About Distillation:

Advantages: The deadly bacteria running wild in your water are removed by this system successfully. There are other inorganic substances which can be vaporized if they have a lower boiling point than water.

Disadvantages: There are several contaminants which have a lower boiling point than water. These could survive distillation and remain as pollutants in the water. The final distilled product will not be free of these liquefied pollutants for sure. If we are to compare water treatment systems, we are also to look into the power costs of these systems. Given the fact that each gallon of water costs over 20 cents of electricity to be filtered under the distillation system along with extra costs for freeing the water of the remaining impurities, it is obvious that this system works less effectively than the other water treatment systems you would use at home.

About Reverse Osmosis:

Advantages: This technique has been made popular by desalination plants. It helps filter out lead, arsenic and other contaminants which are present in groundwater. It basically sees to the fact that molecules larger than water molecules are cleaned up by the usage of this technique.

Disadvantages: The chief problem of using this technique is the fact that it leads to the removal of a few essential minerals present in groundwater. Also given the fact that herbicides and other chemicals of this nature have smaller molecules than water molecules, they persist in the water even after the reverse osmosis has cleared the other chemicals. Reverse osmosis, if we were to compare water treatment systems, would be the worst kind of water purifier possible. It creates a huge residue of wastewater. It consumes a lot of power required to make the pumps work (over 18 cents per gallon). It also takes a lot of time. Not only this, the equipment is extremely expensive. Obviously the water has to go through further filtration.

About Pitchers and Carafe-Style Filters:

Advantages: The primary advantage of this type of water purifier is that it is cheap. Chlorine and odor are its chief targets and it successfully removes them. Lead is also usually taken care of by these water treatment systems. Power costs are also absent. Given the fact that bottled water is becoming expensive, this could be a great cheap substitute to bottled water.

Disadvantages: They do not work at the best of their capacities for too long. You spend about 25 cents per gallon on the filtration which is not cheap. They could also be leaking at times. They are clearly hardly better than tap water so extensive extra filtration is required.

About Carbon Filtration and Multi-Stage Systems:

A disclaimer before we begin discussion on this particular form of water treatment system: this system is definitely the most useful system possible if you were to compare water treatment systems of all kinds and techniques. . But, you do need a service agency or a well to make use of this system. Also be careful about the purchase and try and compare a few product performance information sheets before you get to buy a particular variety.

Advantages: Of course this system takes care of the widest range of organic and inorganic contaminants. These would include chlorine, pesticides, herbicides, MTBE, lead, THMs, VOCs, cryptosporidium and giardia cysts. There is no power requirement. Water pressure need not be fixed. You could easily fit counter top units which do not take up too much space. They operate with any water-pressure. The cost is below $125. The filtration costs do not exceed a dime per gallon.

Disadvantages: A minor deficiency of this type of filtration is the fact that the E Coli bacteria, especially after heavy rains sometimes manages to escape the filtration mechanism and thus in case there were heavy showers you would have to boil the water too.

Now you can go and take a look at water treatment systems of every kind and you’ll know what to ask from them.

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