Which water purifier is best for you?

Do you really need an RO?

What is the truth about mineral water?

How most water purifying companies are misleading you with their cheap marketing tactics?

Reading this article till the end, you will get answers to all these questions and you will be able to easily decide what is best for you and your family. So read it till the end to find out the best purifier available for you in the Indian Market.

So, without any further delay let’s get started.

Water is important for life and one of the essential elements of human existence.

Although in the modern era, misuse of water bodies, growing population, industrial development, and environmental degradation has polluted the water.

As a result, installing the best water purifier has become a necessity rather than a luxury.

But so many options in the market, with every brand claiming that their technology is the best, it gets really hard and confusing to choose the best water purifier.

But not anymore, let’s briefly discuss the technologies available in the market.

First Technology Is RO (Reverse Osmosis) best purifier

The most common among all is RO or Reverse Osmosis. Today for most people water purifier means RO.

It is a powerful technology that can purify the most contaminated, even salty water in just one go.

In the RO system, water passes under high pressure through a semi-permeable membrane with a pore diameter as small as 0.0001 microns.

This allows only water molecules to pass through it.

With such minute filtration 90% of the impurities, heavy metals, microorganisms & minerals are removed and what you get is almost pure, sweet, and transparent water which is also devoid of natural minerals.

The second Technology Is NF (Nano-Filtration) best purifier

Nano-filtration works fairly under the similar principle of RO but with a small difference that its pore size is 0.001 micron.

So, obviously, it will be able to remove fewer impurities than RO but unlike RO it does not change the taste or mineral content of the water.

The third Technology Is UF (Ultra-Filtration) best purifier

UF or Ultrafiltration is a technology that filters the water without the use of electricity.

In this, the water passes through a hollow fiber membrane with a pore size of 0.01 microns.

Through Ultrafiltration we can remove the impurities from the water without changing its natural mineral content.

This technology is very similar to plant tissue absorbing purifier water from dirty subsoil water.

UF is much cheaper than RO, but it’s downsizing is that it cannot be used in places where there is very hard water.

Now the above technology may be best to remove the solid and chemical impurities but may not be able to kill the tiny microorganisms because of which water purifiers are recommended along with the UV chamber.

In this, there is a chamber that uses a powerful UV lamp.

When the water passes through it the UV rays in, it kills the tiniest of bacteria and viruses making it fit for consumption.

Determine the Best Technology by Yourself:

Now that you know about water purification technologies, the next question arises how do I determine which technology is best for me?

The answer to this is very simple. All you need is a TDS meter.

What is TDS?

Let’s quickly understand what TDS is and why it is important?

TDS is the most misunderstood term in this space.

TDS means Total Dissolved Solid is the measure of dissolved minerals, salts, metals, and impurities in the water.

TDS also includes the naturally appearing minerals in water like Calcium, Phosphorus, and Potassium.

One clear thing is that the lower the TDS, the better the water is not true as most people think.

Standard TDS Range for Drinking Water

According to the Bureau of Indian Standards water up to 500 TDS is safe for human consumption.

To dig a bit deeper, the ideal range of TDS lies between 100 and 300.

If you were drinking government treated drinking water, then it is most likely that your tap water is in this range.

TDS between 300 to 500 is acceptable but TDS less than 100 is not ideal as it is devoid of most minerals.

And it’s sad to know that most people who drink package drinking water thinking it to be mineral water has a TDS of only about 15 to 20.

You can yourself experiment with this.

This is because most companies are just giving you demineralized, sweet RO water.

And obviously, because RO technology purifies the hardest of waters.

They just have to set up one plant and they are ready to roll.

The most famous and so-called mineral waters like Kinley, Bisleri, and Aquafina, these companies don’t care about the minerals in the water, they just give you pure water or rather waterless water.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not entirely against RO technology.

RO is a phenomenal technology that was developed mainly for the marines so that they can readily purify salt water of the sea and drink it.

RO was basically developed for survival, not for everyday home consumption.

But some companies are just making money by creating fear among the people, a pure case of capitalism

Then, there are some companies like Tata whose Himalayan water is actually mineral water which has a TDS of about 250 but is sold at pocket ripping prices.

I did another experiment where I tried to dissociate the minerals of package drinking water through electrolysis and it was an eye-opener.

Okay, once you have the TDS meter which you can easily buy offline or online, just check the TDS of your tap water.Now, if the TDS comes out to be less than 500, in that case, you can be sure of the fact that you do not need an RO water purifying system.

Using RO here will significantly decrease the TDS further and bring it to a non-ideal state.

You can be totally missing out on minerals and water won’t be water anymore. It will just become thirst-quenching liquid.

What Technology you should use at your home?

Let me make things simpler for you.

TDS Under 300, UF+UV

If the TDS of your tap water comes out to be less than 300, you should get installed UF technology filter which will remove the minor turbidity and other chemical impurities. Along with UF, you should also get installed UV to kill the microorganisms if any.

So under 300 TDS, UF+UV is best for you.

TDS between 300 & 900, NF+UV

Then, if the TDS of your water comes out to be more than 300 but less than 900, you should get installed an NF.

Along with NF as it is membrane-based, it is recommended to get installed UV as there are more chances of microorganisms entering the water due to membrane rupture will die.

TDS More than 900, RO+UV best purifier

And if the TDS of your water comes out to be more than 900, it’s only then you need to get an RO water purifier along with UV.

Surely you will lose out on minerals but you have no choice due to poor water quality.

Although you can make up for the minerals to some extent by storing the RO water in clay pots or copper jugs.

Yes, clay and copper has the quality to dissociate its mineral content through the water retained in it.

Five Reasons Why Purifier Have Made a Mess Out of This Marketplace

Now, Before I recommend you my picks for the best water purifiers in the Indian market, let’s empower ourselves about how big brands like Kent, Aquaguard, Eureka Forbes, Livpure, and many others have made a mess out of this market place by creating 10-15 products just to build out their business.

With their cheap marketing tactics, they are making money out of people’s ignorance. I’ll give you five straight reasons:

Some big companies claim to provide you the purest of water by giving RO, UF, NF all in one. This is a joke.

Logically even a Leyman can tell you once the water is passed through a strainer with smaller holes, there is no point in passing it through a strainer with larger holes.

And when you ask the same questions to the representatives of these companies, they give you funny answers.

Another marketing gimmick is the TDS controller.

When these companies came to know that people are getting aware of the fact that RO gives very low TDS water, they came up with this very silly concept of the TDS controller.

If you check what really is, you will find that TDS is nothing but a bypass wall worth Rs. 50.

What it does is that it mixes the part of very low RO water with your normal tap water and what you get at the end is high TDS water. What really is the point of this?

Next is about UV chambers.

To earn profits and to win the competition of delivering the water purifier at the cheapest price possible, many companies have started to sell UV based water purifiers with aluminium chambers in them and not food grate stainless steel chambers.

The problem with aluminium is that it releases aluminium oxides which are known to be damaging to the brain.

Also, a UV chamber should be placed horizontally and not vertically so that it can kill bacteria and viruses more effectively

7-stage, 14-stage filter

Another very common feature claimed by these companies is the 7-stage, 14-stage filter process. Obviously for someone who does not know much about water purifiers would think that more filter means more pure water.

Although it’s nothing more than a marketing gimmick.

No matter how impure of hard the water is, a water purifier requires not more than 4 stages.

Sediment filter, carbon filter, Membrane & UV chamber.

The water purifier companies claim to have more stages that it is just trying to hook more customer and earn more.

In this case, what these companies do is that they add few more small filters which serve no purpose whatsoever

Alkaline Cartridges is another buzzword in this market space, don’t fall for this as well.

RO water is slightly acidic.

To curb these companies has come up with alkaline cartridges that change the pH of the water chemically which may be more harmful to the human body.

So, now you know the real game behind this enticing water purifier market.

How these companies are ripping pockets out of the common man’s fear and innocence.

Okay now, if you say that all this information is good, but I do not have the time to go through every company’s water purifier.

Best Water Purifiers in the Indian Market best purifier

Based on this information, what are the best Water purifiers in the Indian market?

So, let me share with you my honest pick of some of the most genuine water purifiers that I found in the Indian market.

I have linked all these water purifiers which I found safe are below. You can buy them according to the TDS of your tap water.

Check the Quality of Your Tap Water

• TDS Meter – Digital LCD TDS Meter Water filter Tester for measuring TDS3/TEMP/PPM
• Electrolyser – VINAYAK ENTERPRISES TDS Water Electrolyzer Test/Electrolysis of Water Tools 110V-250V

Best Purifiers

• If the TDS of your water is less than 300 then buy this – A.O.Smith X2 5 Litre UV (Ultra Violet) + UF (Ultra-Fine) Black 5 Litre Water Purifier
• If the TDS of your tap water comes out to be greater than 300 but less than 500 then buy this – Cute SS – NF 30 + UV
• If the TDS of your tap water comes out to be greater than 500 but less than 900 then buy this – Cute SS – NF 60 + UV
• If the TDS of your tap water comes out to be greater than 900 then buy this – LG Puricare WW150NP RO + UV Water Purifier

So, it’s extremely important to drink pure water as it reduces the toxic burden on the body and keeps us away from the diseases.

But it is even more important to choose the right water purifier. Being a lucrative market, the companies who have no business making water purifier has now also jumped into this phase.

But we need to be smart enough to choose, what is best for us and our family.