Homemade water purifiers: useless in removing chemical contaminants

Everyone needs home water purifiers and filters. But even if you believe in do-it-yourself, you don’t want a home water purifier. Just the right necessary components would cost more than a professionally built device.

In order to be effective and remove the widest range of contaminants, home water purifiers and filters must include several steps. Let’s start with how chemical contaminants are removed.

The chemicals dissolve in the water. They float along with him and most of them are invisible to the naked eye. Sometimes the chlorine content can be high enough that you see a yellowish powder at the bottom of a bowl or pan, but more often than not, everything “appears” normal.

You can use a homemade water purifier to show how visible dirt and sludge is removed from sources like rivers and lakes. A homemade water purifier is a popular science project and a worthwhile rainy-day activity at kids’ clubs. But they can’t be used to show how chemical contaminants are removed.

If you could actually “see” the process, it would look like tiny particles attached to larger particles. You see, certain filter media attract certain chemical contaminants and become trapped on the surface of the media.

For example, granular activated carbon attracts chlorine and the chemical is trapped on its surface. Removal of other chemicals requires different means.

The best home water purifiers and filters contain granular activated carbon, as well as a media block with a submicron-sized pore structure to remove the widest range of chemical contaminants. The next thing we will see is how the lead particles are removed.

Since lead particles can be large or small, you can demonstrate how larger particles are removed by using a home water purifier or simply passing a glass full of pebbles and water through a strainer. In well-constructed home water purifiers and filters, the smallest particles are removed through a process called ion exchange.

Lead is a dangerous heavy metal that accumulates in the body over time, causing chronic and life-threatening health problems. Therefore, even the smallest traces should not be consumed.

Some purification methods only reduce lead levels below the “Federal Action Level.” With ion exchange, more than 99% of all traces of lead are removed.

The other common threats in publicly treated water are known as cysts. They cause waterborne diseases that vary in severity. Sometimes the disease is mild. In other cases, it causes death.

You cannot demonstrate how cysts are removed with a home water purifier, because they are microscopic in size. The process is similar to a casting device; it’s just that the pores in the strainer are microscopic in size.

To effectively remove cysts, a purifier must be certified to filter to at least one micron. The best systems filter down to 0.5 microns.

You have to be careful when buying home water purifiers and filters. Manufacturer claims can be misleading, to say the least.