Water is essential to every living being on the planet. Humans can only survive, on average, three days without water. At the other end of the scale the Kangaroo Rat doesn’t need to drink water for most of its life, that’s approximately 10 years!
Of course, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t need water, it gets water from the seeds it eats.
In short, hydration is important, but so is the quality of the water. That’s why many people choose to buy filters, ensuring the water at their tap is as safe and clean as possible. One of the best filter options is a reverse osmosis water filter. This 5-stage device uses reverse osmosis and activated carbon to eliminate bacteria, VOCs, minerals, odors, and even make the water taste better.
Once you start looking at water quality you’ll hear a variety of terms banded around, it can be confusing. Let’s take a look at what the difference really is between distilled water and purified water.
Distilled Water
Distilled water is clean but it hasn’t been through a filter. Instead, it’s been boiled. When water is boiled the water turns to steam, the minerals in the water don’t, they get left behind.
The steam is then condensed and captured in a new container, back in liquid form.
Distilling water gives you a pure form of water, the minerals, chemicals, and even the bacteria that were in the water are all left behind when the water evaporates. The result is very clean water that can be drink, ideally once cooled.
It should be noted that anything in the water with a lower boiling point than water, such as chlorine and VOCs, won’t be removed from distilled water.
This isn’t the fastest approach but it is an effective one, especially if you’re trapped somewhere and are unable to locate clean water. Of course, you’ll need a way to boil the water, something cool for the steam to hit which directs the liquid to the final container. It can be an interesting experiment to set this type of system up.
Purified Water
This is water that has been treated to remove potentially harmful elements. Purified water can be a portable container that has had iodine or chlorine added, or even a water sterilization pill.
However, in general this is the name given to water that has been through your local treatment plant. During this process sit will be filtered to remove debris, chlorine will be added to eliminate bacteria, and fluoride will be added to strengthen your teeth and bones.
At the time it leaves the treatment plant it will be certified as safe to drink. However, there are a variety of circumstances that can affect it on its journey to your tap. That’s why many people don’t trust the purified water that comes out of the tap and choose to use water filters.
This is one of the simplest and most effective ways of ensuring you have safe drinking water when you need it.
