When Should you Service Water Purifier?

Water purification is the decontamination of naturally available water to make it drinkable. Water from the tap may contain unwanted minerals or other toxins. Hence water purification is a must.

These may have a harmful effect on the body. Thus removal of undesirable chemicals, biological contaminants, suspended solids, and gases from water is a necessity.

Water purifiers help to reduce the concentration contaminants such as suspended particles, parasites, bacteria, algae, viruses, and fungi. It, to some extent, also helps in reducing the concentration of a range of dissolved and particulate matter.

Water purifiers are the latest source of producing safe drinking water. It uses methods that include filtration, sedimentation, and distillation. This is done by physical or chemical processes. Electric water purifiers are a great solution. However, it needs maintenance for quality results.

How often should you service water purifiers?

Most water purifiers need servicing in 6 to 12 months. Exceeding beyond 12 months can cause the filter to jam up and not function properly. Most water purifiers mention the service period it needs, but it is great to be extra alert and arrange the servicing on appropriate time from the professional.

Water purifiers are of various types. Reverse osmosis (RO), ultraviolet (UV), ultrafiltration(UF), activated carbon, sediment filter are some of its classifications.

Reverse Osmosis Water purifier

Reverse osmosis RO uses a semi-permeable membrane for purification. Water passes through the RO membrane and dissolves solids like arsenic, fluoride, lead, chlorine, nitrates, and sulfates and gives out clean water. It is the most effective for hard water, which has high salt content.

To sanitize reverse osmosis filter, is it necessary to clean it once in 12 months. To clean it, one needs to take out all the layers of the filter from the housing and insert bleach into it and close up the housing. And after that, cold water should be added to it. This will thoroughly spread out chlorine to all parts of the system. It requires 5 hours to disinfect the region.

Then one must drain the chlorine out of the RO and tank. Now new filters and membranes should be inserted. After this stage, throw out around 2 tanks of water. Immediate consumption is not advisable. Throwing a minimum of 2 tank refills of water is a must.

Ultraviolet water purifier

UV kills micro-organisms, pathogens like bacteria, viruses, and cysts that cause waterborne diseases.No chemicals are used in this process. Water is passed through a UV lamp tube; when it is exposed to UV light, germs are killed.

For maintenance purposes, it is necessary to replace the UV lamp. Most UV lamps need replacement once a year. General UV lamps are rated at 10,000 hours, which is approximately a yearlong usage.

Ultrafiltration water purifier

Ultrafiltration requires a hollow fiber of a membrane that can separate water and contaminants. Water goes through the UF membrane, suspends solids and bacteria, virus, etc. it is very similar to RO purifier. However, this has larger pores.

The UF membrane must be changed every 12 months.

Activated carbon

Activated carbon water purification uses forms of carbon to purify. It may be coal, coconut shell, nutshells, wood, etc. charcoal is generally used in this purifier.

Activated carbon removes pesticides and heavy metals that cause water-borne diseases. It is effective in removing chlorine from water. It uses the adsorption property to purify.

Carbon tends to form a film of contaminants. This makes it important to cleanse it frequently. It attracts itself to molecules, ions, or atoms from chlorine. Once the carbon film reaches capacity, it can no longer purify water. Hence, it must be changed once a month or every 6 months depending upon the water quality of your region.

Sediment filter

The sediment filter is used complementary to RO, UV water purifiers. Sediments like rust flakes from pipes, mud, or sand particles are caught in it. Sedimentary filters are made of cotton, polyester fibers. The filter is rolled inside the plastic container.

Sedimentary filters cartridges require replacement after every 6-8 months. Cleaning the sediment filter is important to maintain RO, UV filter quality as it primarily blocks the larger particles reducing the load for RO and UV.

Servicing of the water purifier is necessary from time to time to get proper function out of it. Any water purifier can last 5 to 6 years if filters are changed frequently and taken good care of.  Reading all the manual is necessary to know how frequently does your water purifiers need servicing.

To wind it up in simple terms if you, active carbon and sediment filter needs to be cleaned and replaced in 6 months or less whereas RO, UV, UF filters need cleaning once a year. Apart from the filter the rest of the water purifier should also be cleaned once a year.