How do you filter water?

I totally keep meaning to post on this since filtration is what I do for a living lol... I study and develop filtration products (mostly for Industrial Air) - but the principles are equal for water.

So here is a totally awesome and super simple trick to make any Britta jug type thing work about 10,000% better:

Just fill the section where you normally add water before it goes through the Britta Filter with activated carbon. You can literally but the stuff at Pet Smart: www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2754013 IMPORTANT: Make sure it's activated Carbon - not charcoal. The difference is in the porosity and process etc. SO again, make sure it's "Activated Carbon" It's super cheap.

Really I pay $1.42 per POUND.. but I buy it in 1,000 lb containers for filtration. So you can see how ridiculously overpriced these Britta and other water filters are, as this is exactly all that is in them.

What's important here is two things that you are accomplishing by doing this:

The activated Carbon removes compounds through surface contact and absorption basically. So the longer the "water" is exposed to it the more chemicals that are absorbed so this is all a function of time. Filling the the whole top part significantly increases the time and amount of surface contact the water has with the carbon... Also the water will balance - so when the jug is full there is always an amount of water sitting in the carbon itself. So this is even better. More time.

Surface area - Just filling the top part increases the overall absorbent filter surface area - In the case of a typical Britta jug, filling the top part is the same as having about 10+ Britta filters in the same jug!

It's to simple and to funny. The only thing is it makes the jug a little heavier - but heck.. Clean water is a good thing. And a little extra exercise never hurts.

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The easy way why it works:

Think of carbon like Velcro - The Carbon is the "sticky or firm" side and the Organic Compounds (Chemicals and Bacteria/Viruses etc) are the "Fluffy" side. Whenever they touch, they adhere trapping the bad stuff in the carbon pores at a microscopic level.

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You can also add things like zeolite, and some other stuff to make the water more Alkaline, but this stuff can be a little harder to find. Maybe I'll source out some cheap suppliers as it;s commonly used for other things.

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Finally, remember to change the Activated Carbon in the top of the jug monthly and clean and wash it to disinfect etc. So throw the jug in your dishwasher or put some water in the bottom and chuck it in your microwave for say 3 minutes.

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Oh yeah - Pour the NEW carbon in a bowl first and fill it with water. Let it soak for say 5 minutes (it will bubble). This is releasing the gasses etc. Then pour it through a strainer and rinse well. Then add it to you Britta maker.

It's all super easy to do once you do it the first time - The pre-filled plastic filters we buy make this easy and less work/messy - but the down side is the small amount of carbon combined with the overprice and less effectiveness on removal of chemicals.

EDIT: This will totally remove any chlorine smell or taste...

EDIT 1: - You probably need 2 bags of the pet-smart stuff to fill it - even so 8 bucks for 10+ extra Britta filters in the same jug is pretty darn cost effective

Post Edited (Canada Mark) : 10/26/2013 10:38:53 AM (GMT-6)

@Edbar - Here for Flouride removal: Really its just this sentence that's applies at the very end of the whole darn thing. No real need to read it unless you like the sciency crap.

"The present study indicates that removal of fluoride from aqueous solution depends on pH, contact time, particle size and dose of the adsorbent. The removal of fluoride is more for the finer-variety of carbon." Link www.jeb.co.in/journal_issues/200803_mar08/paper_20.pdf

They are referring to testing varieties of Activated Carbon sources basically. In any case the cheap stuff form Pet Smart will work just fine... But as it states, pH, and contact time and the size of the actual carbon pellet is what makes the difference. Contact time being the most important.

Another easy trick of you want to get fancy with this- Take the stuff from Pet Smart and put it on a say a glass cutting board and run a baking roller over it a bunch of times or grind it up a little. Just a bit to make the pellets smaller. You increase the surface area exponentially and by it's very nature reduces the speed in which the water can diffuse thought the carbon - i.e it takes longer to filter through.. This then changes things from say 10 britta filters in a jug to about 1,000. But it's messy as all heck to do.

Equally as easy, measure the hole size at the bottom of the Britta Filter where the water comes out and source out a supplier where you can buy a big of pellets just a tiny fraction larger... this keeps it out of your water that your drinking, but increases the effects due to smaller size pellets.

Adding zeolite (which you can source out) absorbs a larger spectrum of metals and chemicals. Each (carbon and zeolite) has an affinity for certain compounds. Specially heavy metals.

Also: Changing the PH before hand is easy once you know how acidic your supply water is. You can do this with some basic rocks really.. like volcanic rocks. Not hard to buy and extra cheap. So you put these on top FIRST to balance it if say your water is slightly acidic. Then you can actually put a layer on the bottom as well to make the end product highly alkaline or whatever you want really.

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Or you can just go get one of these water pitches for $60 bucks and add the cheap Pet Smart carbon to the top!.. santevia.com/ and effectively you have accomplished all of the above... Super cheap and you'll have the cleanest, lowest flouride, chemical, and heavy metal water on the block, haha. What's cool is you can add carbon and such to their water bottles in the stick as I think as it looks like they can be opened (not 100% sure on this). So you could make one by adding carbon and stuff to the stick instead of whatever is in it for when your on the go and want to fill up with tap water in a pinch.

HUH.. I just noticed they sell the rocks... that's hilarious. $39! Uggg... some of this stuff is such a rip-off it's crazy. But well, health is more important I guess.

Heck - maybe I should start making real water filters and jugs that actually work awesome lol..

To funny.

Post Edited (Canada Mark) : 10/26/2013 9:44:40 PM (GMT-6)

our well is 260' deep - our septic system is about 10' at the very most - and it's also approx. 100' feet from our well -

we have our water tested every couple of years and it's pristine -

Mark, I don't believe activated carbon remove fluoride and I'm not a fan of messing with the ph of water for drinking. Some of these machines that raise the ph to 9+ sounds crazy to me. 

Thanks for the link Mark. Yes fluoride is poison and it would appear a good mucus stripper and enzyme destroyer. Absolutely no reason to be putting this in your body.

@quincy...

What in the world do you think would make your teeth become so sensitive?? Like from a distiller? I don't know anything about them really. Just curious if you thought there was a specific reason or cause.