Water Filter Query

Aishah

Today I saw an advertisement for a new kind of water filter - the brand name was Pureit, and it was put out by Hindustan Lever. Looked quite a nice looking contraption, and costing 1800 rupees. According to the ad, it was 'Breakthrough Technology" and is used without gas, electricity, or continuous water supply.
Does anyone have any experience with this particular filter?
It brings to mind the candle type in a steel container (it looks mostly plastic) and I wonder if this is what it is like.
I have been using Zero B filter on the tap, iodized resin gadget costing just under 300 rupees and lasting around 12 months. But if this one is good, I'm thinking of converting to this.

Would appreciate any comments. UV filters I should imagine are the best, but I think expensive?

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"Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards."

The_Londoner

I saw a review of this product few weeks back as I am planning to move to India in near future for few months..

http://www.mouthshut.com/product-rev...925048949.html

brownboy66

read a couple of reviews of this and apparently it uses chlorine to kill bacteria, etc. Uses a four stage process (couldn't find much detail behind the engineering) starting with a mesh filter, then a carbon activated filter, followed by addition of chlorine (to kill the bacteria) and then a "polisher"(?)to remove the chlorine from the water prior to drinking (no idea what this is - maybe a catalyst or another filter designed to specifically remove chlorine).

Couple of other points - it runs on batteries, and the chlorine needs to be replished once it is used up.

A couple of the reviews I read may have been a little suspect. One talked about the carbon filter removing bacteria - which is not what carbon filters do. Carbon filters remove odour, taste, etc from gas or solids (has to do with the nature of carbon and its ability to bind to other molecules - ala organic chemistry). The main component of a gas mask, for example, is a carbon filter. If you wanted to remove bacteria or viruses from the air you would need a HEPA filter.

In general the combination of mesh filter and chlorine should do the job re bacteria - and presumably the carbon filter and "polisher". Guess it comes down to how you feel about chlorine being added (then removed) from the water.

good luck.

Aishah

Chlorine doesn't worry me - there often in the summer time seems to be extra chlorine in the water coming here in the pipes - you can smell it. Thanks for that explanation, bb.
However, maybe I will continue with the Zero B, after reading the reviews in your link The Londoner. Terrible service, parts breaking etc. doesn't inspire much confidence. Thanks for posting it - will think about it..

Nick-H

I think that what is referred to as the 'battery' in this thing is the cartridge.

They've been around for maybe three years here. I think I drank water from one in someone's house once: they were happy with it and I'm still alive!

But I thought you had one of those expensive machine?

Was certainly thinking of trying one until I splashed out on the 10x more expensive RO machine. .......Ah yes, should have read to last post

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Aishah

Thinking now it's probably not a good idea here - if parts need replacing etc. and they aren't available here (haven't seen this particular one but thought next time I go to Jodhpur would have a look) then it would be a waste of money. Going by The Londoner's link, tap can break, other parts can be faulty.. I thought to give us some relief from the iodine it might be not such a bad idea. Not too confident about it now after answers coming in.

brownboy66

ooer! tricky - a battery that isn't! The use of chlorine should be ok I guess (especially if it gets removed prior to drinking). If you are going to use a chemical type system, its gotta be better then iodine I would think?

Nick-H

Well of course it isn't

But you don't expect things to have the right names do you?

I believe the replacement cartridge for the bigger filters is called a candle.

Aishah

Correct Nick and that is what I was referring to - friends in Delhi used a system of stainless steel containers, with 4 candles on top which act as filters. I never enquired but I guess they held some kind of chemical?

capt_mahajan

I think those candles Aishah refers to in her last post don't have any chemicals. Or at least the older ones, before the days of Aquaguard and others, didn't. They just filtered stuff.

We used to have one of those, a long time ago. What we did, we boiled water, cooled it and filtered it through those candles. The candles had to be cleaned periodically, but we didn't replace them.. which I think we would have had to do had they been treated in any way.

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Outside the machine

jyotirmoy

We had been using Aquaguard for ages and never had any problem.
Well I do mix some "chemical" with my glass of water after sundown.

capt_mahajan

Yes, our aquaguard must be ten years old or whatever. No problem.

It's all water under the bridge, thanks to a maintenance contract

brownboy66

- I'll drink to that!


are you trying for some kind of record now? Most one liners in a day?

The old cartridge filters are great - especially if they get down to say .5 microns as that will filter out most things. The only problem is to ensure there is enough pre-filtering of the larger solids so that it doesn't clog up the finer filter too quickly. Even then - it will still need replacing periodically. Stick a UV lamp into the equation - and you're set!

capt_mahajan

I was serious

Aishah

Yes, it was the old candles i was referring to and now I recollect the tabla teacher's wife used to boil up huge cauldrons of water on the gas first then tip it into this container. It was fine, I drank it daily. But I just can't be bothered these days boiling up water then getting it cold again.
I think at same stage we will install the Aquaguard. I don't see this other solution being much better than my current Zero B. I think iodine and chlorine on a par as far as health goes..It suits me because I tend to be a bit iodine deficient living here (total lack of fish unlike former life where I had it about 2 - 3 times a week)thus, according to doc. back in Oz I had built up a need for iodine. Was getting signs of thyroid probs. prior to using the ZeroB. Now perfectly healthy.
ZeroB has some filtering stuff in it - felt pad plus what looks like charcoal, diatomaceous earth (forget how you spell that one - it's used in swimming pool filters)mixed with the iodized resin.
Of course boiling is the simplest but when you live in the heat you just don't want to do this!