RO and UV Water Filters: Objective Comparison Home Improvement by Lillian Connors - February 17, 2015 RO and UV Water Filters: Objective Comparison Having fresh drinking water is a serious problem worldwide, with a tendency to become more and more problematic over the course of the next several years and decades, and today’s biggest political analysts say that future wars are going to be waged primarily over water. However, what the civilization is now struggling with is the issue of purified water and how to get it: water is undrinkable in so many places, people have to make it clean. There are two main filter systems available on the market – ultra violet and reverse osmosis – and here is a basic comparison of their advantages and flaws. Image – flickr.com Ultra Violet (UV) Filters Having an almost scientific look and an appeal of a piece of equipment that was recovered from Norman Osborn’s laboratory, these filters are actually rather simple and convenient for a day-to-day use. What they actually do is attack various bacteria and viruses that are in the water and try to eliminate as many of them as possible. By focusing on their DNA structure and organization, UV filters manage to reduce the number of harmful things in our water and are thus considered rather effective and successful in preventing bacteria and viruses from reproducing which, consequently, makes the water that much cleaner. Also, they are free of chemicals and generally do not add special taste to purified water. Finally, the filters are easy to clean and maintain, so you can do the basics – change the UV light bulb, etc. – yourself. The negative aspect of these filters is that they are not completely effective and thorough. Some types of nonorganic contaminants, such as arsenic, copper, selenium and a few other chemicals cannot be completely removed via this method, despite its several ranges and options. Reverse Osmosis (RO) Filters Engaging a bit more complicated method involving the process of osmosis, i.e. its reversed option, and a sort of a membrane to hold the impurities, reverse osmosis filters separate pure water from all the impurities and leave it to you to collect it. In a recent conversation with the people who run a highly-rated company specialized in reverse osmosis systems, it was brought to my attention that this method removes not only small pieces of solid material, but also lead, plutonium, various toxic metals and a number of other dangerous things. Moreover, it excludes salts, sugars and bacteria from your water. Reverse osmosis filter systems do have certain limitations, the most noticeable of which are that they are quite expensive and cannot work around the clock. This aside, they are the perfect solution for your purification problems. The fact that they are considered slow and are limited to a certain amount of water that can be processed daily cannot really be seen as a fault or a setback – average consumers and household will not even notice this, but be rather satisfied with their results. Image – flickr.com The Choice So, when it comes down to choosing one of these two methods – the choice is harder than you think. The thing is that while none of this can provide you with 100% absolutely clean water, a combination of two can. If you, however, cannot afford to purchase both, you can at least be sure that your drinking water will be much cleaner with any of these purification filters.