Today we will continue to explore the different drinking water filtration systems available to the general public by discussing briefly the specifics of a drinking water filtration system known as a Distiller.

• One part of a distillation system boils drinking water into steam and a second part recondenses the ‘purified’ steam back into water.
• Distillation systems may take the form of countertop models and point-of-entry (whole house) systems.
• Distillation systems work quite well for people whose unfiltered/untreated drinking water contains heavy metals and elements such as copper, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, arsenic, selenium, barium, fluroide and sodium.
• Some people opt to combine a distillation systems with an activated carbon system for more complete drinking water purification. Adding the activated carbon drinking water filter to the purification systems allows it to remove bad tastes and odors and a well-rated activated carbon filter will filter out many hazardous contaminants such as heavy metals, disinfection byproducts (i.e. haloacetic acids and trihalomethanes to name a few), chlorine, radon, volatile organic chemicals, parasites, and pesticides.

Many have asked the difference between the different types of drinking water filters they could use in their homes, at work, or at school.

Activated Carbon Filter:

• Positively charged and highly absorbent carbon media in the filter attracts and traps many drinking water impurities.
• You will typically find these drinking water filter systems on countertops, as point-of-use faucet filters, and under the sink.
• A good system for eliminating bad tastes and odors and a well-rated activated carbon filter will filter out many hazardous contaminants such as heavy metals, disinfection byproducts (i.e. haloacetic acids and trihalomethanes to name a few), chlorine, radon, volatile organic chemicals, parasites, and pesticides.

Why Install a Reverse Osmosis Water Filter?

Many of our readers have asked questions about reverse osmosis drinking water filtration systems and want to know more about them. Hence the purpose and reason for this deviation from the normal subject matter in this Water Testing Blog entry.

“Today, people are increasingly concerned about the quality of the water that they consume. Under the best of conditions, it’s possible that water may contain hazardous contaminants, ranging from dissolved organic and inorganic materials, to suspended particles and microorganisms. If you live in a home with older pipes, you may also be exposed to lead in your water. Even the chemicals, like chlorine and fluoride, that many municipalities add to water to kill bacteria or to fight tooth decay may be harmful to humans. If such chemicals are not used, your water could be harboring deadly parasites. If you suspect your water may contain microorganisms, lead, or other contaminants, have your water tested.

To decrease their exposure to possible contaminants, many people drink and cook with bottled water or put distillers or disposable cartridge filters on their water supply lines and faucets. However, bottled water may not be any purer than the water taken from your faucet, distilled water requires boiling and tastes flat, and although charcoal filters improve the taste and remove odors from water, they do little to remove chemical contaminants and microorganisms. If you find your water is contaminated, choose the correct water filtration system to correct the problem.

Reverse osmosis (RO) is generally recognized as the best system for purifying water while retaining good taste. The EPA recommends reverse osmosis filters for microbiologically safe water. Yet, an RO system alone will still allow certain waterborne germs to pass through. To knock out these types of contaminates, most RO systems incorporate some additional type of filtering, usually a replaceable carbon post filter. ( source )”

For those looking to purchase a good quality reverse osmosis drinking water filtration system, please take a look at the reverse osmosis units offered by FilterWater.Com, the Water Filter SuperStore

What Is Reverse Osmosis?

Many of our readers have asked questions about reverse osmosis drinking water filtration systems and want to know more about them. Hence the purpose and reason for this deviation from the normal subject matter in this Water Testing Blog entry.

“Reverse osmosis involves the passage of potable water through a semi-permeable membrane. In a normal osmotic reaction, water containing a dissolved substance in low concentration will flow through a membrane to the side containing a higher concentration of the dissolved substance. If pressure is applied to the side having the higher concentration of solution, the flow of water can be stopped or even reversed. When the flow is reversed, this is called ‘reverse osmosis.’ In this case, it is the water that has less dissolved substance that is desirable; this is the purified water.”( source )”

For those looking to purchase a good quality reverse osmosis drinking water filtration system, please take a look at the reverse osmosis units offered by FilterWater.Com, the Water Filter SuperStore

Several membsers of the Water Testing Blog staff have spoken with members of the military, both currently enlisted and recently discharged, and found out that some soldiers do not have access to simple, efficient tools they can use to test potential drinking water while deployed in foregin countries.

In most cases they carry packets of sanitizing/disinfecting tablets which they can use to put into their canteens to kill off bacteria, but what about lead, arsenic, cyanide and other items which can EASILY render an entire unit inoperable and take them away from their assigned duties?

Thankfully US Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps medical units deployed around the globe now have the ability to make use of simple water quality test kits which give them the ability to read basic water quality parameters quickly and easily.

Arsenic in Water and Soil: Arsenic Quick^TM

Bacteria in Water: Bacteria Check

Chlorine Residual (Free): SenSafe^TM Free Chlorine Water Check

Chlorine Residual (Total): SenSafe^TM Total Chlorine Water Check

Cyanide in Water: Cyanide ReagentStrip^TM

DPD-1 and DPD-4 (Chlorine Testing): eXact DPD ReagentStrips^TM

Lead in Water: Lead in Water Test Kit

Multi Parameter (6 Parameters): Well Water Check

Multi Parameter (11 Parameters): Well Driller Standard Water Test Kit

Multi Parameter (13 Parameters): COMPLETE Water Test Kit

Multi Parameter (15 Parameters): Water Quality Test Kit

Most of us know how badly we feel after ‘a night on the town’ filled with margaritas, martinis, cocktails and body shots because of dehydration. Now try to imagine how our soldiers must feel after a few MONTHS in the desert wearing full combat gear.

Safe drinking water means safer soldiers.

Thoughts of testing water for specific chemical parameters scares a lot of folks because they remember all the horrible nights they spent cramming for an upcoming Chemistry test in high school and/or college. Trust us when we say, “We feel your pain. Been there and done that.”

You should also trust us, though, when we say you don’t need complicated chemistry sets or highly specialized training to find out if your tap water contains dangerous levels of things like:

Worried about the quality of the drinking water in your home, office or school? Inexpensive, easy-to-use home water test kits are just a click or a phone call (800-861-9712) away!

Now, of course, should the results of your home water testing for key water parameters yield results above expected and/or acceptable limits, you will most certainly want to have a certified water professional perform more advanced tests on your drinking water and at no time should you rely on home water quality test kits if you have serious reason to suspect that your water contains know carcinogens or other life threatening contaminants. Leave that sort of testing up to the Water Testing Professionals in your area.

The majority of people in the United States already know that our country sends a lot of aid to foreign countries in the form of water purifiers and water quality test kits in the wake of heavy rains or other natural disasters which result in massive flooding… and now we must turn our attention to the plight of millions of Americans whose homes, neighborhoods, schools and places of business have fallen victim to the mighty power of the Mississippi River and its tributaries.

As flood waters begin to recede back towards the river banks which once held them in place, the returning residents of recently flooded areas face seemingly endless hours of cleaning, millions of dollars in property damages… and uncertainty as to what sort of contaminants the flood waters have left on their lawns, on their roads, and in their wells.

The same millions of gallons of river water which burst through levees also tore through landfills, soaked up runoff/drainage from septic systems, picked up debris from swere systems, scrapped up trash from the streets, and carried the carcasses of countless animals and bugs whose lives it claimed.

Large amounts of that ‘dirty’ water may have found its way down into aquifers through open wells and other means so now the water getting pulled from wells could contain any number of natural and/or manmade chemicals.

Individuals and companies looking to perform multiple tests on numerous water sources may want to consider picking up a water testing kit like the Well Drillers’ Master Kit, as it contains a good number of tests for items which can have and adverse effect on human health:

Well Drillers’ Master Water Test Kit

Each Well Drillers’ Master Water Testing Kit contains:

• 50 Free Chlorine Test Strips
• 50 Ultra Low Total Chlorine Test Strips
• 50 Hydrogen Sulfide Test Strips
• 50 Total Hardness Test Strips
• 50 Nitrate/Nitrite Test Strips
• 50 pH Test Strips
• 24 Manganese Tests
• 50 Water Metals Test Strips
• 10 Arsenic Test Strips
• 50 Iron Tests
• 50 Copper Test Strips
• 2 Lead in Water Tests
• 2 Pesticide Tests
• 1 bottle of Bacteria Test

Full kits, refills, and extra tests for each parameter can be ordered independently and in small quantities through the Industrial Test Systems, Inc. web site.

Lead, Lead and more Lead. . . For the longest time many water professionals viewed lead as a problem only if the water lines from the treatment plant to the house contained inappropriate amounts of lead — but not any more.

Ivars Jaunakais, chief analytical chemist, founder and President of Industrial Test Systems, Inc. uncovered interesting data which suggested that lead comes from other sources and was able to prove his hypothesis by testing for the presence of lead in faucet aerators. He found that particulates which had accumulated in the nozzles and faucet aerators sometimes contained and, in turn, produced substantial amounts of lead far in excessive of the EPA’s 15ppb ruling for drinking water.

Older testing methods involved testing procedured best carried out in a laboratory setting. Through the use of groundbreaking LEADQuick^TM ReagentStrip & Reagent technology and the Hach’s already established LeadTrak^TM Pocket Colorimeter^TM II, Ivars greatly reduced the cost per test and total test times while making the test safer, simpler and easier to perform.

No longer do water samples have to get hauled back to a laboratory for analysis in order to get laboratory grade test results. Field samplers and field technicians can now safely and easily test for lead concentrations in water at a fraction of the cost and in a fraction of the time.

LEADQuick^TM Lead Test for the LeadTrak^TM Pocket Colorimeter^TM II

(More Information on Ivars’ New Lead Test Coming Soon!)

With all the recent talk about lead in drinking water, lead in paint, and lead in just about every darn thing, it comes as no surprise that somebody would begin to question the methodology used for Compliance Monitoring of lead.

Anyone familiar with the Hach LeadTrak^TM Pocket Colorimeter^TM II knows how much time it takes to complete each test and how many different steps are involved in the procedure. While an excellent tool for determining the concentration of lead in water, its cumbersome procedures keep it from getting used as often as it should out in the field — until recently.

An article in the March 2008 Lab International magazine revealed that Ivars Jaunakais, President of Industrial Test Systems, Inc., has developed a new, faster and less tedious method for determining the concentration of lead in water using the Hach LeadTrak^TM Pocket Colorimeter^TM II. He calls it LEADQuick^TM.

Users of Ivars’ groundbreaking LEADQuick^TM can now obtain lead in water test results in under 5 minutes and the kit allows for accurate detection of lead in water concentrations as high as 700 ppb and as low as 1 ppb (+/-3ppb).

The United States Environmental Protection Agency set the MCL (Maximum Contaminant Level) for lead in water at 15 ppb so as you can see, this new methodology has more than enough range and precision to meet the needs of water professionals in pretty much any industry.

Another nice feature of the LEADQuick^TM reagent/reagentstrip test kit is its cost: Less than $4.00 USD per test, meter cost excluded.

For more information on LEADQuick^TM please visit the Industrial Test Systems, Inc. web site or contact a member of their technical sales team at 800-861-9712.

For the longest time pool and spa owners had to rely on the chemical testing skills and expertise of their local pool and spa professionals but those days have passed. Now homeowners can test their own pool and spa water for metals — without having to take a year’s worth of chemistry courses!

* The Pool Check^TM Copper test strips offer fast, accurate test results for copper, pH and alkalinity at a reasonable cost.

* The Pool Check^TM Pro Metals test strips offer fast, accurate semiquantitative test results for ‘all’ metals at once. It does not specify which metal(s) it detects, but it does give pool owners a better idea of how much staining potential their pool water has.

* The eXact^R EZ pool and spa testing meter tests for many parameters including iron and copper.

* Other testing methods include using ‘wet’ chemistry kits from companies like Lamotte and Taylor, but they typically involve slightly more advanced testing techniques such as titrations. Wet kits also make use of messy liquids, difficult to dissolve tablets, and awkward powder pillows.

For those who suspect that their source water contains metals, the SenSafe^TM Metals Check test strip will work quite well. It detects the metals commonly found in tap water and well water and provides accurate metals testing results in under 3 minutes.

Can Metals Stains in Pools be Removed?

For the most part, yes. The task will take effort, though, in some cases.

Vinyl liners typically resist staining quite well but the stains that do set in will not come off without a fight. Pool owners must use sequestering compounds and/or chelating compounds which attach themselves to the metal stains/deposits and more or less pull them back into solution.

Owners of concrete and gunite pools suffer even worse fates when it comes to metals staining. Typically they must wash the stains away using diluted muriatic acid — and in some cases that means draining the pool completely before they can begin.

Due to the annoyance, expense and inconvenience associated with the removal of metals stains from pool liners and plastic fixtures, swimming pool professionals recommend testing for metals on a regular basis if the pool has a heater, uses a copper or silver ionizer, or has recently had water added to it that may have contained dissolved metals.