Cleaning tap water: the most effective methods

In order to clean water from the tap without odors and impurities, it is treated at special water treatment plants. At the same time, the use of household filters and the cleaning of water pipes are also necessary, since centralized preparation cannot always cope with contamination.

Below we will explain what can be done to get the highest quality tap water.

Pipe processing

As a rule, at water treatment plants, all volumes of water taken from open reservoirs are subjected to settling, filtering to remove large and small impurities, as well as disinfection. However, before it enters the consumer’s apartment, the liquid passes up to several tens of kilometers through pipes that have been in operation for quite some time. This is one of the reasons for the decline in water quality.

The site in the house itself is critical here: if the highways are trying to be maintained in an acceptable condition, then the house water supply system will often rust. The result is not only a change in the color of water and the appearance of rust flakes in it, but also an increase in the content of oxides and hydroxides of iron, which can adversely affect our health.

Cleaning your own water pipes is only possible for small households. If you live in an apartment building, then you should contact the service organization, because your strength will not be enough for high-quality flushing of several hundred meters of pipelines.

Today, the question of how to clean the water pipe from rust, experts give several answer options:

• The most accessible is the hydrodynamic technique.. A hose with a special nozzle is inserted into the lumen of the pipe, through which the flushing solution is fed under pressure. Fluids from the inside break up rust deposits, restoring surface integrity.

Note! After this treatment, it is desirable to drain a large amount of water in order to remove all the flakes of oxides that have passed into suspension.

• If the rust is old, the pipeline is washed with an acid solution (sulfuric acid is most often used). For steel and cast iron contours take weaker solutions (about 10%), which avoids corrosion. If the house has copper pipes, then all oxides from the inner surface are dissolved with 25% of the composition.
• The most effective is complex technology.. Initially, an acid solution is poured into the circuit, after which hydrodynamic washing is performed. This technique makes it possible in just a few hours to clear all problem areas from organic and inorganic contaminants that reduce the quality of drinking water.

Water treatment

Boiling and settling

At the same time, in addition to pipe care, instructions for cleaning water for drinking and cooking also include other activities.

So, if the centralized removal of pollution in your region is carried out at a high level, it is enough to perform sedimentation or boiling:

• Settling is carried out in a wide-mouth dish made of inert materials (glass, ceramic and enameled containers are best suited). Water recruited from the tap and leave at least 12 hours. After this period, the liquid can be used, but the precipitate formed at the bottom of the dish should be drained.

Note! The neck of the container can be covered with a loose cloth to prevent the ingress of insects and foreign objects. It is impossible to completely close the container, since this can significantly reduce the rate of diffusion of chlorine compounds into the air.

• To combat pathogens water can be boiled. To do this, pour the liquid in a stainless, glass or enamel kettle and bring to a boil. As soon as the first surface bubbles appear, the kettle needs to be removed from the heat or disconnected from the power grid so that the water does not evaporate and the concentration of salts in it does not increase.
• It is also advisable to boil the water upholding, but in this case, six hours is enough.

Using Filters

And yet, even if the water treatment plant in your area works fine, and the pipes are regularly washed away from rust, you should not neglect household filters.

The price of such products can be very different, and therefore it will not be difficult to find a suitable option both in cost and in functionality:

• The simplest and most affordable filters are jug filters. They are a construction of two interconnected containers, between which a replaceable filter cartridge is installed. Passing through this barrier, the water is purified from most impurities and partially desalted.

Note! The cartridge needs to be changed regularly. If this is not done, reverse filtration will occur, and accumulated contamination will begin to enter the tank, which should contain clean water.

• More effective are canister filters, which are placed under the sink or sink. They usually consist of several containers, each of which contains a separate filter - for coarse cleaning, for removing small contaminants, for desalting and trapping organic matter, etc. Often, such household systems are supplied with a separate tap placed on the countertop, but sometimes they can be connected to the mixer.

• Finally, if you live in a private house and get water from a well or a well, then you can install a whole water treatment plant. Such units are very different, and their configuration depends on the quality of water: in one case, a fairly primitive sand trap, and in the other - you will have to buy an ion-exchange column to reduce the content of iron, sulfur and other substances.

After filtration, the water can not stand. After going through the pores, it is freed from the majority of harmful impurities, and therefore its use will be completely safe for your health. The only exceptions are regions with an unfavorable epidemiological situation: it is desirable to boil even filtered water there.

Note! And in some areas, the use of tap water for drinking and cooking is generally undesirable, so that there will have to perforce buy bottled liquid.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are many options for cleaning tap water, and each of them has its own price and its level of effort. You can choose any of the proposed methods, but for a more detailed acquaintance with the topic raised, we recommend watching the video in this article.