Whole House Water Filters

When I was a child, my grandmother tied several layers of cloth over her kitchen water faucet to filter out sediments. That was our water filter, a home made water purifier, and thinking back, it’s a wonder that we never were sickened by the spring water supply she used in her home, which was often contaminated by floods and upstream polluting by her dairy-farm neighbors. It used to be very common for people to make such home made water purifiers, and though the water at least looked cleaner, the method was very ineffective indeed.

Online, you can find dozens of plans for home made water purifiers, from very simple survival-based filters to actual water distillation systems. But if you go the do-it-yourself route, you may be introducing your own problems into your purified water. If you don’t do it properly, you are wasting your time; improperly-purified water still contains contaminants and, depending on the source, can even kill you. In addition, you may find that creating your own home made water purifiers costs more money than just going out and buying one commercially.

One of the problems with home made water purifiers is that they don’t tell you when they are saturated with contaminants; on the other hand, commercial water filters usually do. If you keep using saturated filters without knowing it, you’re not only getting un-decontaminated water; you’re actually dissolving some of the previously-removed contaminants and getting a double dose. Unless you’re using a distilled water system, you should assume that your home made water filter needs replacing, and that means you have to figure out your own saturation period.

Even if you use a distillation system or something else that supposedly removes all the contaminants from your water, you are likely to have a problem. For one thing, distillation removes even good minerals like iron, copper, and calcium, but it does not always remove chlorine, as chlorine is naturally a gas and will evaporate - and condense - right along with the water. In addition, distilled water that is not subsequently aerated will taste flat and lifeless, and your distillation system may add its own contaminants to your newly-purified water. You really need to know what you’re doing.

For those who are still planning to build a home made water purifier, make sure that your filtration system has several layers: sand or diatomaceous earth, a layer of fiber or mesh, activated carbon, another layer of mesh, and then a third layer of diatomaceous earth. These filters work best if water is put through at pressure, after being allowed to settle. Once you’ve filtered your water, test it by letting a glass sit for a day or so to see if anything settles in the bottom or if the water gets cloudy. You can also send out samples to biological laboratories to have a thorough test done for microbes if you do not get your water from a municipal supply. Unless you’re doing something very large scale, it’s likely to be cheaper and easier to buy a premade filtration system.

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by Trent Barrett

A home made water purifier can be as simple as cloth tied around a water faucet, or as complex as a series of chemical filters put together for a large quantity of water to be run through them. Historically, the cloth was a typical solution, and even today in Africa, some tribeswomen are taught to pour fresh-drawn water through layers of cloth before using it to remove contaminants. The water at the end looks cleaner, and it does prevent some water-borne contaminants, like amoeba, it is very far from a good solution.

You’ll find many types of home made water purifier instructions online, from simple filters to systems that involve distillation of water. The truth is, there are some serious problems with the do-it-yourself approach when it comes to purification of water. That’s not good; improperly purified drinking water can harm your health and even kill you. While it’s laudable to want to save a little money by creating your own filters, you could be putting yourself and your family at risk by doing it.

You have to be aware that home made water purifiers do not tell you when they can no longer remove contaminants. This is very important, as if you don’t change filters when they are saturated, the already-removed contaminants can actually dissolve in fresh water run through the filters and make your water even more contaminated. Commercial water purifiers almost always have a system that tells you when to change filters. For a home made filter, you’ll need to assume specific times to change to ensure you don’t recontaminate yourself.

Even if you use a distillation system or something else that supposedly removes all the contaminants from your water, you are likely to have a problem. For one thing, distillation removes even good minerals like iron, copper, and calcium, but it does not always remove chlorine, as chlorine is naturally a gas and will evaporate - and condense - right along with the water. In addition, distilled water that is not subsequently aerated will taste flat and lifeless, and your distillation system may add its own contaminants to your newly-purified water. You really need to know what you’re doing.

If you’re determined to do it yourself,a home made water purifier needs to have several layers of filtration in order to work effectively: sand or diatomatious earth, activated carbon, and layers of gauze or mesh to hold the filters in place. Water needs to be put through this filter at pressure. Then, at the end, you need to test the water yourself; the best way is to allow a glass of water to sit for a day or two and see what settles at the bottom or whether the water gets cloudy, and also test the water at biological laboratories for microbes and other things that can sicken you. It is likely to be cheaper and easier to just purchase a commercial system.

About the Author:

Trent Barrett is a consultant who writes for Best-Home-Water-Purifiers.com. You can visit their homepage to learn more about Home Water Purifiers.