Water filtration systems have become more advanced and detailed to meet changing needs of homeowners. With this also comes an increase in the complexity of operating whole house water filters. This suggests that homeowners find it hard and confusing to choose the right kind of filters for their homes, let alone the filter cartridges.
The different types of water filtration systems come in various stages that offer added filter cartridges for effective filtration. Not to mention, different types of filter cartridges are placed in each water tank of multi-stage whole house water filter systems.
Each of these cartridges plays a different role and removes various kinds of water contaminants. For instance, some remove sediments from the water, while others may be more effective at killing bacteria or filtering heavy metals. If you are looking for the right filter cartridge for your whole house filtrat5ion system, this article has you covered. We will discuss what the different filter cartridges do.
Cartridge Filtration
Many filtration systems use tubular filtration equipment called cartridges. The incased filter cartridges can remove unwanted pollutants, particles, and chemicals from water. It flows through the covering of the filter cartridge and passes through the filtering element that removes contaminants and submicron particles from the water. There are two types of cartridge filters and filtration.
Surface Filtration
When we talk about surface filtration, we refer to surface filters that hold back solids and contaminants outside the filter medium. It is called surface filtration because the water flows through a material that stops particles at surface level.
Depth Filtration
Depth filtration refers to trapping contaminants and solids within the filtering medium. One or more thick layers of filter media are used to restrict unwanted particles from passing through. As water passes through this medium, contaminants are trapped while clean water passes through to the other side.
Different Types of Water Filter Cartridges
You can use a whole house cartridge water filtration system to remove any contaminants, heavy metals, bad tastes, and odors from your water. Once you install a filter in your home, the water from your municipal supply will first enter the filter and pass through one or more filter cartridges to remove specific contaminants from your water. While they offer significant benefits, choosing the right filter cartridge is what makes all the difference. Here are some of the different filter cartridges that perform different jobs.
Sediment Filter Cartridge
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that you can find sand and dirt in the city and well water. And while it certainly makes the water undrinkable, sand and dirt particles render water unsuitable for household chores as well. If your home’s water supply contains sediments, sediment filter cartridges are designed for you.
Sediment filters are whole house filtration systems that are specially designed to remove sediments like dirt and sand from water. These filters use special sediment filter cartridges that can remove sediments such as dust, sand, silt, dirt, scale, rust, etc.
However, these cartridges are incapable of filtering contaminants over the size of one micron. So, your sediment filter may leave out bacteria, microscopic organisms, and chemicals.
Reverse Osmosis Membrane Cartridge
Reverse osmosis filters use incredibly effective reverse osmosis membrane filter cartridges that are extremely dense. The density of these membrane cartridges allows them to remove the tiniest particles and contaminants from your water.
In the reverse osmosis process, water passes through a semi-permeable membrane that filters out various contaminants and minerals such as organic molecules, viruses, minerals, pesticides, arsenic, bacteria, nitrates, and salts and heavy metals like lead.
These cartridges have the capacity of removing microorganisms and viruses as small as 1/10.000 part of a micron. Not to forget, they can also remove foul tastes and odors from your household water. Since reverse osmosis filter cartridges can remove almost all kinds of contaminants, these are some of the best cartridges available.
Activated Carbon Filter Cartridge
Carbon filters are an inexpensive way of removing contaminants and toxins from your water. These use activated carbon filter cartridges that are charcoal-based to filter harmful substances from water.
Moreover, it ensures not to remove essential minerals during the purifying process so that your water is still healthy. So, carbon filter cartridges are great if you wish to keep the healthy minerals intact in your household and drinking water.
They are especially effective for the removal of VOCs, chlorine, and other similar chemicals. They also ensure that your water is free of any unpleasant tastes or odors. However, they are not as good for removing substances such as sediments, salts, and minerals.
Ultraviolet Filter Cartridge
These are comparatively very different from other systems that use filter cartridges as the water does not pass through the ultraviolet filter cartridge. Rather, this cartridge is similar to a light bulb inside the canister.
The bulb or UV filter cartridge uses ultraviolet rays to kill bacteria and other microorganisms that may be present in your water. This is made possible when the water is exposed to the UV light bulb, and the rays from this bulb destroy the DNA of microorganisms to kill them entirely. These filter cartridges can effectively kill cysts, bacteria, fungi, algae, viruses, and dysentery in the water.
The ultraviolet bulb remains on at all times, and its life span is measured in hours instead of water gallons. Water from the point of entry directly enters the whole house's ultraviolet filtration system, where it’s filtered to remove microscopic organisms.
Other Filter Cartridges
Other types of filter cartridges include alkaline ionizer filter cartridges and ceramic filter cartridges. The alkaline ionizer filters are responsible for bringing back any essential minerals that may have been stripped off from your water from other whole house filter systems. They boost the pH of your water, making it for good and healthy drinking water.
Meanwhile, ceramic filters are specially designed for the removal of bacteria from your water. These filter cartridges are positively charged to attract harmful bacteria. Once the bacteria reach the cartridge, the positively charged metal ions work to kill the bacteria. However, these filter cartridges are incapable of removing contaminants other than bacteria.
Bottom Line
There are many different kinds of water filter cartridges that remove specific compounds from your water. While some may be good for removing sediments, others can effectively kill bacteria or remove heavy metals. Cartridges are filter systems used to remove unwanted particles and contaminants for clean water, free of harmful substances and bad taste or odor.
