MetaEfficient Reviews » Water Filters

Ovopur: The Art Of The Water Filter

Justin — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 04:51:14 +0000

Ovopur Blanc Water Filter

I’ve been testing an Ovopur water filter from Aquaovo, a company based in Montreal. This filter is certainly the most attractive I’ve come across. My eye is often drawn to its porcelain ovoid shape sitting in my ktichen. I’ve come to think of it as a piece of art that also happens to filter water. (more…)

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The Best Water Filters Of 2010

Justin — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 09:13:12 +0000

The Best Water Filters: A Review

There are a lot of misleading claims about water filters. Many filters are marketed with general statements like “improves taste and odor”. But filter manufacturers don’t mention the specific amount of pesticides or chloramines removed, for example. (more…)

How To Filter Your Drinking Water Very Efficiently I’ve spent quite a bit of time researching how...
Ovopur: The Art Of The Water Filter I’ve been testing an Ovopur water filter from Aquaovo, a...
The Best Shower Filters Of 2009 I just replaced my shower filters, so I thought...

Updates From The MetaEfficient Kitchen Labs

Justin — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 07:12:00 +0000

This summer I’ve been working on food-related optimization projects, here are some updates:

I now have subscriptions with two local farmers (through a CSA or Community Support Agriculture). One farmer provides me with raw milk, raw butter and eggs, the other farmer provides vegetables and fruit. They both happen to deliver to same street in my neighborhood, so I ride my bike about one kilometer and pick up both deliveries using a bike trailer. (more…)

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Ozone Generators: Effectively Deodorize Rooms and Purify Water

Justin — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 17:47:51 +0000

One of the simplest and most inexpensive ways to purify water is to bubble ozone through it. Ozone is a molecule made of three oxygen atoms ( O₃₎. It disinfects water very effectively, through a process called oxidation. Ozone ruptures the cellular structure of organisms, killing them. It also oxides toxic organic chemicals, minerals and metals by reducing them to their insoluble form, so that they can be filtered out. This means it neutralizes most of the compounds that cause odor and off-tastes. Note, however, that ozonation does not remove nitrates, sulfates or heavy metals (see my article on water filters to find how to remove these). (more…)

How To Filter Your Shower Water Very Efficiently This post has been updated for 2009. I recently...
How To Filter Your Drinking Water Very Efficiently I’ve spent quite a bit of time researching how...
The Best Shower Filter This post has been updated for November 2009. I...

How To Filter Your Drinking Water Very Efficiently

Justin — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 22:13:25 +0000

I’ve spent quite a bit of time researching how to filter drinking water effectively. Originally, I was interested in filtering the rainwater that falls on my roof. But I had to put that project on the back burner for now. During my research I noticed that there is little unbiased information available on water filters and filtration techniques. (more…)

How To Filter Your Shower Water Very Efficiently This post has been updated for 2009. I recently...
Ovopur: The Art Of The Water Filter I’ve been testing an Ovopur water filter from Aquaovo, a...
The Best Water Filters Of 2010 There are a lot of misleading claims about water filters....

Very Efficient: Pocket Filter by Katadyn

Justin — Fri, 24 Feb 2006 04:39:01 +0000

This is a serious portable water filter from Katadyn. It’s efficient because it uses a ceramic filter, which will not let anything larger than 0.2 microns through. It also has a long life — it will filter up to 13,000 gallons before you need to replace the cartridge. The filter eliminates bacteria, viruses, cysts, protozoa, algae, spores, sediment and reduces radioactive particles.

Home page: Katadyn

Available from Amazon for $189.

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Ovopur: The Art Of The Water Filter I’ve been testing an Ovopur water filter from Aquaovo, a...

Most Efficient Water Cleaner: Terra Cotta Gravity Water Filter and Cooler

Justin — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 06:12:26 +0000

Here is another efficient ceramic water filter. This gravity filter has a hand-made terra cotta base, which cools the water using natural convention.

We consider metaefficient because: its has excellent filtration, and a very long filter life (years). Also, the terra cotta doesn’t leach contaminants into the water, and it keeps the water cool without needing external energy.

It’s available from Water Savers for $139.

See also these similar ones on Ebay: ceramic filter and gravity filters.

Ovopur: The Art Of The Water Filter I’ve been testing an Ovopur water filter from Aquaovo, a...
The Best Shower Filter This post has been updated for November 2009. I...
How To Filter Your Drinking Water Very Efficiently I’ve spent quite a bit of time researching how...

Berkey Light Gravity-Flow Water Filter

Justin — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 05:40:33 +0000

Gravity filters are more effective than other types of water filter, because the water drips slowly through the ceramic elements, and this process removes almost all the contaminants in water. The filters can be cleaned with a toothbrush and last for up to 2,000 gallons. This Berkey Light filter uses Black Berkey elements, and they are self-sterilizing. The Black Berkeys remove or reduce pathogenic cysts, parasites, harmful or unwanted chemicals such as herbicides and pesticides, VOC’s, SOC’s detergents, organic solvents, trihalomethanes, cloudiness, silt, sediment, nitrates, nitrites, heavy metals, foul tastes and odors. Yet they leave in beneficial minerals.

Available from H20 Filters for about $170.

How To Filter Your Drinking Water Very Efficiently I’ve spent quite a bit of time researching how...
Ovopur: The Art Of The Water Filter I’ve been testing an Ovopur water filter from Aquaovo, a...
How To Filter Your Shower Water Very Efficiently This post has been updated for 2009. I recently...

Slow Sand Filters

Justin — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 14:30:32 +0000

Slow sand filters are perhaps the most efficient means of producing clean drinking water.

Slow sand filters rely on biological processes for their action rather than physical filtration or disinfection. They require no electricity, no chemicals and no filter changes.

How is this possible? The secret is that slow sand filters work through the formation of a gelatinous layer called the hypogeal layer or “Schmutzedecke” on top of a layer of fine sand. This layer consists of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, rotifera and a range of aquatic insect larvae. As a Schmutzedecke ages more algae tend to develop and larger aquatic organisms may be present including some Endoprocta, Snails and Annelid worms.

The Schmutzedecke is the layer that provides the purification for water treatment — the underlying sand provides the support medium for this biological layer. As water passes through the Schmutzedecke, particles of foreign matter are trapped in the mucilaginous matrix and dissolved organic material is adsorbed and metabolized by the bacteria fungi and protozoa.

The water draining from a well managed slow sand filter can be of exceptionally good quality with no detectable bacterial content.

Blackburn and Associates produce a slow sand filters for residental use.

Ovopur: The Art Of The Water Filter I’ve been testing an Ovopur water filter from Aquaovo, a...
How To Filter Your Shower Water Very Efficiently This post has been updated for 2009. I recently...
How To Filter Your Drinking Water Very Efficiently I’ve spent quite a bit of time researching how...

Producing Drinking Water from Rain Water

Justin — Tue, 27 Jul 2004 00:45:50 +0000

It is possible to produce pure drinking water from rain water using a combination of devices costing around $300 total.

Here’s how to do it:

Install a roof washer and a rain barrel ($200). A roof washes diverts the first ten gallons or so of rain water away from your barrel — it contains such things as dust and bird dropping from the roof.
Put the water caught in the barrel into a counter-top gravity drip filter. The water will be filtered free of cysts, bacteria, metals, pollutants and pollen. (The Red Cross use this type of filter in the field to purify questionable water for drinking.)
Come back an hour later and drink the pure, highly-filtered, rain water from the filter’s faucet.

The water than comes out of this system will be purer than commercial bottled water, faucet filtered or tap water. It will retain the taste of rain water because the drip filter does not flatten the taste of the water. You can produce up to four gallons a day.

For extra protection, you can use an ozonator to kill viruses in water smaller than .02 microns. Ozonators use less energy than UV Light, Reverse Osmosis or Distillation.

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