subject: Water Filtration Faucet - Your Guide to Find the Best [print this page] Looking for a water filtration faucet? There are numerous brands on the market. At one time, there were fewer to choose from. As people have become more aware of the health risks associated with drinking unfiltered water, as well as the environmental risks of buying bottled, there's lots more to choose from. Consumers need knowledge to make the right choice for their families, and that's what I hope to provide in this article.
As with anything else, there are good products, and there are not-so-good products. When it comes to a water filtration faucet, it is easy to tell the difference. All that you need to do is compare product performance data. If a company does not supply it, or if the data is incomplete, then simply pick another product.
You want to know which contaminants are removed and to what extent. It also helps to know the cost of replacement filters, so that you can determine an annual cost and fit it into your family's budget. In the US, some states are required to include this information, along with their other sales brochures, but only a couple of states have those laws in place. California is an example.
Some of the really bad companies do not sell in California, in order to avoid independent testing to confirm the product claims. If you are buying something on-line and you see that it is not available in specific states, then it is probably a good idea to keep shopping.
The most common contaminants in publicly treated supplies include chlorine, THMs (chlorination byproducts), VOCs, lead, cysts, Atrazine, alachlor, lindane, benzene, TCE and MTBE. Traces of prescription drugs have been found in a number of areas as well. If the water filtration faucet that you choose effectively removes other chemical contaminants, it will also trap those drug fragments. Since they are chemical in nature, they are trapped by the same filtering media.
A number of stages are necessary to sufficiently reduce all of these contaminants, but there is one step that is no longer necessary. A number of companies still include a reverse osmosis step, even though it strips the water of any natural mineral content, is expensive and unnecessary.
Manufacturers have learned how to use the natural water pressure found in most homes to filter down to one micron or less, without stripping minerals and without requiring the use of electricity. To remove cysts, which cause waterborne illnesses that can be deadly, you should look for a water filtration faucet that is certified to filter down to one micron or better. But you don't need reverse osmosis to do that.
To remove lead, you need ion exchange. At one time, reverse osmosis was the only step that could do that. Now we have choices.
Granular carbon and a block that combines carbon with other filtering media will remove all of the chemical contaminants mentioned above. You should not need to pay more than $150 for an effective water filtration faucet. That's affordable purity at its best.
Water Filtration Faucet - Your Guide to Find the Best
