Quote:
Originally Posted by Toymeister
Filters are well, filters. What gives our water hardness and a certain taste is calcium. The calcium is an ion attached to H2O. Filters can not filter out ions.
To remove the ions you need an ion exchange system, aka a water softener. It doesn't matter which brand that you choose. As ALL ion exchangers use the same process. There is no changing the physics/chemistry of removing the calcium ions.
Now filters do catch some particulates and you may notice that in the taste. Mainly, though, you'll feel good about having a filter. Psychologically that can make a huge difference to many people. But you don't get a new version of chemistry just because you have a filter, you need an ion exchanger. Sorry to sprinkle some reality to the owners of filtration systems
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Toymeister,
You are correct about softeners using ion exchange top reduce hardness ions such as calcium and magnesium. However, let me add some more information.
The filter systems such as Nova and others e. g. refrigerator water filters also include an
activated carbon filter which can
absorb organic contaminants and dissolved ions such as chlorine and chloramines which reduces the smell and bad taste in municipal water.
You can also add a
reverse osmosis system to further treat potable water. We added a reverse osmosis system from NOVA that replaces our refrigerator filters. RO removes about 60 to 70 % of the dissolved ions in the water which reduces the hardness. Reverse osmosis is a water purification process that uses a partially permeable membrane to separate ions, unwanted molecules, and larger particles from drinking water. I did it as a precaution to reduce any pollutants that may be in the raw water from Chemical Plant Discharge or other sources that may reach our raw water source. In NC, reverse osmosis is being added to their treatment systems to remove PFAS chemical contamination from river water source caused by a Chemours Plant (Dupont spinoff) into the Cape Fear River and eventually into our drinking water at our previous home.
The combination of extensive filtration including activated carbon filters plus reverse osmosis to reduce dissolved ions is precisely what the bottled water companies use to produce their product.
Hopefully, my 60 yr old chemistry learning makes sense to you.