Your Guide to Choosing the Best Water Filters For your Home

Drinking the right quality and quantity of water is essential for our health. Whether you drink from a tap, bottle, or jug, water is involved in everything from supporting our brain function, to flushing waste from our body, to regulating body temperature. It makes sense, then, that we should ensure the quality of our drinking water is of the highest standard for optimal cellular hydration.

Depending on where you live in the world, there are multiple factors impacting the type and quality of drinking water available to you, which is why so many people are now wondering which is the best water filter for their homes.

 

Do You Need a Water Filter in Australia?

Living in Australia, our tap water is regularly treated to prevent water borne diseases and reduce potential health risks. Introducing ingredients and chemicals, like chlorine and fluoride, to work as disinfectants has sparked much debate in recent years concerning the effects that such treatments may have on the public health. Fluoride, for example, has been identified as providing benefits for dental care and cleaning water, but also carries the potential, and serious risk of toxicity.

The current guidelines relating to Australian drinking water specify that water should contain “no harmful concentrations of chemicals or pathogenic microorganisms”, and the prevailing consensus amongst officials is that the methods in place for cleaning and filtering water create more benefits than potential risks.

Across such a vast country, certain types of drinking water may experience greater exposure to toxins, such as industrial pollutants or bacteria connected with agricultural runoff. As mentioned above, many Australians are searching for information on water filtration and the best form of water filter for their homes.

Our bodies and brains are more than 70% water and whilst we generally assume the water we are drinking is safe, I wonder how often we ask ourselves, ‘what are the properties in water that support a healthier life?’ Such a query is based in Eastern perspectives of health whilst our Western approach is focused on filtration at the water treatment plant and adding disinfectants to make our water cleaner and safe to drink. “Safe” in the Western approach is based on the quality of the water as it arrives into homes. The drinking water has to travel from Water Treatment facilities to homes across kilometres and kilometres of underground pipes and connections! Along the way there is exposure to bacteria, viruses, pesticides, other pollutants, bugs and organic matter. These enter through broken and old underground pipes.

To ensure that the water is “safe” to drink authorities must add disinfectants into drinking water (such as Chlorine) to ensure the drinking water is “safe” to drink and must kill water borne bacteria and viruses that would make us sick!

Most people do not like the taste or smell of Chlorine in their drinking water. Many also understand the need to filter the chlorine out of their drinking water along with other potential pollutants carried in the water. Studies now show the disinfectant process creates “disinfectant bi-products” such as THM’s (Trihalomethanes) which are known modern day carcinogens!

The Eastern approach understands that removing potential pollutants can also eradicate the naturally occurring and beneficial properties in the water, such as a selection of life-sustaining minerals that are essential to optimum hydration and also softens the taste. By combining both eastern and western perspectives around overall wellness, we can shift our thinking around the water we consume, and gain a better understanding of what we need from our home water filtration systems.

 

Do Water Filters Work?

When reviewing the best water filters available in Australia, it will require some research to better understand your needs. Whether you are looking for something small like a jug filter, or something with greater capacity like a countertop filter, it is important to know what you are hoping to achieve with the filter itself.

An excellent example of this is how the zazen Alkaline Water System works to emulate the cycle of mother nature with our 10-stage, state of the art process, filtering the water in your home before remineralising, naturally energising and restructuring it, thus offering water that is uniquely designed for cellular hydration, and your improved health outcomes. This is the main difference between zazen and other water filter options on the market – not only will you have the nasties filtered out, but you will also benefit from the added, essential alkaline minerals and other properties naturally infused into the water that support a healthier outcome.

But do water filters actually work? The onus is on the investigator and the best advice anyone can give here is to ask each company for their proof of certification and the standards they are expected to meet in Australia and also ask for a copy of their test results so you can see what is being filtered out of the water with the filtration method they are using.

When researching and shopping for the best water filter in Australia, it is important to understand the standards pertaining to Australia and New Zealand, AS/NZS4348, covering a range of contaminants, such as taste, smell, and chemical impurities. Knowing how to look through these certifications can not only help you to find the best water filter for your home, but avoid models that claim to meet such performance standards, but are not officially certified. Investing in certified products will ensure you can be confident in your model’s performance when used correctly.

 

How Do Water Filters Work?

There are a variety of water filters available on the market, from water filter jugs to whole house water filtration. Most models use both physical and chemical filtration to rid drinking water of the particles and contaminants that may pose a health risk. Some of the methods employed by water filter models include absorption, ion exchange, reverse osmosis, and sequestration.

Again, it is important to repeat that the best water filter available in Australia will be one that not only eradicates the selection of potential contaminants such as chlorine, other heavy metals and water soluble pollutants that are present, but also preserve or introduce the range of essential minerals and electrolytes needed to hydrate your body at a cellular level.

 

What Types of Water Filters Do I Need?

Understanding the various types of water filters available in Australia, from jug filters to ceramic filters, will go a long way to ensuring that your needs are best met. For example, do you have an underlying health condition that requires thorough filtration, or are you simply looking for a way to change how your water tastes in the jug? Is your water filter neutralising the minerals present within the water along with the pollutants? Knowing the answer to these questions early on will help you find the best water filter for your home delivering clean water ready to drink that is rich in the elements your body requires – as nature intended.

 

Jug Filters

An easy-to-use jug filter provides a cheaper form of water filtration that can be conveniently stored in your fridge for easy access. With the ability to hold a large amount of water in the jug, these filters can provide chilled, filtered water as you need it.

It is important to note, however, depending on the size and shape of the jug filter, space and storage may be an issue, and it is necessary to frequently refill the jug. The savings are further reduced once you consider the added cost of replacement parts, which can prove quite frequent, often every month.

Filtration efforts in a limited jug filter are low compared to other systems with a larger more comprehensive set of filters. They may remove a superficial level of detergents and that is all. It is important to understand exactly what this type of filter is capable of achieving. They will most certainly not be able to remineralise the water thus creating a “dead” water with none of the vital minerals and electrolytes we need for our optimal health and wellbeing.

 

Bottle Filters

Convenient and portable, a bottle filter, like the jug filter, is easy to use and provides another cost-effective option for water filtration. However, they are limited in their filtration effects and the shorter life of the filter means regular changes are required to maintain efficiency.

 

Benchtop or Countertop Water Filters

These models can filter larger amounts of water without requiring plumbing and electrical modifications. They also have more comprehensive filters able to filter a wider range of contaminants to a greater degree than other smaller filters. Our zazen Alkaline Water System is an example of a quality benchtop model capable of transforming your drinking water so that it both hydrates you at a cellular level and tastes great (and children love it). Benchtop water systems are also a cost-effective solution. The zazen Alkaline Water System provides water at less than 5 cents per litre. They only require minimal space on the bench, about the size of a large dinner plate.

 

Pottery Water Filters

A benchtop style filter is the Pottery Ceramic water filter. They are effective at removing detergents and organic matter from the source water but again are restricted in their breadth of filtration, not achieving the same outcome as those filters using more comprehensive filtration media. Regular cleaning of the ceramic filter is required to prevent slow filtration as is the regular replacement of the filter itself. It’s important to note that the ceramic water filters don’t remineralise the water, providing essential alkaline minerals and electrolytes and do not reenergise or restructure the water (as water found in nature), therefore the water provided is not optimal for hydrating your body cells and tissues.

Reverse Osmosis Filters

The Reverse Osmosis method uses water pressure to pass through a thin membrane, physically blocking contaminants and washing them away. While effective in filtering water, this process uses a lot of water and energy, resulting in potentially 60% of the water used being wasted. Furthermore, reverse osmosis water is void of any natural alkaline minerals and life-sustaining properties, which are essential for optimal cellular hydration.

 

Under-Sink Water Filters

This is basically a reverse osmosis style of water filter system and allows for large amounts of water to be treated without taking up space on countertops or fixing on to existing taps. However, this model requires plumbing modifications which can incur some expensive upfront costs. While under-sink filters remove the chemicals and nasties from our tap water, they also remove the life-sustaining prosperities such as naturally occurring minerals.

Water ionisers

Similar to the reverse osmosis style of water filter, water ionizers use electricity. They use an electrical current to unnaturally “split” water into acid and alkaline water (high pH water 9 – 12 pH), The acidic water created is generally waste water or can be utilised in a variety of external cosmetic purposes whilst the alkaline water is a high alkaline water created for therapeutic purposes.

Not all models will actually filter the water removing contaminants , extra filters need to be purchased to achieve adequate filtration through this type of machine. If you are looking for an alkaline water for therapy, manufacturers of water ionisers claim there is a therapeutic benefit.

Whole House Water Filter

As the largest water filter available, these designs aim to filter water at the point of entry to your home. They are a convenient filtration option that can remove many but not all contaminants in the water, but they can, unfortunately, prove to be expensive and difficult to install as well as require consistent maintenance. While the water may be filtered of some contaminants and heavy metals they are not designed to produce hydrating, great tasting drinking water, with the essential properties for optimal cellular hydration.

Understand More About the Best Water Filter for Homes Across Australia

There are many ways to enjoy cleaner drinking water in your home, wherever you are in Australia. While safe drinking water is important, it is only half the story… At zazen Water, we ask a fundamentally different question: ‘what are the properties of water that sustain life? With this perspective, we go further than other water filters on the market, offering the zazen Alkaline Water System that both filters and remineralises, producing water that is free from chemicals and nasties, but also rich in alkaline minerals, sustaining life and hydrating the body at a cellular level.

Discover more of the benefits of high-quality water filters available across Australia at zazen, or if you would like more information on how to choose the best water filters for your home, please contact us today.