Home water purifier The strongest purchase strategy you deserve to have!

Are there any water purifiers worth buying?
To say that the water purifier, that the biggest pit must be: the cartridge.
Many people buy water purifiers only look at the price of the machine, only to find out after use, change a set of special cartridges may be more expensive than the water purifier. Just like the printer conversion of the year to connect the supply, now there are water purifiers converted to external universal cartridge (universal cartridge is very cheap), such as the Mijia's change to external, or to replace the interchangeable cartridge filter bottles, these accessories are still selling quite well online!

01.Demand Confirmation

1, do you really need a water purifier? The need for a water purifier is mainly these three cases: a water source pollution, a high TDS value, and a desire to drink directly:

1.1 Water source pollution:
Most of the water out of the water plant is qualified, but after long-distance transportation, as well as secondary water supply and other factors, resulting in secondary pollution or the probability of multiple contamination is very high, such as aging and rupture of water pipes, secondary water supply cisterns dirty and so on.
The most serious is the secondary water supply pollution in the community, especially the old neighborhoods, as long as you have seen the cistern, it is estimated that not many dare to drink tap water. If there are too many visible impurities in the water, such as sediment and rust, it is best to install a pre-filter to extend the life of the water purifier cartridge.

1.2 High TDS value.
Water with a high TDS value can cause the water to become hard and astringent, which affects the taste and may be unfavorable to the body. When heated, it is easier to form scale and floating matter, which is easy to be clogged for instant hot water dispensers.TDS, i.e. Total Dissolved Solids, is an important indicator of the total amount of dissolved substances in the water, which covers minerals, organic substances and inorganic salts (such as calcium, magnesium, sodium sulfates, chlorides, nitrates, etc.). The unit of measurement is usually milligrams / liter (mg / L), the value of its high and low directly reflects the content of impurities in the water, the lower the value, meaning that the purer the water quality, the less impurities. These dissolved solids not only affect the color and taste of water, but also indirectly related to the safety and quality of drinking water. The new national standard GB5749-2022 “drinking water health standards” stipulates that China's drinking water TDS value should not exceed 1000mg / L. This standard is different from the international standards of other countries and regions (such as some places set to 500mg / L), but generally follow the principle of ensuring the safety of water quality, that is, to ensure that most of the dissolved substances are harmless to humans, under the premise of setting a reasonable upper limit of the dissolved solids. On the premise of ensuring that most of the dissolved substances are harmless to human beings, a reasonable upper limit is set. Although most of the dissolved substances are not harmful to humans, the standard usually does not exceed 1000 mg/L.

Generally, water with a TDS value of less than 50 mg/L is considered pure water for direct drinking, mainly for tap water. It is worth noting that many commercially available mineral waters often have TDS values higher than this standard due to the high level of natural minerals they contain. In China, the TDS value of tap water is generally controlled between 50-300mg/L. Water within this range is considered safe and suitable for drinking through boiling. Water quality in good areas can even be less than 20mg / L, poor water quality up to 800 there are.

If you want to know what the TDS value of your own water is, you can spend some money to buy a TDS test pen to measure it
If you want to know what the TDS value of your own water is, you can spend some money to buy a TDS pen to measure it. One thing you need to know is that if the TDS value of tap water is less than 50mg / L, does not necessarily mean that you can drink, because it can not detect viruses, bacteria and pesticides in the tap water and so on. However, if you test qualified RO reverse osmosis water purifier purified water, then you can drink directly, test qualified because the water purifier filters out most of the metal ions, so much larger than the ions of bacteria and viruses can also be filtered out.

1.3 Direct drinking:
Water quality is not good want to drink directly, you can use RO reverse osmosis water purifier to realize, this kind of water purifier can reduce the TDS value, as well as filtering water bacteria, viruses, residual chlorine and other harmful substances, so that the filtered water to meet the standard of direct drinking. For example, the use of instant hot water dispensers, it only heats the water and does not boil the water, so you need to use water that can be drunk directly, and the TDS value should be as low as possible, to avoid limescale clogging the internal piping.

2, microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, RO reverse osmosis, who to choose? Microfiltration, ultrafiltration and nanofiltration, are not RO reverse osmosis filtration thoroughly, the price is also more appropriate!

3, barrel or no barrel
RO reverse osmosis water purifier can be roughly divided into barrel type and no barrel type, both have their advantages and disadvantages.
Say the advantages and disadvantages of RO reverse osmosis water purifier before taking you to understand the problem of stale water: RO reverse osmosis water purifier in the stop after the reverse osmosis membrane will be out of pressure, the membrane before the concentration of water and the membrane after the purified water will be slowly penetrate each other, when the water production and penetration of water again too much, it will cause just put out of water quality is not qualified, the TDS value will be high. There is no barrel water purifier first cup of water is stale water.

About bucket:
Advantages: fast water production, no first cup of stale water problem, suitable for pipeline machine. Disadvantages: one more barrel, almost double the space; a water output can not exceed the capacity of the barrel; the barrel is almost impossible to clean, there is a possibility of contamination; a long time to travel or travel back, the water in the barrel still want to let people tangle.

About no bucket:
Advantages: space-saving, continuous water production, you can use as much water production, to ensure the freshness and purity of drinking water. Disadvantages: the first cup of stale water problem, the relative speed of water production is slow most of the advantages and disadvantages of the two are relative, let's say the stale water problem, there are actually barrel models have stale water, just flow into the barrel is diluted, it depends on whether we can accept it; and bucketless models first put off the first cup of stale water can be, and there are many zero stale water barrel models, although not perfect, but also can greatly reduce the first cup of water TDS value.

About the first cup of aged water:
In fact, the 1st cup of stale water is incorrect, because from the outlet of the RO membrane to the outlet of the faucet, this section of water is still qualified pure water. After the production of water just out of the RO membrane is stale water, as for how many cups of water, it depends on the length of the water purifier to the faucet, the size of the post-filter cartridge, as well as how long it has been out of service, so no one can not accurately know exactly how many cups of water to meet the direct drinking standards. My solution is to install a TDS monitor on the faucet, which shows that it meets the standard and is safe to drink. While most water purifiers now come with TDS displays, many are not accurate, and many measure the TDS inside the purifier, not at the faucet outlet. Adding this TDS display was first used only for water quality testing in the pipeline, for faucet outlet testing, and there are also businesses that have designed faucet-specific models.

4, on the line machine:
Early with the pipeline machine is generally recommended to use the barrel water purifier, the main reason is that there is no barrel of stale water problems. But now there are barrels of water purifiers have zero water aging design, and some of the pipeline machine comes with a water tank can be buffered, so you can also use a barrel. There is another issue that you need to pay attention to, now many water purifiers do not support the pipeline machine, you must pay more attention before buying. Most of the early water purifiers are water pressure control water purifier start and stop, so it can support the pipeline machine. But now many are electronically controlled, resulting in the in-line machine can not be used.

5, 400G, 600G, 800G is what?
We choose a water purifier, often see 400G, 600G, 800G, etc., which indicates the flux of the water purifier, that is, the water purifier's water production capacity. The “G” here stands for gallon, a unit of volume used to measure the water production capacity of a water purifier every 24 hours. 1G is equal to about 3.785 liters. A 600G water purifier, for example, can produce about 2,271 liters of pure water in 24 hours at a rate of about 1.577 liters per minute. These are theoretical water production, and may be reduced in actual use by various factors such as temperature and water quality. In fact, the size of this G gives us the intuitive feeling of the speed of water production.

Currently common bucket water purifier flux is 75G, some businesses in the product model will not be added above the flux, or labeled a value to confuse the concept, we need to pay attention when buying. If you have a bucket, the size of 75G is enough, because it will be made in advance of the water stored in the bucket, so the speed of water is faster than the bucket without hundreds of G speed. The common bucketless water purifier has a flux of 600G, and nowadays 400G is less and less cost-effective. In the past two years, as the price of large flux water purifiers has dropped, 1000G and 1200G water purifiers are becoming more and more popular. The flux of the bucketless water purifier basically does not have the phenomenon of not labeling or labeling the flux indiscriminately. A few years ago it was the 600G that was the most cost-effective, and now the large fluxes are also cost-effective. Usually 600G is enough for 1 to 6 people. Because for the bucketless water purifier, the size of the G gives us the intuitive feeling is the speed of water, so anxious, or not bad money can buy a larger capacity.

6, the net waste ratio of 1:1 enough
RO reverse osmosis water purifier in the pure water manufacturing process will produce waste water, so there is this net waste ratio, that is, the proportion of pure water and waste water. Ideal net waste ratio of 1:1, but not the less waste water the better, the less waste water the greater the burden of reverse osmosis membrane. Theoretically, each water purifier can adjust the net waste ratio, if you adjust the waste water by half, the net waste ratio of 2:1, a year will save a ten dollars, but the shortening of the life of the reverse osmosis membrane may cost dozens of hundreds of dollars, so the net cost ratio do not have to care too much. Although the state has a water efficiency standards, to save water, but we want cost-effective. A strong advocate of the net waste ratio, either do not understand the water purifier, or this water purifier is really no advantages can be said.

Wastewater use: here and we talk about the use of wastewater, many people recommend buying a bucket to waste water to use, but the year's wastewater counted about ten dollars, buy a bucket is more than ten dollars, more than one bucket also takes up space. In addition to worry about the bucket full of water will overflow, then someone said, can be connected to the barrel above the pipe to the sewer, there is no fear of overflow, but the cost of such an increase, and you pour the waste water out of the barrel to use it is also quite a hassle. Others connect the waste water to the bathroom to flush the toilet, but burying the pipe is troublesome and costly.
My suggestion is that it is best to connect the waste water pipe to the sink, and if you want to use the waste water, you can take a basin to catch it, and if you don't want to use it, you can let the waste water directly flush the sink. But the main reason for connecting it to the sink is that you can observe the state of the water purifier, and quite a bit of water saving. For example, you can avoid problems with the water purifier when the wastewater has been flowing and do not know, you can observe the water purifier automatic flushing status, you can judge the amount of wastewater according to the changes in the water purifier is out of the question and so on.

7, single water or double water
Single water refers to only out of the pure water can be directly drinking, double water refers to out of the pure water and drinking water. Theoretically, most water purifiers can double water. Most people choose to install a water purifier because they have concerns about the quality of their tap water. In everyday life, not all situations require the use of purified water, for example, it may be wasteful to use it when washing rice, vegetables, fruits or dishes. In contrast, it is more practical to use purified water. The use of purified water does not produce wastewater and does not deplete the reverse osmosis membrane. Water purification is generally from the reverse osmosis membrane before the first level of connection, although not through the reverse osmosis treatment, but most of the solid particles in the water such as sand, rust, as well as some of the organic matter, chlorine, color and odor can be effectively removed. Specifically choose a single water or dual water can be decided according to demand, such as poor water quality certainly preferred dual water.

8, the advantages of universal filter water purifier is the biggest pit of the special filter, so in the pursuit of water quality at the same time, it is recommended to give priority to the use of universal filter. Universal cartridge is not only affordable, but also according to our needs to flexibly choose different brands, different materials of the universal cartridge, so as to maximize the cost-effectiveness. In addition, the universal cartridge can also adjust the order of the cartridge according to the water source. Common RO reverse osmosis water purifier has five separate cartridges, so the five-stage filtration is also more reasonable. The first three levels are to the fourth RO membrane to reduce the pressure of filtration, the fifth level is mainly used to improve the taste of water, detailed information can be seen in the table below:

A filter element PP cotton  
Role (PP) 1-5μm PP cotton as a filter material, used to remove rust, sediment, suspended solids and other large particles of impurities. Coarse filtration.  Lifespan 3-6 months
Secondary cartridge Granular activated carbon (UDF) integrates adsorption, filtration interception and catalytic effect, which can effectively remove insecticides, pesticide residues, organic solvents and other chemical pollution caused by industry. It can also effectively remove organic matter, residual chlorine and other radioactive substances in water, and has the effect of decolorization and deodorization. Life span 3-6 months
Three-stage cartridge Sintered activated carbon (CTO) (some manufacturers use PP cotton as the cartridge material), deep adsorption of foreign colors, odors, residual chlorine in the water, and filter out fine impurities. It also plays a role in protecting the main filter element of the water purifier. Life expectancy 6-8 months
Four-stage cartridge RO reverse osmosis membrane main cartridge, can intercept viruses, bacteria, heavy metals, pesticides, pollutants, chemicals, etc., to reduce arsenic, cadmium, chromium (hexavalent), lead in the water. Life span 24 months
Five-stage cartridge Post-activated carbon (T33) further adsorption of foreign colors and odors in the water, mainly to improve the taste of water Life 8-12 months

RO reverse osmosis membrane is the core component of the water purifier, but also the most expensive cartridge, the main brands on the market include: foreign brands: Dow, Hyderabad, GE, Shi Han, Toray, only Sai Bo. Domestic brands: Huitong (Times Walton), Wellington, nine chapters, Qinyuan and so on. Domestic water purifier with more Dow, GE and Huitong, reputation is also good. Compared to imported membranes, domestic membranes, although slightly inferior in service life and stability, but its purification effect is also excellent. More importantly, the domestic membrane price is more affordable, long-term use of the cost is more economical. One thing to note, many water purifiers advertise the use of Dow membrane or GE membrane, in fact, may be imported membrane in the domestic processing of rolled.

Desalination rate:
Desalination rate is a key indicator of the filtration efficiency of the water purifier, which reflects the ability of the water purifier to remove dissolved solids in the water. High-quality reverse osmosis membrane desalination rate is usually up to 95-99%. If the water quality is too poor, try to choose RO membrane with high desalination rate.

Composite cartridge: most brands use a composite cartridge, which is a collection of two or more independent functions of the cartridge. The advantage of the composite cartridge is to save space, replacement also saves time and effort. The biggest advantage of the general filter element is cheap, but due to the emergence of special long-lasting filter element, this gap has now become smaller and smaller, in the promotional even counted down to cheaper than the general filter element.

9, scale inhibitor harmful?
Scale inhibitor in the water purifier cartridge is a chemical used in water purifiers to prevent scaling of the cartridge. Its main purpose is to prevent the water calcium, magnesium ions and other minerals deposited on the surface of the cartridge, thereby extending the service life of the cartridge to improve the efficiency of water purification. Scale inhibitor is indeed harmful to the body, but put aside the dose of toxicity is that. Because the normal situation scale inhibitor is not over the RO membrane, so theoretically the water purifier using scale inhibitor will not be harmful to the body. But if the RO membrane problems may cause scale inhibitor mixed into the pure water, in addition to the RO membrane pressure loss may also be through the past, so it is better to buy no scale inhibitor. In the first few years, many businesses use scale inhibitors, these years may be businesses noticed the concern, 0 scale inhibitor instead of becoming one of the promotional selling point of the product.

02. Water purifier purchase

Big brand almost no use of universal filter, many rely on universal filter to make money. License plate or small brand is a lot of universal cartridge, but usually use 3 to 4 cartridges. Earlier water purifiers are more expensive, so there are a lot of masters to buy their own parts assembly, in addition to the price advantage, all the parts can choose their own brand, water-related parts can be selected NSF-certified brands (NSF certification is simply understood that: the water-related parts will not be in the treatment of water in the process of water release of pollutants into the water). Then many sellers see the business opportunity, they began to sell the seller's own assembled water purifier (DIY finished product), usually they will be based on different brands of different parts assembled into different versions of the water purifier for sale. This results in the cost of our own DIY is much higher than the price of DIY finished products, because the seller is wholesale price ah. Two years ago, DIY finished products are more well-known: open spring water purification (red bird), Laikes, Chisongyuan, Thousand Islands, northern water treatment, Novartis clear source, Shengqi and Le Swan, when I mainly recommend these, because of the cost-effective and desalination rate are high. But now a lot of brand-name machine prices have come down a lot, some of the products desalination rate has also come up a lot, some of them also use a universal cartridge, and some non-universal cartridge brand-name machine discounted down to the cost is also very low. In addition, the brand machine is usually smaller, more convenient to replace the cartridge, usually also package installation, after-sales service is also more secure. So, like to toss, to have a sense of accomplishment on their own DIY, too much trouble and want a high rate of desalination can buy DIY finished products, too much trouble and want to be small, easy to replace the cartridge can buy cost-effective brand-name machines.

The rated total water purifier is generally measured in the laboratory of the home, there is no discussion here, unified with the filter cartridge years to do the comparison. For some of the various additional features of the water purifier I will not go into detail, after all, we need a cost-effective water purifier, those nearby features depends on your respective needs.

03. Concluding Remarks

Often see a lot of people say that the new so-and-so water purifier is not good, it will leak, or that the noise, or that the water is slow, or that the purification effect is not good, or that the total amount of clean water and cartridge life is not right ah. Newly purchased if there are these problems is not necessarily a bad water purifier:
Leakage: most of the leakage is not a quality problem, but not installed, after all, so many pipes and joints. You can search online, those three thousand up the price of the water purifier leakage is also a common thing.
Noise: many times and cabinet resonance, the solution is in the water purifier and cabinet contact place pad some shock absorbing things, such as pearl cotton.
Slow water: this is due to a number of reasons, for example, the first time the water purifier will feel the water is very slow, but in fact, the water is normal, you can first determine how many G you buy a water purifier, and then refer to my previous conversion table to see how many liters of water a minute, with a know the capacity of mineral water bottles to catch the water timed to know whether it is normal. If indeed slow to consider other factors, such as the temperature is too low, the water pressure is too small, etc., to rule out these reasons and then consider the reason for the water purifier.
Purification effect is not good: each water purifier has a more fixed rate of desalination, you can use the rate of desalination to calculate, you can know whether the water purifier problem. If there is a problem with the calculation results, you can check whether the RO membrane is correctly installed, exclude these reasons and then consider the reason for the water purifier.
Total net water and cartridge life: are laboratory data, don't think too good, don't think too bad, these two values are affected by many factors, such as water temperature, water pressure, water quality, daily water consumption, etc., the actual use of the value may be smaller than the nominal value, may be large, there is no false propaganda, the general public can not be measured. Take myself and my friends and family as an example, our water quality is quite good, the use of down basically more than the nominal value.

Write in the end
Finally, I hope you do not step on the pit, some thousands of water purifier and the water purifier introduced in the above purification effect is not very different, cheap also have good goods! PS: Do not forget to measure the size of the installation location before you buy, buy not put in the embarrassment. If you “water purifier purchase” also have a lot of insights, welcome in the comments section to recommend