lead and other heavy metals.
The leading carbon filtration unit, the one I installed in my home, is UL-certified to remove approximately 99 % of the lead.
The bottom line is that while a reverse osmosis system will get rid of most contaminants, it's more complex, takes up more room under your sink, costs more to operate, and is more prone to failure than a quality carbon block system.
Both of them are far superior to buying your drinking water in bottles, at exorbitant cost.