Our Water Journey - from Tap Water to Filtered Water

How the team at Water Filter Man Ltd came to know and love filtered water

Drinking enough water is one of the most basic and important steps you can take in maintaining a healthy body. However, what comes out of our kitchen taps cannot necessarily be relied upon to give the body what it really needs. The tap water supplied to us today may have been treated to avoid contamination by certain water-borne organisms, but could also contain a whole host of potentially toxic chemicals as well as chlorine- resistant parasites. In fact, apart from chlorine addition and in some areas, fluoride, drinking water is often treated with other chemicals such as salts of aluminium, and may also contain other heavy-metal deposits.

This does not include the hundreds of tons of drugs that are flushed away every day in our toilets from urine only to re-emerge in our recycled drinking water system. It is estimated that the average glass of London drinking water has already passed through at least 15 other human bodies! Pharmaceutically manufactured drugs such as Prozac and the contraceptive pill are two of the most common organic compounds which may be found in city tap water, the effects of which have already been reported in the press.

The reasons why there are still so many residues present in modern-day tap water is that the water companies simply do not have the time or indeed the financial resources to ensure such particles are completely removed from our drinking water supply before it is presented to us. So while it may be ‘safe’ to drink insofar as you won’t contract an immediate illness, you may be absorbing low doses of chemicals.

It was our concern for our own health that first started us using basic filtration over 25 years ago in our own home. Moving into a house on a brand new estate in the early 1980’s we were horrified at the levels of chlorine in our tap water. The chlorine was so strong that it not only tainted the taste it could also be smelt in the glass. The smell of chlorine in our bathroom when running a bath was like a trip to the local swimming pool – it was repulsive. What we didn’t know then was that up to 50% of dissolved chlorine vaporises and is released from hot water for baths or showers, potentially being absorbed into the body through the lungs and skin. It would be many years later before we discovered that the use of chlorine for domestic water supplies was banned in most European countries after World War II due to its use as an offensive toxic weapon.

We started using a jug filter to improve the odour and flavour of our drinking water, which worked at least for a while until the filter became clogged. We tried bottled water, but it was expensive and cumbersome and discovered that chemical compounds could leach from the plastic bottles into the mineral water – not good. So we progressed to an inline cartridge filter which reduced the chlorine and lasted much longer before needing replacement. Until one day, a health conscious visitor checked the TDS reading of our filtered water and we discovered it was little better than the unfiltered tap water, possibly worse as the filter had clogged up so quickly.

Then we discovered fluoride which was added to our local tap water. We felt it was time to get really serious about our water filtration if we wanted to preserve our good health long term. We did extensive research of the many types of water filtration available and developed a range that cleaned our drinking & bathing water without damaging our health. This is what has become our current product range which you can view on our website. Our extensive knowledge of water filtration of all types means we can answer any of your queries and help you to make the choice that is right for your particular circumstances.