How to choose a water filter for washing

Far from always, consumers are satisfied with the quality of the water entering their apartments. The reasons for this may be different: insufficient cleaning at water utilities, worn-out water supply networks. The water filter installed under the sink of your kitchen will help to solve this problem. But how to determine which installation is suitable in your case, how not to overpay for an overly complex device and how to ensure the proper level of water purification? Below we will tell you how to choose a water filter for washing and how to install a stationary water purifier.

Water purification steps

Before choosing a device for water purification in an apartment, you should understand what harmful substances can be in it and which filters will help to neutralize them.

Video will help you figure out how the filter works:

Large particles

Various impurities in the form of solid particles, sand, and pieces of rust are captured from the water using mechanical filters. They are not able to catch dissolved substances or various types of organisms, as they have pore sizes up to 5 microns. Structurally performed in the form of a mesh or polypropylene of various configurations. It can be wound like a rope, it is also used in foamed or corrugated form.

• Iron dissolved in water can bring a lot of trouble. You can get rid of it if you install a cartridge marked RF or BA. In it, dissolved iron, due to catalysts, reacts with oxygen and passes into insoluble the form, which is cleaned by the built-in strainer or the following filter module - sorption.
• Excessive water hardness is also unpleasant. It is a consequence of the increased content of calcium and magnesium salts in the liquid. Greater rigidity is the cause of heavy scale, worsens the taste, reduces the effectiveness of detergents. Filters with the WS or BS marking, filled with ion-exchange resins, will help reduce stiffness. Another anti-scale mechanism for TSGAC cartridges filled with activated carbon in combinations with hexametaphosphate crystals that bind hardness salts to prevent formation scum.

• Sorption cartridges filled with activated carbon or other active elements are used to remove various harmful chemical elements, help to get rid of the unpleasant odor, which may be the result, for example, chlorination water. And also these filters are able to capture mechanical impurities and suspensions. There are many varieties of modules of this type, so you need to select them, focusing on the specific quality of the water entering the apartment.
• The highest degree of purification can be achieved by installing a filter for drinking water in the kitchen, operating on the principle of reverse osmosis. Water under pressure passes through a special membrane, laid in the form of a roll. The pores of this membrane, measuring in hundredths or even thousandths of a micron, are able to capture not only organic compounds dissolved in water, but even viruses, bacteria and antibiotics. At the exit from the reverse osmosis system, extremely pure water is obtained, and all impurities are discharged in the form of concentrate into the drainage.

However, some people complain about the extremely low content of minerals in water purified using reverse osmosis. To satisfy such wishes, special mineralizers that can be installed after the filter help.

• Complete biological treatment is guaranteed only by ultraviolet filters. It kills almost all microorganisms and bacteria.

All these modifications of filter elements are combined in a water treatment system. Depending on its parameters, you can focus on the desired direction, while it is not necessary to use all models of cartridges. Therefore, at the stage of selecting a filter for drinking water, it is important to determine the quality of the water entering the apartment.

Determination of the parameters of water entering the apartment

For the correct selection of filters you need to have truthful information about the quality of water, but this is not always easy to do. Firms selling and installing filters often deliberately exaggerate while trying to sell their product. The management company, on the contrary, can give too positive assessments of water quality, trying to avoid trouble, so the only right decision will be to order an independent examination. This will require certain financial costs, but it will accurately determine the desired degree of purification and help determine which water filter to choose for washing.

Ways to install water filters

The pre-treatment system can be mounted directly on pipes that supply water to the apartment. The built-in flow filter is installed at the entrance to the apartment after water meter and purifies all incoming water. Stationary filters, depending on the quality of cleaning, are one-, two- and three-stage.

But to completely purify all the water entering the apartment is extremely expensive. For hot water, it will be enough to get rid of impurities, rust and excessive rigidity. To ensure clean drinking water, it is advisable to use compact filters for water purification installed under the sink. This design allows you to hide the entire filter system and at the same time provides free access to it for maintenance. For potable water, a separate faucet is installed at the sink.

Criteria for choosing a filter for washing

Water filter for a kitchen sink, which one to choose? Having decided on the set of necessary filtering elements, you can proceed to the selection of a water filter in the kitchen. In this case, the following points should be taken into account:

• Dimensions The selected filter should not just fit in the space under the sink, it should have free access for servicing and replacing cartridges.
• Performance. Flow filters for washing can clean 1.5–2 liters per minute. This is quite enough if you use water for drinking or cooking.

A great solution is ultrafiltration flowing drinking filter Atoll U-40s STD Compact. It has the highest degree of water purification for household flow filters *.

* (finer water purification is provided only by reverse osmosis systems)

The small size of the filter allows you to place it in a very limited space, which is usually not used, for example, under the sink in the upper part of the kitchen cabinet.

Four stages of cleaning:

• 1st stage: InLine atoll MK-5633C mechanical cartridge -5 μm - removes dirt from 5 microns and higher;
• 2nd stage: InLine atoll PK-5633C softening cartridge - removes hardness salts, prevents scale formation;
• 3rd stage: Inline atoll UF-5633C ultrafiltration cartridge - removes all particles from 0.01 microns and higher, including bacteria and viruses;
• 4th stage: Inline atoll carbon cartridge CK-5633C - activated carbon cartridge - removes chlorine, organic compounds, pesticides, improves organoleptic properties of water.

• Cartridge resource. Measured in cubic meters of purified water. Filters also have a time limit. Even if this element has not exhausted its resource, but the time of its use has expired, a replacement is necessary. Different cartridges of even one manufacturer may have different operating times; they will have to be changed in stages. If the liquid entering the apartment is very dirty, then the filters will need to be changed more often.
• Some filter systems require increased pressure in the water supply system. The pump built into the cleaning system will help to avoid problems. But in this case, you will have to stretch a separate moisture-proof power line to it.
• The storage tank will always allow you to have a supply of clean drinking water in the apartment in case it is disconnected. Its installation will require free space under the sink.

Installation of a filtering station

Installing a household water filter under the sink is easy:

• An additional hole is drilled in the countertop at the sink, where a faucet is inserted and fixed with washers and nuts.
• The water supply to the sink is shut off, the remaining liquid merges. It is easiest to supply water to the treatment system at the place where the flexible water hose is attached to the pipes. It is unscrewed, and a special tee, which is included in the kit of the supplied product, is inserted between it and the pipe, after which a flexible hose is screwed to this element. After installing the tee on it, close the tap through which the liquid will be supplied to the household filter system. Resuming water supply to the sink, you can check the connection for leaks.
• How to install a water filter? The filtration system itself is mounted with screws or dowels to the wall or the inner surface of the sink. The mount must be secure to support the weight of the system filled with water and provide easy access for replacing cartridges.

• Hose installation in progress. One of them, usually red, serves to draw water from the water supply. A crimping nut is screwed from the tee and put on the hose, after which the latter is simply pulled onto the fitting and fixed with a nut. There is no need to use any additional sealing materials. The other end of the hose is inserted all the way into the desired hole on the filter, which can be identified by the marks on its body. Before installing the tube, do not forget to remove the retaining ring from the moving part of the filter, and then attach it back.
• The blue hose connecting the tap to the filter is mounted in the same way. When connecting to a faucet, a crimp nut is first put on the hose, then a plastic ring, and a plastic tube is inserted inside. The whole system is inserted inside the nozzle on the tap and fixed with a crimping nut. Now many systems are equipped with drinking faucets with quick connectors.

• The system opens and is checked for leaks. But before using purified water, it is necessary to drain some of its volume in order to eliminate possible small particles that got into the tubes when installing the filter for the kitchen.