The choice of fine water filters: types of cartridges, cleaning methods

Any water entering the house from an autonomous well or a central water supply system contains a certain amount of various impurities. Grains of sand, rust particles and other coarse impurities and insoluble elements that are harmful to household appliances and metering devices are removed using mechanical filters. But to eliminate odors, organic substances, chemical compounds and harmful microorganisms, it is necessary to install a fine water filter. It is these filters that allow you to get high-quality drinking water at home.

Description of devices

A device for fine water filtration consists of a body made of stainless metals or plastic, often transparent, and an element for filtering incoming water, which is used as:

• Sorption materials (aluminosilicate, activated carbon).
• Reverse osmosis membranes.
• ion exchange resins.
• Polypropylene, polyester.

Each device has two inlet holes - for supplying water and an outlet - for collecting purified water. When passing through the filter, the water is purified from heavy metals, chemical compounds, organic impurities, microorganisms and is supplied for further use. The filter elements of the device are subject to regular replacement, the frequency of which is indicated by the manufacturer.

Varieties of fine filters

Depending on the filter element, there are several main types of device:

 

• Fine mesh filter mesh made of metal. Such devices can be used repeatedly, regularly washing the elements.
• Water filter with cleaning element made of polypropylene or polyester. It can be in the form of a porous filler, a polymer cord, or be corrugated. Such devices quite effectively purify water intended for plumbing from mechanical impurities, have a low cost and are suitable for both hot and cold water. The filter element after contamination requires a complete replacement.

• Mineral sorbent filler in fine filters provides both mechanical and chemical purification of water. As a filler, natural materials are most often used - zeolite and shungite. They do not cause any harm to human health.

• Devices in which activated carbon is used as a filter element effectively purify water from a wide variety of impurities. The activated carbon filter allows you to: eliminate residual chlorine, improve the organoleptic properties of water, eliminate organic impurities in water, reduce the concentration of iron and heavy metals. The advantages include ease of use in everyday life, the disadvantage is a short service life of 2–6 months, depending on the design of the filter.

• Ion exchange resin filters. They successfully soften water by replacing calcium and magnesium in the composition of salts with sodium. The disadvantage is a small resource, it directly depends on the hardness of the incoming water.

• Reverse osmosis system. It can be attributed to expensive types of filtration. Such a device is able to extract from water any chemical and organic impurities, bacteria, viruses, antibiotics. A distinctive feature of the membrane filter is that during operation, as the resource is used up, the quality of water purification does not decrease, but remains stable at a very high level.

According to the operational parameters, the following types of filters are distinguished:

• main - preparation of technical water. Their purpose is to protect household appliances, faucets, sanitary equipment, boilers, washing machines and dishwashers.
• drinking - post-treatment of tap water to high-quality drinking water.

Methods for ultrafine water purification

After mechanical filtration, water requires better treatment. For this, several types of cleaning can be used.

Multi-stage cleaning

With multi-stage cleaning, the water flow passes through a system consisting of three flasks with cartridges, which is mounted in the kitchen under the sink. It is supposed to clean the water in three stages:

1. At the first stage, mechanical impurities are removed from the water.
2. The second stage involves passing through an ion exchange cartridge. As a result, the chemical composition of water changes. Compounds, impurities and microorganisms harmful to human health are removed from it. After passing through the second stage of purification, water does not form scale in heating devices. If in the incoming water the salt hardness is normal, but there is an excess in iron, then a special iron-removing cartridge is installed.
3. At the third stage, water is purified with pressed activated carbon. Purified water becomes pleasant in taste and smell, acquires transparency.

Reverse osmosis treatment

Reverse osmosis filter can be called the most advanced cleaning system. Water from the water supply system, undergoing such purification, gets rid of 99% of impurities.

Filtration of this type involves several stages of purification:

• At the first stage, a mechanical pre-treatment cartridge comes into operation. Various impurities and suspensions are removed, which can adversely affect the operation of the remaining filter elements and damage the reverse osmosis membrane.
• The second step involves the use of activated carbon. Purified water does not contain gases, chlorine and organochlorine compounds.
• When passing through the third stage, smaller mechanical impurities are removed from the liquid.
• The fourth stage is the operation of reverse osmosis (a thin-film membrane is used as a cleaning element).
• At the fifth stage, the water is purified by a carbon post-filter.

If you install a reverse osmosis filter, you can be sure that the water will be purified from magnesium, mercury, arsenic, nitrates, lead, iron, chlorine, as well as various types of bacteria and viruses.

The water after the reverse osmosis filter is so pure that it can have an unusual taste, especially for people with high stomach acid. In such cases, it is recommended to equip the filter with a mineralizer cartridge. It adds trace elements to purified water and normalizes the pH value.

An excellent representative is reverse osmosis system Atoll A-550

 

Atoll A-550 removes up to 99.9% of impurities contained in water and prevents the formation of scale in heating appliances.

The system includes filter elements:

• Atoll MP-5V - removes mechanical particles (sand, suspension, rust).
• Atoll GAC-10c - removes chlorine.
• Atoll MP-1V - removes small mechanical particles up to 1 micron in size.
• The Atoll 1812-50 membrane is a semi-permeable material through which only water and oxygen molecules can pass.
• The Atoll CK2586C post-filter is the last step directly before the drinking tap.

Recommendations for choosing and installing a filter

For the correct selection and high-quality installation of filter systems, several basic rules must be taken into account:

• The devices are adversely affected by pressure drops in the water supply system.
• Do not allow sudden changes in water temperature.
• The devices must be serviced regularly.
• The life of the fine filters is limited, so you need to change the cartridges as they run out.

• The flask of the device and the cartridge with active material must be free of defects.
• It is not recommended to install fine filters without first installing devices for mechanical water purification.
• The filtration device must be installed at a minimum distance from the point of water consumption in order to prevent its re-contamination.
• Purification of hot and cold liquids should be carried out with different filters.

It is impossible to imagine life on earth without water. But for a healthy existence, it is necessary to use high-quality water. Installing a fine water filter eliminates health problems, increases the operating period of household appliances. The main condition is compliance with the manufacturer's recommendations and operating rules.