If you’re thinking of adding a filtration system to your house as part of your home improvements, it’s tempting to choose your method according to its features alone. Each filtration approach has precise effects on limited contaminants, though, so your filter must serve the unique challenges of your water. Lawrence Park conducts regular sampling and testing of its drinking water, most of which comes from the Lake Ontario area. Tap water is generally safe to drink, but in some areas, it has high levels of chlorine, which affects taste.
The water that enters your neighbourhood isn’t always the water that emerges from your taps. Cross-contamination and rusty pipes can diminish your water quality. Some local buildings were erected before the fifties and carry a significant risk of lead contamination, so Toronto recommends that these homeowners use filters. Some contaminants are under-regulated, and to complicate the issue further, Toronto’s bottled water sampling isn’t as stringent as its tap water testing. The area occasionally picks up e-coli in its samples, so your filter will need to eradicate microbes as well as chemicals.
Choosing the Right Filter
Few filters can remove the riskiest contaminants from drinking water: disease-carrying pathogens. Reverse osmosis removes some bacteria, but not all. Carbon filters can remove heavy metals and chemical hazards, and diffusers have their own limitations. For this reason, many of the top filter brands sell three to five-stage filtration that includes two or more different kinds of filters. There is no perfect cure, but the best filters can remove 99% of pathogens.
If you’re living in an old building, it’s best to use a home test to determine which metals you need to remove. These are some of the most challenging contaminants to deal with, but three filters manage the job well:
- Kinetic Degradation Fluxion: These filters use oxidation and reduction to remove soluble metals. They can remove a maximum of 98% of these contaminants, and are adequate for removing microbes, fungi, and chlorine.
- Ion Exchange resins replace heavy metal ions with benign alternatives. They target magnesium and calcium, and can thus soften hard water.
- Reverse osmosis removes both harmful and healthy minerals like fluoride, so they can cause deficiencies. If you use this method, your fluoride should be supplemented, particularly in children.
If you live near agricultural areas, you’re at risk for pesticide run-offs. Carbon filters are the most effective way to handle this kind of contamination, although reverse osmosis removes up to 99% of inorganic compounds. Some filters combine both methods in a single system.
Whole House or Faucet Filters
Most filters attach to your tap, purifying drinking water alone. If water hardness is an issue in our area, it can damage your pipes, washing machines, and hair, so a whole house system is best. It comes with the side benefit of preventing cross-contamination, so it’s the safest filtration to support your home improvements.
Your Maintenance Regimen
Some filters are easier to maintain than others, but in most cases, they don’t demand much of your time. If you’re using a whole home system, the filters will need replacement on a regular schedule to prevent contaminant build-up. These are often inside vertical canisters, which have seals requiring lubrication. Sediment and carbon filters need replacement once a year, while reverse osmosis membranes only need replacement once every two or three years.
Purified water tastes better, keeps you healthier, and treats your plumbing more kindly. Municipalities in Canada offer some of the safest drinking water in the world, but no water supply is 100% perfect all of the time. Installing the right filtration system will take measures in protecting you.