Home Water Filter: Why I Bought One

In a previous post, I shared how a filter element looks like with soil and contaminant coating after being used more than a month. Today I can share with you what happens after just FOUR days getting the filter element replaced. 

8 September 2014: Baru ganti filter element

12 September 2014: After four days...yuckks

What's in our water? after just 4 days, the filter element had already turned dark brown. The tap water is definitely cleaner than water in the river. But we definitely can make it cleaner and purer. That's why water filters are important. The filter above can trap the non-soluble contaminants. We can actually see and touch these contaminants in the water. However, there are also soluble contaminants: materials that had become one with the water. Examples include organic chemicals, non-organic chemicals, disinfectants, microorganisms and even heavy metal.

Fortunately, we can filter most of these out too using a different type of water filter. There are filters that you can install at the point of use (e.g. kitchen's tap) - you get fresh filtered water ready to drink or use in cooking. These filters can be quite expensive, and personnaly I'd like to reserve its use for filtering drinking&cooking water 9can't afford to use the filter for doing laundry. The lifetime of the filter would be significantly shortened).

 Another type is pitcher with filter element that are convenient for serving water. These  pitcher are suitable for homes and offices where the demand for drinking water is less frequent. We can top up the pitcher with tap water when we need it. There is a danger is filtering the water and then leaving it for a few days, or even weeks. The filter systems may have removed the chlorin that is toxic to microorganism. So, the filtered water can be a breeding heaven for microorganism. You'd have to boil the water before drinking.

With so many options available, it is not a problem of scarcity, but a problem of choice. Please, please choose at least one. Make your water safer and cleaner for you and your family.