Is There A Portable Water Purification Filter That Creats Safe Water

How to choose a portable water filter or purifier

Posted four years ago

IT'Southward BETTER TO Exist Safety THAN Sad…

A question we are frequently asked is, 'Why should I buy your product?'. We love this question, as it gives us the chance to explicate things in detail to our potential customers. The consequences of drinking contaminated h2o can be life threatening, and so the main affair y'all should expect for in a portable water filter or purifier is Safety.The following information should aid you make the safest choice.

At present unless you walk effectually carrying a water quality testing kit at all times, you can never reallyknow for certain what is in the h2o y'all're drinking. The affair about bacteria, protozoa (cysts) and virus is that you tin can't see them! And so the safest affair to assume is that an unknown water source could take annihilation in it.

There are numerous products on the market that claim to filter or purify h2o,alleging to make it safe to beverage. The scary truth is,this industry is unregulated. A manufacturer can make whatsoever claims about their products that they want to, they don't even demand to take their products tested!

To brand sure you aren't caught out and tin make an informed determination, here are 6 essential questions you should ask. We've fifty-fifty provided the answers for you lot!

1. What is the difference between a portable water purifier and portable h2o filter?

A h2o purifier removes, kills or inactivates all types of illness-causing microorganisms, such as leaner, viruses and protozoan cysts, making h2o rubber to drink.

A portable water filter just removes bacteria and protozoa, merely Not virus, which are far smaller. You lot would likely go very sick using a water filter to treat water which contains virus.

And so it's off-white to say water purifiers are a safer selection than water filters.

ii. What standards do manufacturers demand to meet in order to sell a portable water filter or purifier to the public?

None. There is zip stopping someone from making a water filter out of an sometime sock, challenge it rids the world of disease and selling it to the masses. The 'portable water filtration' manufacture is completely unregulated and as a consequence, there are many embellished, misleading and unfounded claims made.

And then don't trust everything you read. #Fakenews

3. What should consumers look for to know if a product tin exist trusted?

The most important matter to look for is evidence of credible testing. The manufacturer should have a 'document of testing' for each product in their range, demonstrating they have met advisable standards. The testing certifications should be available to view on their website (preferably) or upon asking. Ask yourself this, if a company has tested their products, why wouldn't they show the results?

So manufacturers should prove that their products are tested to appropriate standards.

4. What are advisable standards for h2o purifiers to be tested to?

This is the crux of the affair, and where the following knowledge can go along you lot prophylactic. Warning, if yous weren't already bored, this next bit should do information technology!

*Takes deep breath…

The EPA (Ecology Protection Bureau) Guide Standard Protocol was written in 1987 for testing microbiological water purifiers. This became the gold standard, determining what level of reduction of virus, bacteria, and protozoa is needed before water is safe to drinkable. The next organisation to throw their hat into the 'drinking water standards' ring was NSF (National Sanitation Foundation), who produced their own recommendation, the 'NSF P231 microbiological water purifiers protocol'. This is based on the original EPA guidelines, but gets revised more regularly, allowing for new technologies and organisms for testing with.

water being tested in a scientific laboratory.

The full NSF P231 protocol requires tests be carried out ontwo dissimilar typesof water over an11 day catamenia (or the life of the filter, whichever ends first). For the first six days, the filter is tested with General Examination Water (Blazon ane). This is just 'spiked tap water' – designed to exam how the filter would cope with viral and bacterial contamination in your tap h2o supply. This should be a breeze to pass.

The real claiming comes in the final five days, when the Type one water is replaced for Challenge Test Water (Type 3). This Type 3 water is dirty, cold, PH adjusted, has dissolved solids and organic matter mixed in, and of course includes plenty of virus and bacteria! Information technology'due south designed to represent the worst instance scenario you could come across in the existent earth. Information technology'due south practically sewage water. Whether hiking in the dorsum country or travelling through developing countries, wouldn't you lot sleep easier knowing your purifier product has had hundreds of litres of the worst possible water put through it and passed with flying colours?

Worryingly, most h2o filters and purifiers sold in stores cannot complete the second half of the NSF P231 protocol with the Type 3 Challenge Exam Water.Therefore, most products out there aren't actually tested to the existent-earth standards that you lot will be using them in!

Now here's where things become even murkier (like Blazon three water murky!). Some manufacturers merits to run across or exceed EPA guidelines & NSF P231 standards. Yet, they have but completed the Blazon 1 water phase of the protocol, they oasis't completed the Type 3 stage of the 11 day test. For case, there's actually i h2o purifier brand who show their testing certificate online, and the certificate states that the exam was only carried out on1 litre of water!So no i knows how constructive that production is beyond that first litre!

Also wait out for filters or purifiers claiming to run across 'NSF 42 & 53' standards. These standards are for 'health and aesthetic gustatory modality effects for RESIDENTIAL water filters'. All this examination proves is that they are suitable for filtering water from the tap in your home. They volition not remove bacteria and virus!

And so the NSF P231 standard is the only test worth its salt. It'due south very difficult to pass, involving 11 days testing with Type ane and then Type 3 waters. That is the standard your purifier should be tested to and meet. If there is no mention and evidence of NSF P231 or EPA guide testing, question why.

5. WHICH COMPETENT LABORATORIES CAN Be RELIED UPON TO TEST Water PURIFIERS TO THE REQUIRED STANDARDS?

Testing should ever be washed through an external independent Lab. The lab should be ISO 17025 accredited, ensuring it is competent and follows all-time practice. Here are some labs which meet this criteria and have the relevant experience with testing drinking h2o.

NSF (National Sanitation foundation) Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
BCS (Biological Consulting Services) Gainesville, Florida, USA
Biovir Laboratories California, USA
WQA (Water Quality Association) Illinois, The states
SGS Worldwide locations
Multiple University laboratories worldwide (with relevant faculties)

So if the Laboratory referenced in a testing document isn't one of the to a higher place, perhaps do some farther earthworks to define its credentials.

6. WHAT OTHER CONSIDERATIONS ARE In that location WHEN It COMES TO THE Safety OF A H2o PURIFIER?

By now you know, if a product claims to be a water purifier, it tackles virus, in addition to bacteria and cysts (protozoa). There are two methods ordinarily used to purify water in portable purification products. One uses 'hollow fibre membranes' which basically act as a physical barrier, catching microorganisms while letting water pass through. The second method involves using an element which chemically reacts with the contents of the water.

Hollow Fibre Membranes: The size of the 'pores' (holes) in hollow fibre membranes is what is important. The size is crucial, because the pores must exist smaller than whatever we intend to block out. Most water filters use hollow fibre membranes with a pore size of 0.1 or 0.two microns (100 or 200 nanometers). At this size, they volition safely cake out protozoa and leaner, merely virus are much smaller and would pass through these pores. Some waterborne virus tin be as small-scale every bit 0.02 micron (or 20 nanometers).

The membranes we apply in our LifeSaver purifiers have a pore size of approximately fifteen nanometers or 0.015 microns. So our membranes are like a tennis dissonance, rain (h2o molecules) tin can pass through, but the tennis ball (smallest waterborne virus) cannot get through.

A tennis ball hitting a racket illustrates how hollow fibre membranes physically block virus, bacteria and protozoa in water purification

The real beauty of using hollow fibre membranes is that, as the product is used, the pores begin to block up. Eventually every single pore will be blocked and even water molecules won't pass through. Whilst this seems like a downside for the user (every bit they'll demand a replacement cartridge), it's incredibly important to have a visible sign that your product isn't working anymore. At to the lowest degree you can't drink dangerous water from a LifeSaver product if information technology stops letting water come through! It'southward because of this feature, coupled with the fact nosotros block virus and are fully tested to NSF P231 standards, that we call our productsFAILSAFE.

Adsorptive Technology: Remember that second method we mentioned? Well, some water purifiers rely on using elements to take chemical reactions with contaminants in the water. This element effectively creates an attraction, a bit like when someone's hair is attracted to a balloon because of static. As the water passes through, the contaminants in the h2o are fatigued to the element and stick to it, pregnant simply safe water passes through to the user. That'south great in the brusk term, but unfortunately it doesn't have long for the element to lose its level of allure. Equally the chemical element gets more and more contaminants stuck to information technology, it becomes less and less effective, especially with turbid or cloudy water. Products using this technology would struggle with Blazon 3 water. The brusk term effectiveness of these products is exactly why some companies simply test the first 1 litre!

Hair attracted to a balloon due to static illustrates how adsorptive technology is used in water purification

However, thereal danger with products using adsorptive technology is that in one case the element stops alluring the harmful contaminants, there's no physical barrier to block them from passing through the user. To make matters worse, at that place's no way for the user to know when the element has reached that point! This is why some water purifiers will claim to remove virus for merely 100 litres (not very much at all) or fifty-fifty suggest replacing the element every few months. This leaves the customer having to either keep count of the number of litres they're drinking, or recall how long agone they replaced the element. Not very applied andnot very safe!

So products using adsorptive reactions aren't constructive for very long. The user can't tell when they've stopped purifying h2o finer, so therefore you're gambling with your health. While LifeSaver water purifiers apply hollow fibre membranes which eventually block up, protecting the user.

IN Decision

Because our products were designed to be used by vulnerable people in developing countries or following disasters, we had to ensure they had these innate characteristics:

Must be portable
Must not require chemicals or electricity
Must remove all types of microorganisms (including virus)
Must be FAILSAFE (never let dangerous h2o pass through)

It'south considering of the last two points that nosotros pride ourselves on having the safest h2o purifiers you will notice.

Let's get out you with one terminal question, and you lot can answer this one for yourself.

Why would you take a chance on your health?

mic drop, after delivering a compelling case for LifeSaver water purifiers being the super safest products in the market

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