Whole House Water Filters

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.