How to Properly Compare Home Water Purifiers

If you try to compare home water purifiers on the basis of cost alone, you may become very confused, very quickly. For example, home water purifiers for the kitchen faucet can cost less than fifty dollars, but they go up as high as $420. What's the difference?

First, let's get rid of the most expensive systems that you probably don't need in your home. Most of us need to remove chlorine and its by-products, pesticides, herbicides and other chemical contaminants, as well as lead and microbial cysts.

If you compare home water purifiers by looking at the performance data that some companies provide, you will see that some do a better job than others. Some just claim to be the best.

Lots of companies are advertising reverse osmosis as the best and most technologically advanced systems on the market. But, the truth is that unless you are filtering river water directly into your home, you do not need the expense and you probably cannot afford the waste.

If you are serviced by a public treatment facility, home water purifiers with a sub-micron filter can do as much for your safety as any RO system. That's advice straight from the Environmental Protection Agency.

So, once you take reverse osmosis off the list, you still have a lot of products to look at when you compare home water purifiers. For $420 Amway will be happy to sell you a system that removes chlorine, lead and other contaminants, but there are less expensive brands that do a better job.

One thing to remember as you compare home water purifiers is that buying direct from the factory costs less. Amway is a middle man with a high mark up.

Next on the list is Aqua Pure made by the 3M Company. It's a good system, but still costs more than you need to pay.

Now, it becomes a little easier to compare home water purifiers, because the prices become more similar. The only other thing that you really need to look at, as far as cost goes, is the cost per gallon.

The really inexpensive pitcher filters cost more per gallon than a good kitchen counter model. The faucet filters cost more per gallon, than the ones that sit on the sink. It has to do with the cost of replacement filters and how long they last.

The best home water purifiers cost less than a dime per gallon. The pitchers cost 25 cents per gallon and only remove a little chlorine and some lead.

You want to look for a filtered-and-safe-water.com multi-stage system when you compare home water purifiers. You need carbon filtration to remove chlorine and other chemicals. You need an "adsorption" stage to remove chlorine by-products (THMs). You need a multi-media block that targets specific chemical contaminants like common pesticides and herbicides. You need a sub-micron stage that removes microbial cysts and you need ion exchange to remove lead.

That may sound like a lot, but when you compare home water purifiers, carefully, you will see that you can have all of that for less than the price of a good pair of tennis shoes. Hope that helps clear up some of the confusion.

Robert D. Clemens is an avid proponent of healthy living and a researcher of home water purifiers. To learn more about drinking water filters or which one Robert recommends and trust for his family in their home, visit Filtered-and-Safe-Water.com Filtered-and-Safe-Water.com/