Our team at Progressive Water Solutions LLC has over 30 years of experience in the water treatment industry, so it’s safe to say that we know our way around a filtration system. We want to help you make the best possible decisions when it comes to your home’s water supply, and we are here to give you the accurate information you need to do just that. In this article, we’ll provide an overview of how water filtration systems work so that you can decide if you need one for your home.
Physical Filtration
There are two main methods of water filtration: physical and chemical. In physical filtration systems, the water is passed through one or more physical barriers or media to strain out any impurities–in other words, the water runs through a sieve. One of the most common substances used for this kind of filtration is activated carbon, which is highly porous and has a huge internal surface area that’s full of nooks and crannies for impurities to get trapped in. Unfortunately, activated carbon can’t handle every chemical or contaminant, which makes it necessary to pair it with other methods.
Chemical Filtration
Chemical water filtration methods differ from physical ones in that they use chemical reactions to remove or neutralize contaminants. One of the most common forms of chemical filtration relies on ion exchange, which breaks up certain molecules (such as calcium deposits in hard water), creating charged ions. These ions are then trapped by a chemical filter, and replaced with different, more desirable ions (such as sodium ions to create soft water).