Water Purification Methods
Water purification is a process that treats infected water and makes it usable again. Through this process, all contaminants including chemical compounds, pathogens, organic, and inorganic matter, are removed from drinking water.
There are several methods in which you can achieve water purification. Some of them remove all possible contaminants, while others focus solely on a certain group of pollutants. The water purification process also includes distillation and ionization methods. We felt the need to mention this since many people think purification and distillation are two different things.
How to Determine if Water Purification Is Necessary
To avoid wasting precious time purifying water that doesn’t need to be purified, you’re going to need to determine the body of water’s quality.
Many times, it’s impossible to determine water quality based solely on appearance. You’ll need to rely on a water testing service or get a water testing kit and do it yourself. The main elements you should be looking for are pathogens (bacteria, viruses, parasites), microorganisms, VOCs, heavy metals, TDS (total dissolved solids), chlorine, lead, and bleach.
List of Water Purification Methods
Normally, people rely on municipal water treatment plants to give them clean and healthy water. However, in recent years, Americans’ trust in public water supplies has decreased dramatically.
It’s no wonder why this is happening. With so many boil water notices being issued seemingly more and more, plus other factors such as increased contamination in public drinking water, it’s no wonder why you should consider water purification.
Depending on what contaminants are in your drinking water, you’re going to need to rely on a water purification method that targets that specific group of pollutants. With that said and done, let’s see what purification methods you can use to a good degree.
Boiling
This is by far the simplest method of purifying water. All you need is a metal container and a fire to place it on. Do note, however, that this method only works on pathogens and light sediment.
The good part is that it’s completely safe and you can do it practically anywhere you want without the need of electricity or fancy tools. In most cases, boiling water for five minutes will kill most microorganisms. The one factor that affects the effectiveness of boiling is altitude. If you are in on a mountain, for example, you might need to bring the water to a boil for ten minutes just to be safe.
Once done, place the water in a container using a strainer or a clean cloth to trap the remaining sediment. After the water reaches room temperature, you can put it in the fridge to let it cool down. Do note that boiled water will have less “taste”. You can solve this by thoroughly shaking the water bottle after it cools or by adding a pinch of salt.
Distillation
A regular water filter won’t be able to eliminate radiation, lead, salt, metals, and many other contaminants effectively. You’ll either need a highly expensive whole house filtration system or an industrial water filter. Of course, if you’re reading this, you probably can’t afford such a luxury, especially in a small home.
For that, you can rely on water distillation as the safest way to drink water that’s been contaminated by a significant amount of pollutants. You can heat water into steam and then trap the steam to eliminate most forms of contamination – including radioactive fallout.
Distillation won’t remove all possible contaminants, like volatile oils and certain organic compounds, but most heavy particles will stay behind. The best way to distill water is to purchase a water distillation system. If you’re out in the field, try building a solar still.
Solar Water Disinfection (SODIS)
As a last resort if you’re out in the wild and have no other option, you can try SODIS. As the name suggests, the method implies leaving water out in the sun for disinfection, preferably during the time when UV rays are most abundant.
You only need a plastic bottle to collect the water with. It’s easy to use, inexpensive, or even free sometimes, and it doesn’t require any chemicals whatsoever. The sun’s abundant UV light kills or damages almost all biological hazards in the water. Do be aware that this method should be used as a last resort.
The disadvantages are that you need sunny weather or two days of overcast sky for full effectiveness. If the sky is cloudy or if it’s raining, this method won’t work at all. And even if the weather is in your advantage, the water you’re trying to treat should have no other pollutants. Both the bottle and the water should be clear to allow for maximum penetration of UV rays.
UV Water Purification
Let’s leave the outdoors for a little while and focus on what you can do to purify water in the comfort of your own home. A UV water purifier is by far the best method of getting rid of bacteria, parasites, viruses, and other pathogens. The only real downside is that it doesn’t work on anything inorganic.
Much like the previous method we’ve talked about, this one also relies on UV rays to do its job. However, since the rays are far closer to the water, the disinfection process takes mere seconds. As long as there are no other pollutants in your water supply, a UV water filter will do wonders at minimal costs.
Much like a neon bulb, this type of filter consumes minimal electricity, so you won’t notice a huge increase on your bills. Just to be safe, you should also install a sediment pre-filtering system to ensure that no inorganic elements enter the water supply and the UV-C rays can reach their target.
Chlorine or Bleach Disinfection
If you can’t afford any other more efficient water purification system, you can use the time-tested method of chlorine or bleach disinfection. Even though chlorination is often used by municipal water purification plants as the primary method of disinfection, bacteria might still get in your supply depending on where the water travels.
Let’s say it travels through old, cracked pipes that have also managed to form mold. In that case, the previous chlorination process will have been ineffective to say the least. In this case, using bleach in small amount or getting some chlorine tablets are both cheap methods you can use to disinfect water at home.
Generally speaking, the amount of the chemical you use will depends on the water quality and temperature. For cold or murky water, you’ll need to add a bit more disinfectant than you’d normally add to hot or clean water. More specifically, cold or murky water will require four drops of bleach per quartz, while warm or clean water will only require two drops per quart. Once you’ve added the substance, let the water sit still for at least half an hour. But for the best results, we recommend leaving the water still for an hour. Some parasites, like Giardia, can survive chlorine and bleach for up to 45 minutes.
Reverse Osmosis
Reverse osmosis is a relatively complex set of processes that remove a significant number of contaminants from drinking water. To make things easier to understand, a RO system applies pressure on the water and takes it through a semi-permeable membrane that traps pathogens, sediment, heavy metals, chemicals, and much more.
The advantages are numerous. For a start, restaurants prefer reverse osmosis systems because the resulting water used for cooking significantly improves the taste of food. RO water is also free from salts, hard minerals, and any particles that’s large enough to get trapped by the system’s membrane.
With that said, there are a few elements that do pass through a RO membrane. Certain pesticides and solvents will still make their way through it, which is especially concerning if you use drinking water from a private well placed on a farm.
Iodine Treatment
You’ve probably heard of iodine treatment before used to combat thyroid problems. However, not many people know that it can also be used to treat water. This water purification chemical is available in tincture, crystal, liquid, or tablet form depending on your preference.
While it’s ineffective against Cryptosporidium, it can kill giardia within 45 minutes. Other bacteria and viruses can be effectively eliminated using iodine treatment in just around 30 minutes.
To purify water with tincture iodine, combine two drops of iodine for every quart of clear water. If the water is cloudy, use 10 drops for every quart. Let the solution stand for at least 30 minutes and let the iodine do its job. Do note that this will change the water’s flavor.
For crystal or tablet iodine, you should follow the manufacturer’s instructions, as many of the versions found on the market vary in concentration levels and other factors. But as an average, you should know that a typical iodine crystal bottle will be able to treat about 2000 quarts of water. In any case, this is a healthy alternative if you can’t invest in a purification system and you don’t want any bleach or chlorine in your water for whatever reason.
It’s also a much healthier option if you’ve got thyroid problems. Think of it as a two-in-one solution. Either way, you’re getting an excellent value for your money’s worth.
Filtration
There are numerous types of water filters currently available on the market. Installing a water filtration system that targets specific contaminants is one of the best choices for purifying water.
The thing is, like with all other purification methods mentioned in this article, a filter won’t remove just about anything. You have to do your research and see which filter removes most, if not all, contaminants that directly affect your household’s water supply.
However, a good filtration system can target molecules much smaller than the ones a reverse osmosis system can remove. Again, we encourage you to test your water beforehand to ensure you’re getting the right purification device for your specific needs.
What Water Purification Method Works Best For Most Households?
While it’s true that some small regions have a significant number of contaminants, the majority of Europe and the US most commonly have to deal with pathogens as the main threat to their health.
Also, more than 80% of US households have to deal with hard water. These two facts mean that, in most cases, if you’re reading this, you have to deal with the harshness of water hardness when showering or using appliances AND with potentially disease-causing microorganisms in your drinking water.
And if you take into account the fact that pipes tend to rust or that water might collect some sediment from the ground, you might also need a sediment filter beforehand. So now we can conclude that for most of the people reading this, you’ll probably need a purification system that can handle these three major risk factors at once.
However, the problem comes when coming up with a solution that can handle all these pollutants. You see, a whole house filtration system might do the tricks, but it’s not a perfect fix. Such a filtration system is highly expensive and requires a lot of maintenance and significant hassle in regard to the installation process.
In this case, we recommend going for several purification methods that will cost you much less than a whole house filtration system. We’ll get to it right away.
The Winning Combination of Water Purification For Most Homes
What we consider by far the most effective setup for most households will net you significant benefits in the long run. The solution we propose removes sediment, eliminates bacteria, and softens the water without eliminating beneficial minerals or adding sodium to the supply.
Now you might wonder how it all works. The softening solution reshapes mineral crystals to make them smaller and less sticky, so they’ll no longer cause limescale buildup inside pipes, appliances, and on faucets or fixtures. It also solves the lathering problem and prevents minerals from sticking to your scalp or triggering your dermatitis.
But we’ll get to that part a little later. Right now, let’s focus on the first piece of equipment you’ll need for this excellent setup:
Sediment Pre-Filtering System
When it comes to installing a pre-filtering system, most people are worried about the cumbersome installation process.
However, with Yarna’s spindown pre-filtering system, the process is far less complicated. It comes with the excellent build quality and is very easy to install as long as you have a 1" or a 3/4" pipe. You’ll also need only eight to twelve wraps of Teflon tape around the brass fitting to prevent it from dripping.
Our filter is easy to maintain and traps sediment effectively before it can come in contact with the rest of the pipe or the rest of the filtration system. It’s also excellent at removing tiny particles such as sand or what they call brown sludge. It will also stop any large sediment from clogging up your softener and other filtration systems.
Speaking of maintenance, all you need to do is flush it without removing the housing or taking the product apart. The housing is clear so you can actually watch as the sediment accumulates at the bottom of the filter. You can then use the included spigot to flush it all away and make enough room to trap more sediment.
Water Descaler
Now that we’ve solved the sediment part, let’s get to solving the hard water issue. You may have heard about traditional water softeners before. They’re those big tanks that use salt to create an ion exchange process between the sodium in that salt and the calcium and magnesium ions found in hard water.
Well, we’re not going to give you that. There’s a reason why salt-based water softeners have started losing their popularity. Well, not only one, but several. First off, the flushes sodium water directly affects your septic system. And fixing it is costly. Secondly, sodium prevents plants from getting the nutrients that they so desperately need, and they eventually die out.
Finally, drinking water with high sodium concentrations can greatly impact your health. For all these reasons, you can clearly see why salt-based water softeners are heavily regulated. Now we’ve got that out of the way, so let’s move on to what we’re proposing to you today.
We have a line-up of water descalers available on our website, including models for up to 1-inch pipes, for up to 2-inch pipes, and even for up to 4-inch pipes. Whichever one you choose, the capacity signals emitted by the unit actively reshape the calcium and magnesium crystals in water. That means no more limescale or other nasty side effects caused by hard water. however, you still get the full benefits of drinking those minerals straight from the water supply.
What Are the Benefits of Purchasing These Products From Yarna?
With our products, you’re guaranteed to get an excellent price as we often create offers and discounts to incentivize people to live a healthier life.
We believe that all people should have access to clean and healthy water regardless of where they live. And while we do appreciate the authorities’ best efforts to do so, they don’t always manage to succeed.
That’s why we want to offer people an efficient alternative. And to prove to you that we stand by what we believe in, we are offering a full one-year money-back guarantee on all of our products. That’s more than enough time for you to test out their efficiency and decide if they’re a worthy investment.
Not only that, but if you choose to register your product on our website, you’ll also receive a 10-year extended parts and manufacturer warranty. Think about it this way: for just a few hundred bucks, you’ll be ensuring that your home’s water supply is 100% safe to drink for the entirety of the following decade.
We are committed to ensuring sustainable and eco-friendly alternatives to traditional water purification methods. And we won’t stop here. Our R&D department is constantly researching and developing new ways in which we can accomplish our mission.
The Bottom Line
There are plenty of water purification methods that you can rely on whether you’re in a survival situation or in the comfort of your own home.
Not all of these methods will work in both scenarios; however, with all the given information, you now have the power to clean your own water whether you’re out camping or just waiting for it to get from the pipes to your faucet. Here’s to a brighter and more environmentally-friendly water solutions for everyone!
