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Water
Distiller, Filtered Water, & Reverse Osmosis Water
ARE YOU DRINKING CLEAN
WATER?
In this day and age, it's almost
impossible to find water that hasn't been contaminated. Rain falls through polluted air
containing bacteria, smoke, and chemicals. Our soil contains pesticides, herbicides,
fertilizers, radioactive wastes and hundreds of other deadly chemicals which wash into our
streams, rivers, lakes and wells. Our water supplies are filled with chlorine to kill
bacteria and viruses. Chlorine and its by-products have been linked to cancer, heart
attacks, diabetes, kidney stones and inflammation, gout and possibly even multiple
sclerosis and muscular dystrophy. The water going into our house picks up lead from our
lead pipes. Lead can cause severe neurological damage, particularly in children.
We definitely have a serious water contamination problem. Fortunately, you can do
something about it. There are ways to protect yourself from these problems. Let's examine
the various water purification methods available today.
BOTTLED WATER
The bottled water companies knew of our water
problems over 10 years ago. They made alot of money off it. In fact, in the last 4 years,
they collectively sold over $1 billion worth of water. Be careful when buying bottled
water, it might be no better than the water coming out of your tap. Bottled water only has
to meet the same minimum standards required of municipal tap water. There is little
scientific evidence to suggest that bottled water is healthier than tap water. Dr. John
Christman, EPA Consultant say "Anybody could go out and buy a bunch of bottles and
sell tap water."
FILTERED WATER
Carbon particles or solid block carbons are used as filtering elements. Filtering water
works well in removing pesticides (like DBCP), chlorine, suspended particles and
"precipitated heavy metals." Carbon filters are not effective at removing
radioactive particles, nitrates or bacteria. In fact, bacteria from contaminated water
colonize and grow between the carbon particles and eventually may be randomly released
into the "filtered" water. Consequently, carbon filters shouldn't be used on
unchlorinated water supplies, such as wells.
Carbon filter manufacturers normally specify how well the filter removes
"precipitated heavy metals." This refers to metals that aren't
"dissolved" in the water. Unfortunately most heavy metals (lead, cadmium,
barium, nickel, etc.) are in a dissolved state and carbon filters are not able to remove
them.
Filters also lose their effectiveness with continued use. Most have capacity ratings
somewhere between 500 and 1,500 gallons; however, by the time they reach the point of
needing a replacement cartridge they may only be removing a fraction of what they did when
new. Unfortunately, there is also no convenient method of determining exactly how much
water has passed through the filter.
REVERSE OSMOSIS (RO)
This process involves forcing contaminated water through a synthetic, semi-permeable
membrane. RO is at its peak efficiency when the membrane is new, reducing certain
contaminants by 70 - 90%. The purity of the water depends on fluctuating water pressure,
age and subsequent breakdown of the membrane, and clogging of the membrane pores. Bacteria
growth can also be a problem.
RO systems use a large amount of water - anywhere from 10 to 20 gallons to get 1 gallon of
treated water. Although the RO system uses no electricity, they can be quite costly ($500
- $850) and they do require routine service, monitoring and replacement of the membrane
periodically.
WATER DISTILLATION
Distillation is a method where water
is removed from the contaminants rather than trying to remove contaminants from the water.
Distillation involves boiling water, capturing the steam, cooling it and condensing it
back to liquid. Materials that have a higher boiling point than water will not rise with
the steam. Most contaminates have a higher boiling point than water and therefore will not
rise with the steam. Chlorine, however, is one substance that has a lower boiling point
than water. It changes to chloroform gas and can be carried into the "treated
water" with the steam. Fortunately, we can easily filter chlorine out through an
inexpensive carbon filter after distillation. Most modern distillers are built with a post
carbon filter to filter out chlorine.
Distilled water filtered through a post carbon filter is the purest water available. It
contains very little foreign particles, chemicals, minerals, bacteria or other
contaminants.
There seems to be a big controversy regarding drinking distilled water. We often hear
people say distilled water doesn't contain valuable minerals. This is true, distilled
water doesn't contain any minerals, but are those minerals valuable if your body doesn't
assimilate them? The minerals found in water are inorganic and the body can't assimilate
most of them . Inorganic minerals not assimilated causes' mineral deposits in the body.
The minerals your body assimilates are in such trace amounts, you would need to drink 50
gals of water for it to be of any significance. You would be better off drinking the 1
glass of carrot juice or 2 oz of wheatgrass juice to assimilate the same amount of
minerals.
Dr. N.W. Walker, in his "Water Can Undermine Your Health" book, stated that he
only recommended drinking steam distilled water. He pointed out that beneficial minerals
needed by your body are not "leached" out. Only useless built-up mineral
deposits forming kidney stones, arthritic spurring, joint thickening and possibly heart
valve deposits and atherosclerosis are removed.
We wouldn't recommend purchasing distilled water from a supermarket that are stored in a
plastic container. Many plastics give off toxins such as methyl chloride, a carcinogen
which can leach into the water. Glass bottles or stainless steel containers are
recommended for storing distilled water.
CONSUMER GUIDE TO WATER DISTILLERS
Finding a good water distiller is difficult because there
are very few places that carry them and very few people that are knowledgeable enough to
tell you anything about them. A water distiller is a big investment so it's important you
know the pros and cons of all the various brands. Our friendly technical specialists are
also available to answer any of your questions.
WHAT TO LOOK FOR
1) NAME BRAND - The most important requirement to look for
is a good name brand company. A good water distiller will last 30 to 50 years with some
minor maintenance. We often hear of customers that have paid $800 for a water distiller
and were unable to locate a $30 part 5 years later because the company went out of
business. We would hate to see you throw away an $800 machine because you can't find a
little part for it. Imagine you bought a car and then found out you couldn't find spark
plugs for it. Keep in mind, the water distiller heating element and solenoid will probably
need to be replaced in 10 years. The big 3 water distiller companies worldwide are: Polar
Bear, Durastill and Westbend. We recommend you stick with the big 3. They've been around
over 20 years with good financial strength and will probably be around when you need them.
2) PRODUCTION RATE - This specification measures the rate at which the distiller produces
water. Distillers vary from 3 gals/day (1 gal/8 hrs) to 12 gals/day (1 gal/2 hrs).
3) TYPE - Distillers are either manual or automatic types. Manual distillers can only
produce one gallon of water at a time because they are limited by the size of their
boiling chambers. Automatic distillers produce water continuously. They are connected
directly to the water line. (Simple plumbing is required)
4) NSF Certified - NSF is a nonprofit, independent organization with more than 50 years
experience in testing and certifying products to ensure they meet strict public health
standards. For a system to become NSF Certified, it must meet not one but five basic
requirements. The first requirement assures you contaminant reduction claims are true. The
second assures you the system does not add anything harmful to the water. The third
assures you the system is structurally sound. The fourth assures you advertising,
literature and labeling are not misleading. And finally, the fifth assures you the
materials and manufacturing process used don't change, meaning consistent product quality
over time. Please be aware of the difference between "Tested to NSF Standards"
and "NSF Certified." All five requirements must be met to be "NSF
Certified."
5) WATER PURITY - All distillers go through the process of distillation. Distillation is a
very effective process which removes 98 - 99.9% of most contaminates from the water. One
brand distiller will not significantly make purer water than another brand.
The 98 - 99.9% variations in distillers are due to the distance between the boiling
chamber and condensing coil, and the material construction.
A) DISTANCE BETWEEN BOILING CHAMBER AND CONDENSING COIL - When water boils, it is first
converted to wet steam and then later converted to dry steam. Contaminates won't rise with
dry steam but will rise with wet steam. A longer distance between the boiling chamber and
the condensing coil produces more dry steam, resulting in purer water.
B) CONSTRUCTION - Stainless steel construction will leech trace amounts of metallic
contaminates back into the water. Pyrex Glass is the cleanest material to heat water
without adding contaminates back into the water. The problem with glass is that it's not
durable and will crack if you drop it. We believe the next best material is surgical
quality stainless steel -- the type surgical knives are made of. We don't recommend using
heat resistant plastic or aluminum.
6) EASE - A V shaped bottom boiling chamber (in comparison to a flat shaped bottom) allows
easy and more complete draining of impurities during cleaning.
7) ENERGY CONSUMPTION -
A) BOILING CHAMBER - An Insulated boiling chamber typically will reduce heat loss, thus
saving about 15% in electricity.
B) REFILL PERIOD - Automatic units will either turn on immediately when the storage tank
falls below the full level, or when the water falls below 2/3 of the storage tank's
capacity. If you plan to drink one glass of water at a time, immediate refill period would
cost 25% more in electricity than 2/3 refill period, because the distiller will turn on
and heat the entire boiling chamber to fill that one glass of water. |
