Water is one of the natural resources that are present on Earth. Even though the earth is covered with about 71% of water, majority of that water is salty and cannot directly be consumed by us. Out of the 71% water, only 3% of the water is fresh that too frozen in glaciers or ice caps or polluted. Consuming the contaminated water directly can cause many diseases like diarrhea, cholera and typhoid, this is why it's always a necessity to use water purifiers to filter out the contamination from the water.
Types of water purifiers
There are 5 major types of water purifiers depending on their methods of cleaning the water. They are :
- Reverse Osmosis: In this method, the water is passed through a semipermeable membrane with a water pump. When the water is passed through, the membrane stops the dissolved solids present in the water like fluoride, lead and only allows the water to pass through. This is the most effective method to remove dissolved salts from the water.
- Ultraviolet: This method of purification is known to kill any disease causing microorganism, viruses and cysts that are present in the water. These type of filters have the water pass through a lamp that releases UV light and kills all the germs and bacteria. This is a low cost method of purification but the dead bodies of these microorganisms remain in the water.
- Ultrafiltration: Like the RO method, this type of purification uses different thin layers of membranes to remove bacteria, viruses macro-molecules up tp 0.02 micron. This method does not remove dissolved salts from the water and it requires regular cleaning of the membranes to function properly.
- Activated Carbon: This methods uses a process called "Adsorption" to clean the water. Charcoal is used to make this type of purifier and is best used to remove pesticides and toxic chemicals like chlorine from the water. It also improves the taste and smell of the water but it cannot remove the dissolved solids from the water.
- Sediment filter: This method is used to remove the visible contamination from the water like dirt, dust, mud. Usually before the actual purification, this filter that is made of cotton, polyester fibers is used. The main purpose of this filter is to make sure that the larger particles don't get stuck in the RO or UV purifiers.
List of best water purifiers
1.Kent Supreme plus 2020 RO + UV + UF + TDS Zero Water Waste
Kent is a very well known company that makes one of the best water purifiers. With their latest model in the year 2020, their purifiers are one of the few purifiers that use Zero water wastage technology by recirculation of the rejected water back into the top to be filtered again. It uses RO, UF & UV methods to provide water that is totally clean and safe to consume. It's a fully automatic purifier and has a capacity of 8 Liters.
2.Aquasure Delight RO + UV + MTDS Water Purifier
This Aquasure Delight uses RO+UV method and it has an option to manually control the TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) levels of the purified water. It has 3 LED indicators in the front of it that shows when its on, when it is in process of purification and when it's full. The special thing about this purifier is that it alerts you when the UV light lamp is to be changed if it runs out of service. It has a capacity of 7 liters and has an attractive design.
3.HUl Pureit Copper + RO + UV + UF Water Purifier
Medical science has proven that drinking water in copper is good for health. The Pureit copper water purifier uses a 7 stage water purification method including pre-sediment and RO filter followed by RO, UF, UV method to give out 100% pure and clean water. It has 2 water dispensers one of which provides pure RO water and the other one provides copper-charged RO water. It has an Advance Alert System that alerts 15 days prior to the expire of the germ kill kit. It has a water storage capacity of 8 liters.
4.Havells Max RO + UV Water Purifier
Havells is also a well known company that makes electrical appliances in India. The Havells Max purifier also has a 7 stage purification process that includes sediment filter, Activated Carbon filter, RO membrane, Germicidal UV and even a taste enhancer to improve taste. It also has a Mineral Cartridge that corrects the PH level of the water and makes the water healthy for our body. It also has an alert system that runs self diagnosis and reports any errors. It has an 8 liter water capacity.
5.LifeStraw Portable water purifier
Not everyone has the money to buy expensive water purifiers and many people living in remote areas do not have electricity to power up those purifiers. To help those people, a group of people manufactured the "LifeStraw". This plastic tube uses only physical filtration methods to clean out the water and does not contain any chemicals. it can remove up to 99.99% contamination from water and each straw has a capacity to filter out 4000 liters of water. This is one of the cheapest water purifiers that has helped many people living in places with almost no fresh water bodies.
Conclusion
These were a few important methods of water purification and a small list of top companies that provide great water purifiers. Thanks to these water purifiers, we don't see diseases spreading through water like they used to. In the coming future , we can hope to see much simpler, faster and cheaper methods to clean the water.