I am interested in getting a water purifier. Does anyone have an opinion as to what is the best or perhaps a website of consumer information? I want pure drinking water. I am not interested in soft water for aesthetic purposes.

-- Kathy (DavidWH6@juno.com), March 24, 2000

Answers

We use a distiller. From what I have read that is the purist water you can get. Water wise makes a good one and I think they have a web site. However we found the same one at Sears for much less money and I feel sure it is made by waterwise. After having used this for two years, I can't stand tap water and you will be amazed at the junk left after the water is distilled and we have county water, not a well! Some people say we need the minerals in the water that a distiller eliminates and others say we can't use them anyway because they are inorganic minerals. Who knows. I just know I like my distiller!

-- barbara (barbaraj@mis.net), March 24, 2000.

You might try www.outdoordepot.com. They have the Big Berky water filters.

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), March 24, 2000.

Kathy,

You might check out watertanks.com. They have a lot of information, water filtering products (and most survival type stuff including gas masks, Baygen radios, etc). It looked like there were some half priced specials advertised through today.

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), March 24, 2000.

I think I can help you out. My knowledge of water comes from my own personal water purification system (on the farm) and the pharmaceutical-grade high-purity water systems that I work with on the job. You didn't specify what the source of your water was: well or municipal.

Well water is water in its most raw form and requires additional design components for pre-treatment. This includes (1) a pre-filter to remove sediment; and maybe (2) an organic scavenger tank to remove other dissolved organics. If you have municipal water skip parts (1) and (2).

Municipal water and pre-treated well water need the following: (3) ion-exchange resins to remove chemicals and metals; and (4) carbon bed to remove CO2 and other gases/chemicals. Now you have pretty good water-- it has no sediment/rust, low levels of metals, organic chemicals (such as fertilizers), inorganic chemicals, halogens (bad-tasting chlorine). But we have not yet addressed microbiological contaminants. But before we do, the water can be further purified for non-living contaminants.

If you want to take extra steps try this: (5a) distillation to remove ANYTHING except the H2O; or (5b) reverse osmosis (RO) which does about the same.

The last steps (regardless of whether or not you choose to use step (5) above) include: (6) ultraviolet sterilizers (~254 nm) to kill all microbiological contaminants (bacteria, viruses, fungus); and (7) sub-micron membrane filtration (~ 0.2um) this will remove all of the dead organisms. You will now be making high-purity water which contains almost nothing but H2O. But this water is very reactive, that is to say that as soon as you run it through your ordinary household plumbing it will immediately pickup contaminants from the copper/PVC pipe, solder, pipe glue, rubber gaskets, etc.

If you're really serious about amking pure water--and keeping it pure--then you have to do something about the piping. Install seemless electropolished N316 stainless steel pipe. All of the joints must be welded with and orbital welder and all of your use points must be sanitary N316 SS ball valves. Also the piping should run so that it makes a continuous loop throughout the house, that way you can install a recirculating pump which will keep the water zipping through your home. This is necessary if you want to keep the piping clean.

Also, you must occasionally have the piping and all of the components maintained: pre-filters are changed as needed, ion-exchange columns and carbon beds are changed semi-annually, UV bulbs and quartz sleeves are changes annually, stills must be de-scaled annually, membrane filters are changed semi-annually, and piping is steam-cleaned, passivated and ozone sanitized annually.

This water system will cost ~$40,000.00 to build and probably ~$15,000.00 to maintain annually. That's why its not in my home, and why it shouldn't be in your's. But I just wanted to give you the extreme, you said you wanted pure water, and that's what I gave you.

You should probably think about why you want to purify your water, is there a specific danger, or is your water aesthetically unpleasant (smells funny, not clear, tastes bad)? I think you should deal with solving the real problems.

In my home I pump my water from a good well. After it comes into the house it is filtered for sediment, after that it splits off into two seperate pipes: one for inside the house and one for the barn and the outside hose-bibs. The water for inside the house goes through a simple combination deionization filter to remove the chemicals (that's your bad tastes, smells, colors) and then through a UV sterilizer with an ozone-producing bulb (this kills any microorganisms). This water is wonderful stuff: it exceeds the EPA primary and secondary drinking water standards, it exceeds the state and local standards, and my family and I love it. This may be more complex than what you need. Don't call the Culligan man, don't go to Sears or the Home Depot and buy a unit off the shelf. 1st do some reading and get an education, 2nd get your water tested, 3rd decide how much you're willing to spend (don't forget maintenance), and lastly go out to a plumbing supply store and buy what you want to install yourself OR call a bunch of plumbers and get some free estimates for them to do the installation.

The best water system is one that is custom designed to provide the grade of water which you need.

-- Charles (charles.gyecsek@roche.com), March 27, 2000.

If you don't want to go to the expense and complexities of the above, check out www.waterwise.com

-- barbara (barbaraj@mis.net), March 27, 2000.

Hi,

try pwgazette.com

They stock all sorts of things. I've ordered from them and found them to be honest and reliable. I'm about to order a WestBend Dove water distiller from them. I'll try to remember to post my timeline back here. They are helpful and will assist you with your situation.

j

-- j (jw_hsv@yahoo.com), March 29, 2000.

Kathy,

A little background. I am a professional water treatment plant operator with 20 years in the business. I have a grade 5 certification, the highest in the industry.

Distilled water will give you very pure water. The problem with drinking highly purified water is not so much that it does not have the minerals in it but more importantly that it will remove minerals from your body.

Water is the universal solvent and will erode anything given enough time.

Think of it like reverse osmosis. If the water has nothing in it because it has been removed then when it enters a new vessel it will take the ions from the vessel to put back what it has lost. i.e. if all minerals are taken out of water then it will take them back from you when you drink it. Please, if you have any questions feel free to ask. There are many different systems that can accomplish what you want to do.

Chris

-- Chris (wtp5@tcsn.net), December 22, 2000.