Water enters your home from a variety of sources, either coming from:
In most cases the water coming in through the city municipal water supply is usually surface water from rivers and lakes.
Underground water in aquifers is accessed by digging a borewell. Some independent homes or apartments have an independent borewell to act as the source of water stored at the overhead tank and used for various purposes. As the requirement of water goes up, the depth of the borewell increases.
In places where there is low availability of water in the immediate vicinity or from the city municipal council, separate water tankers are brought in to fill up the storage tanks in independent homes or apartments. Most times you would be unaware of the source of this water.
Various water quality parameters must be checked to understand the usability of water be it potable water or utility water.
Since the water that reaches your home is at a different stage in its water cycle, the amount and type of contamination differs in each. The list of contamination and the permissible amount tells your everything you need to know about keeping your family safe.
Hard water contains impurities that react to form insoluble scum. Temporary hardness shows up as white scales you see on your faucets, while permanent hardness leads to various issues depositing itself on the scalp of our hair making it frizzy and might lead to hairfall.
Higher temperature may favour certain highly toxic compounds to have a greater solubility than needed. Metals like cadmium, zinc and lead are examples of toxic materials.
A high dissolved oxygen level makes water taste better, but result in corrosion in water pipes. Thus, an optimum level of oxygen is maintained in drinking water.
pH affects the solubility of toxic chemicals in water. For humans, pH values above 11 and below 4 can cause skin and eye irritations. pH levels outside 6.5 – 9.5 can also corrode pipes.
Water is essential for everything in our lives, from drinking and cooking to cleaning, brushing and bathing.
Drinking Water Purifiers use various technologies to purify contaminants including microbiological contaminants in water to provide safe drinking water while Utility Water Purifiers are the lesser known water purification systems that purify and improve the quality of water you use for cleaning, brushing and bathing purposes.
Point of Entry Systems are installed at the point where the water enters your home, while Point of Use systems are connected at the point where it is directly used, e.g. drinking water purifiers at the kitchen or tap filters that provide only utility water for washing.
While the above technologies purify water for utility purpose only, there are various technologies that help in eliminating all impurities required to get potable water.
In reverse osmosis, an applied pressure is used to overcome osmotic pressure. Reverse osmosis can remove many types of dissolved and suspended species from water, including bacteria, and is used in both industrial processes and the production of potable water.
Ultraviolet water treatment works by exposing microorganisms to UV radiation, via a special UV light bulb, which disrupts their DNA and disables their ability to replicate. While UltraViolet Radiation is very active at deactivating cysts in low turbidity water, as the turbidity increases, the effectiveness of this radiation decreases.
Known as I.M.PA.C.T. (Integrated Membrane Pre Activated Carbon Technology), this 3M Proprietary technology uses a 2-stage thorough process to remove all contaminants in water to ensure potable water.
The first stage is pre-filtration that uses a premium pleated membrane that does initial filtration to reduce dirt, rust and other particulate matter.
The second stage of filtration that is fine filtration combines a Patented pharmaceutical grade two-zone microporous membrane and a pre-activated carbon block that reduces cysts, chlorine and over 99.95% water-borne bacteria.
*Approximately 3 grams of carbon can achieve the effective surface area of a football field.
Given that the pharmaceutical grade membrane works efficiently with gravity, there is no need of any electricity or water storage. You get water on demand directly from the faucet without consuming any electricity