If you buy bottled water on a regular basis, you might want to read this.
You ran out of drinking water and you’re at the store. You see 10 different water brands with tags like Ionized water, Spring water, Alkaline, Distilled water, trying to pick the best.
They all seem familiar, but you can’t tell the difference.
Well, you are not alone!
Luckily, we’ve prepared a short guide to help bring some color to the picture and choose what’s best for you.
Read on in the next few lines, to find out what’s the difference between all those water types and where they truly come from.
Let’s start with Spring Water – Мany people believe that spring water is actually “pure” water. We hate to break it to you, but unfortunately, spring waters contain many of the same impurities found in drilled wells or even tap water. In fact, since springs feed our rivers, there’s lots of spring water right in your own tap water meaning the purity of spring water is roughly comparable to that of tap water. Some have lower TDS levels and some are much higher.
So what is Spring water?
As it turns out, the “100% pure” refers not to the absence of impurities in the water, but to the source of the water itself. That is, 100% of the water in the bottle came from an underground source (i.e. a spring), rather than from a surface water. These cleverly worded phrases may be legally permissible, but many people find them to be misleading, to say the least. Even more frightening is the fact that most people actually believe them.
Another terms which frequently pops up in spring water advertising is “natural”. While this term may conjure up images of a pristine wilderness setting, the fact is that “natural” can mean just about anything. This vague term could actually apply to our local tap water since Lake Mead is most certainly a “natural” source. It may be natural, but I don’t know many people who would go down to the lake and scoop themselves a refreshing glass of “pure and natural” lake water!
“Protected source” is yet another spring water sales claim that can be misinterpreted. When most people hear this term, they think about a remote mountain spring, far away from the pollution of civilization. The reality is more often a well-head surrounded by chain link fence. Hence, the “protected” source!
Spring water advertising is all about images – images of the mountains, streams and wildlife. What really happens to get that bottle of water to you is actually quite different from those images. Many, if not most, spring waters are not bottled at their source. Instead, the water is pumped into large tanker trucks for transportation to a bottling facility at a different location. (So remember, those “pristine” springs are being visited many times each day by large diesel tanker trucks – not exactly a “pristine” image.) Health regulations dictate that the water in those tanker trucks be either chlorinated or ozonated at all times to protect against bacterial contamination.
At this point, particularly if they are chlorinated, these spring waters are virtually indistinguishable from chlorinated tap waters. Once the tanker truck water reaches the bottling facility, a carbon filtration process is used to remove the chlorine. However, most of the other impurities remain. The “spring” water then has to go through more treatment – like micron filtration to take out floating particles and more ozonation before being put into the water bottles.
But the real question is why stop at just a few types of filtration? Why not remove all of the impurities? Who wants nitrates in their water? Who wants various metals in their drinking water? The answer is that if most people don’t know what’s in the water in the first place.
Finally, the biggest spring water companies in this country are all owned by huge, foreign-owned corporations. Your money goes elsewhere.
Filtered Water – This is a type of water frequently found in grocery stores. Typically, the source of the water is municipal tap water. That water is then run through carbon filters to remove the chlorine (which makes it taste better) and sometimes through a micron filter before being ozonated and bottled. It’s basically tap water without the chlorine. It’s really not much different than many spring waters. It comes from a “natural” source, goes through minimal filtration, and is then bottled and shipped to market.
Distilled Water – Distilled water is water that is created through the process of distillation. Basically, in the process of distillation, the pure H2O is boiled out of its contaminants. So, many of the contaminants found in water are inorganic minerals, metals etc. Those types of contaminants have very high melting points and even higher boiling points. A lot higher than the boiling point of water at 212 Degrees F. So, as the water (with its contaminants) is boiled, the pure water turns into steam and is captured and cooled and thus becomes distilled water. The junk left behind is all of the contaminants. Now, there’s one small problem with that. There are many volatile organic compounds found in water – and many of them have boiling points below that of pure water. So, when the water gets heated, the volatiles boil off first, then the pure water. So, it’s very important to have additional purification technologies – besides distillation – to make sure all the bad stuff is removed.
Purified Water – Purified water is purer than other types of waters. Most people buy because they want something that’s of a higher quality and purity than other options like tap water. Like other types of water, there are popular misconceptions about purified water as well. To meet the legal definition of “purified water”, water impurities must be removed or reduced to extremely low levels. Water which meets this definition is of higher purity than spring water, tap water or filtered water.
Purified water is often confused with filtered water. Many people believe the two terms to be synonymous, but this is not the case. While both types of water are subject to some sort of filtration (as is almost every spring water), purified water is cleansed and purified through additional purification processes, typically reverse osmosis, distillation or deionization. The resultant product, “purified” water, is of significantly higher purity than either spring water, tap water or filtered water.
Purified water may originate from either a spring or surface or groundwater source or directly from the tap. It simply doesn’t matter. Since, the purification process is designed to remove virtually all types of impurities. A properly designed and functioning purification system will produce extremely high purity water every time, regardless of variations in the source water’s quality. This is not true of spring water, tap water or filtered water.
Reverse Osmosis and Ionization
Reverse osmosis eliminates 90 to 99 percent of all water contaminants. The system uses a semi-permeable membrane system to remove salts, minerals, metals and particulates. Hydraulic pressure drives pure water through the membrane into a drinking water collection device. This purification system is limited by slow flow rates and it recovers only 5 to 15 percent of the water entering the system.
Ionization softens hard water by removing inorganic compounds. The process exchanges two sodium ions for every calcium or magnesium ion using resin beads within the system. After ion exchange, the resin is regenerated. This process does not remove particles or bacteria. Electrode-ionization uses continual ion exchange to process water with electrical current. No resins or chemical regeneration is needed.
Often, reverse osmosis and ionization purification systems work synergistically. The ion exchange system removes the calcium, magnesium and iron, while the osmotic filters remove contaminants and particulates.
Alkaline water – You may have heard some of the various health benefits about alkaline water. Some say it can help slow the aging process, regulate your body’s pH level, and prevent chronic diseases like cancer.
But what exactly is alkaline water, and why all the hype?
The “alkaline” in alkaline water refers to its pH level. The pH level is a number that measures how acidic or alkaline a substance is on a scale of 0 to 14. For example, something with a pH of 1 would be very acidic and probably burn through your skin! And something with a pH of 13 would be very alkaline.
Alkaline water has a higher pH level than regular drinking water. It merely shows another characteristic of the water and is a good guide of quality, and doesn’t really have to do a lot with its purity. Think of it as “the good stuff”.
It is believed that alkaline water can neutralize the acid in your body.
Normal drinking water generally has a neutral pH of 7. Alkaline water typically has a pH of 8 to 9.5.
For reference, Las Vegas tap water has an average pH level of 6.8.
Things don’t get better if you compare that to any bottled water, which on average shows a pH level of 6.7 to as low as 6.2!
Despite the lack of proven scientific research, proponents of drinking alkaline water still believe in its many proposed health benefits, which include:
• anti-aging properties (via liquid antioxidants that absorb more quickly into the human body)
• colon-cleansing properties
• immune system support
• hydration, skin health, and other detoxifying properties
• weight loss
• cancer resistance
Conclusion:
So for the better health for you and your family, your best bet would be getting Alkaline water purified through Reverse Osmosis and Ionization. That would provide you with the highest level of water purity as well as great pH levels for every member of the family!
With that said, there is one little but very important detail about Alkaline water we have to add:
The pH levels of Alkaline water tend to drop significantly to neutral, even acidic water, after just a few days’ time, if not consumed.
Furthermore, storing your water in plastic containers is not exactly the healthiest solution as plastic is made out of petrol.
Fortunately, Ameritek Water provides affordable solutions for pure fresh Alkaline water at your countertop, so you never have to worry about, water purity, alkalinity, storage or transportation.
Schedule your FREE in-home Water Test by clicking HERE or contacting us directly at (702)521-6409 to see how healthy is your water.
We will test your store bought Alkaline water or any existing system and put it to the challenge! Our kind team would be happy to answer any questions or provide you with the information you need!
For more information on our “Ameritek Water” 6 Stage Reverse Osmosis Alkaline system, click HERE.