Pour out the tap water and rinse out the meter cup.
Put filtered water into the meter cup.
Press the button and take the reading.
If the reading is very low (0-10), the filter is effective at removing
total dissolved solids, including dissolved lead.
If the reading is about the same as the tap water reading, then the filter
is not removing dissolved heavy metals.
Of course, other pollutants besides dissolved lead are important to remove,
but if the unit isn't removing dissolved heavy metals, then the game is up,
anyway, in our opinion.
Here are my testing results of some common water treatment units that I find at clients' homes:
I have not measured a carbon block unit where the total dissolved solids were significantly reduced. Frequently, there are higher levels of particulates in the filtered water than in the tap water. The reason for this is that carbon adsorbs toxins (good), but it eventually gets saturated (bad), and starts dumping the toxins into the filtered water.
When I had a quality carbon block water purifier, I sent a sample of the filtered water to a lab for analysis. The levels of nitrate (bad) were higher in the filtered water than in the tap water. The carbon had gotten saturated with nitrate and was dumping it. This was happening two months after a filter change, and the filter was supposed to last a year.
This, plus learning that I was drinking both copper from the water pipes and lead from the solder, made me throw the
$200 unit out.
Carbon is also a medium for bacteria to grow, although I have found bacterial growth in all filtered water sampled.
There are ways to address bacteria - with UV lights - see Bacteria page.
If you currently are using a carbon block filter, read the section on radon in
water in Products/Water Filtration.
The units I have tested do not reduce particulate levels, as demonstrated with my
TDS meter. One client had bought a new attachment for fluoride removal,
which was not removing fluoride, according to the TDS meter.
The theory behind distilling water is that by boiling the water and gathering and condensing the purified steam, your water is pure. Here is the downside of distillation:
Dissolved volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) boil off first. Even though many manufacturers provide an escape hole for the gases to pass into room air, the tube leading to the collection container has to be much bigger than the escape hole or the steam would all past out into room air. Therefore, most of the dissolved gases pass through the bigger collection tube - right into the collection container, condensing where your "pure" water is collecting.
Energy costs are high to boil water.
Has anyone studied the long-term effects of drinking devitalized boiled water? I have heard an anecdotal report from a representative in the pet industry about rabbit breeders changing to distilled water after reports that rabbits brought up with distilled water didn't get as big as rabbits given tap water. Smaller "Easter bunnies" are more marketable. When the rabbits started experiencing kidney failure, the breeders returned to tap water for their bunnies.
The good side of distillation is that it does remove particulates and kills most bacteria and all parasites. (It is noted that some bacteria can live for 15 minutes or more in boiling water, however. In a laboratory, autoclaving is necessary to kill bacteria. Water is heated to 270 degrees Fahrenheit for 1/2 hour to kill bacteria.)
I measured a few of these filters and found that 1/3-2/3 of the total dissolved solids were removed, plus much of the chlorine.
The slower water passes through a filter, the more contaminants can be removed. A "pour-through" filter may have some effect, but it doesn't remove contaminants such as dissolved lead, fluoride, dissolved gaseous pollutants,
bacteria, etc.
It will generally remove parasites, however.
