Be careful buying bottled water. It might be no better than the water coming out of your tap. Most bottled water is simply tap or spring water put through conditioning filters or processes to make it look and taste better. In fact, tests done on most commercially available bottled water have been shocking. Some of them may be even more contaminated than tap water. Bottled water only has to meet the same minimum standards required of municipal tap water. There is little scientific evidence to suggest that bottled water is healthier than tap water.

A few bottled water facts:

• Bottled water only has to meet the same minimum standards as tap water.
• Over 25% of bottled water is made from ordinary tap water.
• Most bottled water is simply tap or spring water put through conditioning filters to make it look and taste better
• The bottled water industry is almost entirely self-regulated. Most testing is done by the bottler only.
• The only bottled water that is truly clean is bottled "distilled" water.

Carbon particles or solid block carbons are used as filtering elements, when brand new, a carbon filter will do a fairly good job of removing certain organic contaminants, pesticides, chlorine, suspended particles and "precipitated heavy metals".

Carbon filters are not effective at removing other contaminants in the water such as biological, toxic metals, radioactive, particles, nitrates or bacteria.

In fact, after a filter has been used for a few days, bacteria from contaminated water, colonize and grow between the carbon particles and eventually may be randomly released into the "filtered" water.

Consequently, carbon filters shouldn't be used on un-chlorinated water supplies, such as wells.

BOILED WATER

Boiling removes none of the inorganic minerals, although it does kill the bacteria in raw water if boiled at least 20 minutes, but the dead bodies of these germs remain in the boiled water along with any toxins that are released from the remains of the dead germs. Such dead materials are fertile resources for the propagation of germs that are already in the body.

Also, as the volume of water is reduced by boiling, the contaminants in the water become more concentrated So, by drinking boiled water, one may avoid live disease germs, but one still takes on the bacterial soil for the growth of other bacteria and any other pollutants that are present in the water.

While raw water is an aquarium filled with deadly microorganisms, boiled water is a graveyard of dead germs.

REVERSE OSMOSIS

Reverse Osmosis where contaminated water is forced under pressure through a synthetic, semi-permeable membrane. The membrane because of its extremely small pore-size prevents micro-organisms and chemical contaminates from passing through. Reverse Osmosis is at its peak efficiency when the membrane is new, reducing certain contaminants by 70% - 90%. In practice however, over time the contaminants build-up and clog and damage the membrane. Bacteria grow through the membrane and make holes in it, so the quality of water produced by reverse osmosis degrades over time. This means that the quality of the water is not consistent, and the user has little peace of mind, they do require routine service, monitoring and replacement of the membrane periodically

DISTILLATION

Distilled water is pure H2O, just as Nature intended it. Distillation is the system that all other systems are measured against. It is a process that mimics the earth's natural hydrologic cycle, and essentially involves the boiling of water, catching the pure steam and condensing it back into water without it being exposed to any external impurities. All the contaminants are left in the boiling chamber. The effectiveness of distillation is over 99.99%, and the quality of the distilled water is not affected by the level of source water contamination. Distilled water tastes wonderful, distillation is surprisingly inexpensive, and the quality of distilled water remains consistent over time.

When considering any water purification system, look not only at what each system takes out of the water, but also look at what each system leaves in the water

Steam distillation is the purest, most efficient method of turning your ordinary tap water into crystal-clear, healthy water. The mechanical process of distillation follows an identical pattern to nature's hydrological cycle. Ordinary tap water is heated to 100 degrees C, killing bacterial, cysts and viruses by continuous boiling.

• Steam rises leaving behind dissolved solids, salts, heavy metals, dead bacteria and other substances.
• Gases that vaporize at temperatures lower than the boiling point of water are released through vents.
• Steam is condensed
• The purified drinking water is collected and stored in a stainless steel tank.