Residential Water Treatment Methods

There a variety of products available on the market for treating the tap water. Which of these systems is best depends on what problem you hope to address with a treatment system. Only distillation deals with all of the potential problems with residential water. Cost is also a consideration, as some might be unwilling to spend almost a thousand dollars to treat every drop of water used in the house with UV radiation.

Why Treat Residential Water?

Tap water is commonly thought of as safe to drink. However, sometimes due to accidents or negligence, that is not always the case. Washington, D.C., for example, has suffered from a crisis of solid and toxic contaminants in its water supplies for several years, due to mismanagement and neglect of the city's water infrastructure. Biological contamination scares are not unknown in many areas of the U.S. In addition, some people just don't like the taste of the chemical additives put in the water to kill microorganisms.

Ultraviolet Treatment

A popular treatment is to bombard water with heavy ultraviolet (UV) rays. UV rays destroy DNA and, while that might not kill microorganisms, it will stop them from reproducing. That dramatically curtails the impact of any infection, usually to the point of being negligible. UV treatment needs to be combined with filtration to fully purify water. A home UV water treatment system will cost between $150 to $800, depending on whether it is a counter-top purifier, or meant to treat all the water used in the home.

Carbon Filtration

A Brita Filter

The oldest filtration system is still in use, even in household filters like those made by Pur or Brita. They use the properties of charcoal to draw impurities out of the water. These are at their best when removing solids and chemicals from water supplies. But reverse osmosis is also effective against microorganisms. Therefore, filtration systems might need to be combined with treatment by a UV system or with boiling to be fully effective. The main virtue of carbon filtration is that it is cheap. A filter pitcher and box of replacement filters cost only $30.

Distillation

Countertop stills are now available. These stills combine removing physical, chemical and biological impurities from water. They work by first boiling water into steam, and then cooling that steam back into water for collection. The impurities are left behind. The drawback with home distillation is that it takes time. A typical countertop distiller might process 1 to 3 gallons of water overnight. An electric countertop unit costs between $300 and $400.

Boiling and Chemicals

Boiling water

The two classic options for residential water treatment are still readily available. Boiling water for several minutes will kill all microorganisms, while putting a few drops of household bleach into a 5 gallon jug of water will do the same. However, neither does much about solid or chemical contaminants and using chlorine bleach leaves an awful taste.

Resources

• Tribest Water Distillers
• Brita
• Pur