Health Articles And Advice

A home made water purifier can be as simple as cloth tied around a water faucet, or as complex as a series of chemical filters put together for a large quantity of water to be run through them. Historically, the cloth was a typical solution, and even today in Africa, some tribeswomen are taught to pour fresh-drawn water through layers of cloth before using it to remove contaminants. The water at the end looks cleaner, and it does prevent some water-borne contaminants, like amoeba, it is very far from a good solution.

You’ll find many types of home made water purifier instructions online, from simple filters to systems that involve distillation of water. The truth is, there are some serious problems with the do-it-yourself approach when it comes to purification of water. That’s not good; improperly purified drinking water can harm your health and even kill you. While it’s laudable to want to save a little money by creating your own filters, you could be putting yourself and your family at risk by doing it.

One of the problems with home made water purifiers is that they don’t tell you when they are saturated with contaminants; on the other hand, commercial water filters usually do. If you keep using saturated filters without knowing it, you’re not only getting un-decontaminated water; you’re actually dissolving some of the previously-removed contaminants and getting a double dose. Unless you’re using a distilled water system, you should assume that your home made water filter needs replacing, and that means you have to figure out your own saturation period.

Even if you use a distillation system or something else that supposedly removes all the contaminants from your water, you are likely to have a problem. For one thing, distillation removes even good minerals like iron, copper, and calcium, but it does not always remove chlorine, as chlorine is naturally a gas and will evaporate - and condense - right along with the water. In addition, distilled water that is not subsequently aerated will taste flat and lifeless, and your distillation system may add its own contaminants to your newly-purified water. You really need to know what you’re doing.

For those who are still planning to build a home made water purifier, make sure that your filtration system has several layers: sand or diatomaceous earth, a layer of fiber or mesh, activated carbon, another layer of mesh, and then a third layer of diatomaceous earth. These filters work best if water is put through at pressure, after being allowed to settle. Once you’ve filtered your water, test it by letting a glass sit for a day or so to see if anything settles in the bottom or if the water gets cloudy. You can also send out samples to biological laboratories to have a thorough test done for microbes if you do not get your water from a municipal supply. Unless you’re doing something very large scale, it’s likely to be cheaper and easier to buy a premade filtration system.