How to Get Clean Drinking Water at Home
The health benefits of clean drinking water are endless, and it’s an absolute necessity for everyone to have access to clean drinking water at home. With a little DIY resourcefulness, a little help from household items, as well as cost-efficient devices, purifying your water supply is easier than ever.
There are many ways to do this, and you’d be surprised to see how easy and efficient it is to provide your family with clean and healthy drinking water, not to mention the money you’ll be saving. Let’s check out the most basic DIY methods of purifying your drinking water at home.
DIY Methods of Purifying Water
Boiling Your Water
If you’re on a budget, I absolutely recommend boiling your tap water to achieve acceptable drinking levels.
Boiling your water kills contaminants and bacteria, and it improves the taste of the water, but the downsides are that this method takes a lot of time.
You need to boil your water into steam for 1 to 3 minutes, and then cool it down in a clear container.
This is one of the most basic methods of cleaning your water, it’s closely tied to distillation and can most easily be done with something like a brita filter kettle. It’s not complicated at all if you’re willing to invest some time into it.
Additionally, there are high-quality water distillers that are much more efficient.
Using Chemical Compounds, Tablets, or Drops for Purifying
Did you know that there are tablets or drops that can be used as a common water purification method?
Disinfecting and water purification tablets like sodium dichloroisocyanurate, iodine, and tetraglycine hydroperiodide have chemical compounds that can prove effective against bacteria.
Activated Water Filtering Charcoal
Putting activated charcoal in a cloth bag and then into your water containers can filter toxic chemicals and even some heavy metals. However, activated charcoal isn’t effective in filtering
pH Drops
Additionally, pH Drops aren’t water filter drops, but they add alkalizing properties which greatly boost the health benefits of your water. They enhance the mineral content in your water, and they’re a good supplement for already filtered water to restructure its properties in boosting your health.
Water Filtering Devices
I should mention that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates the standards for water quality levels.
However, these standards are questionable. For one, the EPA allows minimal amounts of arsenic (0.01 ppm) in tap water, and this is unacceptable when it comes to the health benefits of drinking water quality.
Although the EPA keeps a close eye on around 100 contaminants in our tap water supplies, there are other contaminants and hazard particles that they don’t regulate at all which is an issue because we can’t just rely on mere DIY materials.
This is where water filtering and purifying devices come in.
In this day and age, we have the right technology to properly filter our water by using cost-efficient water filtering devices.
Water filters can catch sediment, contaminants, microorganisms, and truly refine the taste of water.
These water filter devices are designed to work in a similar way as in nature where the water from rivers runs through rocks and debris, and the water purifies from the minerals.
With today’s modern technology we have the knowledge to further enhance this natural method and we can remove potentially hazardous elements like bacteria, dangerous chemicals, particles, and heavy metals.
The quality and filter success rate vary from 90 to 99.999%, which is more than enough to achieve the desired health benefits of drinking water.
These devices come in many shapes, sizes, functions, and price tags, and they can be either:
- Water filter pitchers
- Under sink water filters
- Faucet filters
- Countertop filters
- Whole house water filter systems
You can even make your very own water filter too!
Simply mix gravel, play sand, and active carbon components in a bucket., and then create a hole in the bucket, and fit the plumbing through.
This is a very DIY method, and it doesn’t remove micro contaminants, but it removes debris and enhances taste.
UV (Ultraviolet) Water Purifying Treatment
For those of you who don’t know, using ultraviolet rays in your water kills harmful germs and viruses. This is the best method for getting rid of microorganisms like bacteria.
The downside is that this method only works on the organic contaminants in your water, and it doesn’t remove non-organic contaminants.
This is also one of the more expensive options, because you’ll need a UV filter that needs a good amount of electricity.
I recommend you use a UV water purifier in combination with other water filtering devices.
Maintenance of your UV water filter is easy. You just need to change the UV light bulb and its quartz glass sleeve, and it only needs annual replacement. The glass sleeve lasts around two years. Check this guide on best-osmosis-systems.com for more info.
Reverse Osmosis Water Filter System
There’s also another interesting way to filter your water, and it’s definitely one of the best and most cost-efficient methods.
Much like a ceramic, and activated carbon filter system, reverse osmosis is, simply put, filtering your drinking water via membrane surfaces with micro pores that get rid of hazardous contaminants.
Additionally, these systems utilize pre-filters, as well as post-filters, which further refine the water quality. This method is very efficient in removing both chemical pollutants and microorganisms.
Since reverse osmosis water filtering utilizes multiple filtering steps, the downside is that it needs high water pressure, and the whole process can be very wasteful, leaving only a third of the water.
Conclusion – Combining Your Efforts Yields Ultimate Results
Why buy pre-packaged, pre-filtered drinking water when you can do it yourself?
I hope these methods help you achieve your recommended levels of drinking water quality. They can save you a lot of time and money, but most importantly, it’s a small price to pay when your family’s health and well-being is in question.
I recommend you first consider your options, and see which method works best for you. Keep in mind that combining your efforts might be the best option.
For example, filtering your water via UV, or reverse osmosis, and at the same time, using charcoal for your filtered water will give you the ultimate in clean drinking water with proper taste.
