SIFTING THROUGH THE FILTER JARGON
Which model works best?
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First and foremost, have your water tested and determine
what specifically needs to be filtered. Despite
advertising claims, no filter can remove all water
contaminants - and some remove too many beneficial
minerals. No nonelectric filter can remove live bacteria.
These must be eliminated by boiling or in a separate,
prefiltration chlorine-treatment stage.
Some filters contain a single (ceramic or
carbon/ion-exchange) element; others offer multistage
filtration combining two to five of the following
filtering/purification systems:
Mechanical particulate filter elements of
fine-grained, porous ceramic that strain out dirt, sediment
(turbidity) and other particles, including asbestos,
parasitic flukes and their egg cysts, and some large
bacteria. The government pure-water filtering standard is
.05u (half a micron), but some filters will eliminate
particles as small as .01u - small, but larger than most
bacteria. Many portable hiker's ceramic filters can be
renewed by simply scraping off the outer surface on the
rough leg of your jeans.
Activated carbon filters contain beads of
bone charcoal (elemental carbon) that are superheated/dried
to become ionized, so they naturally attract metallic
elements and many stray organic molecules. They capture
lead, mercury, chlorine, sulfur, VOCs (volatile organic
chemicals such as the pesticide Lindane) and biological
sources of bad taste and odor. Carbon filters can be partly
restored by washing and superdrying.
