Get to Know the Water Filter Cartridge

The water filter cartridge is actually the core portion of a water filtration system that determine the outcome of the water. The beautiful appearance of the water filtration unit is just the cover which house the water filter cartridge or cartridges in places and connect the water filter cartridges in proper sequent. In short, that simply mean you need to understand how this water filter cartridges work in order to determine how effective one water purification function to remove the harmful contaminants. No one water filter cartridge is claimed to be able to remove all the contaminants like chlorine, synthetic chemicals, volatile organic chemicals and bacteria. It is always recommended that a combination of water filter cartridges to make up a good water filtration system.

The most common water filter cartridges which available in the market are as follows:-

Sediment Cartridge

This is normally used as pre-filter due to its ability to remove sand, fine particles, silt, cryptosporidium and turbidity from your water. Sediment filters are normally rated by the size of particles they remove, in microns (One micron is one-thousandth of a millimeter). The smaller microns remove smaller sediments and the bigger microns remove bigger sediments. It usually made of pleated polyester, cellulose fibre or porous ceramic materials which are lower in cost and that is why sediment cartridge also always being referred as low-cost filtration cartridge Sediments which are bigger size than water molecule will be trapped and stay on these water cartridges, so you need to always wash or clean the pre-filter. A water filtration system that allow back wash will be an added advantage. If not, you will need to change this sediment cartridges frequently to ensure the effectiveness. Anyway, when a sediments cannot be washed and cleaned after a period of time, it is recommended to replace with a new one.

Carbon Cartridge

After the first stage of filtration, carbon cartridge which is generally made up of granular activated carbon or carbon fiber block are used to treat chlorine and THMs (trihalomethanes), endrin, lead, pesticides/herbicides, radon and toluene in the water. It removes very fine particles and helps to improve the clarity and taste of the water in a great way. A carbon cartridge can only pull out a finite amount of contaminants, so it has a certain life expectancy. However, it is not possible to clean a carbon cartridge, so they must be replaced. Generally speaking, carbon cartridges will last twice as long as sediment cartridges, but they're also more expensive.

Carbon cartridges initially was in granules form, and had been used for centuries to purify water. It works well and is still available in that form, but there is now another choice in carbon filtration. New technology enables manufacturers to produce filters in the form of porous solid blocks, which are superior in every way to filters made of granular carbon. The latest technology in carbon filters is the so-called modified carbon block (MCB), in which filter blocks are built from fibers in a slurry of carbon particles. Some carbon cartridges have incorporated KDF-55D which is zinc and copper to make them bacteriostatic. That means that bacteria cannot grow inside the filter.

There are several other chemicals that manufacturers use to make their filters bacteriostatic, but many of them affect you as well as the bacteria! KDF has a very good record as being the safest agent yet found for keeping bacteria from growing in filters, and it's the only one we sell.

Combination of Water Filter Cartridges

Please do not take this lightly; you must always look beyond the water filtration system appearance to determine which one is best for you. No one water filter cartridge can work best for removing all contaminants by it self. It takes a combination of all water filter cartridges to compliment each other to effectively remove sediments, particles, synthetic chemicals, odors and prevent bacteria from growing inside individual water filter cartridge Take your time to look and study the descriptions of each water filter cartridge, understand how the water filter cartridge works before placing your order.