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How Effective Is Your Water Purification System?

Let us look into how filters work. Let take sand filters for example. To help us look at this filter with a microbe’s eye, imagine a bacterium enlarged to the size of a teenager. When we enlarge the filter to match, the smallest grain of sand would grow to the size of a four storey building and the largest would be like the Petronas Twin Towers. Some bacteria would sick to the sand but most would simply pass through.

In the case of virus which is much smaller bacteria, bypassing the filter is much easier. Compared to our human size bacterium, a virus is a like a child’s marble falling through the gaps of a chaotic stack of boulders the size of apartment buildings.

Chemicals dissolved in the water would simply pass through as well. That is why most filter systems have some form of activated carbon to absorb some of the chemicals. However, carbon filters have limitations. It would still allow tens of thousands of chemicals pass through. Moreover, the damp condition of the filters is a good breeding ground for bacteria.