You are what you drink...

Water purification is the process of removing contaminants from a raw water source, to produce water for drinking or other purposes. There are several methods for purifying water. The most common include ultra violet light, filtration, reverse osmosis, steam distillation, deionization, and carbon treatment.

If you ever doubt the value of drinking purified water, instead of tap water, consider this: Anyone who has let a pan of water boil completely dry on a stove has seen the crust of contaminants left behind on the bottom of the pan. Water purification helps to eliminate those impurities from your drinking water. And some purification processes, such as Ultra Violet Light (UVGI) can eliminate harmful bacteria.

Which method of water purification is the best? There is a tremendous amount of water wasted in the Reverse Osmosis process. Steam Distillation requires a significant amount of energy to heat the water, to produce the steam. Water filtration results in filters which must be disposed of. Not all remove harmful bacteria. -- So what is "best" depends on your desired outcome.

When shopping for a water filtering system for your home, you should first determine the content of your water to see what you may want to filter out. Does your water contain iron, which can cause a bad taste or even discolored sinks and toilets? Or does your water contain dangerously high levels of lead or possibly arsenic (not uncommon in water wells)? Once you determine the content of your water, you will be in a position to decide what type of water filtering system you need for your home or business. And when you shop for a filtering system, remember that they are not all the same. And if you decide to visit your local big box store, you will likely find that only one of the filters commonly sold in those stores can filter arsenic.