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Salt Water Purifier Makes Drinking Water Safe
By Tony Cunningham

The military has for years sought out the best methods for desalinating salt water to help provide safe drinking water for its troops, especially the United States Navy which usually sits on a vast supply of undrinkable water. Not only does the salt content present a problem but also viruses and bacteria living in the water present the need for a salt water purifier.

Through the efforts of the military, reverse osmosis salt water purifier units were developed. They are comprised of membranes instead of the usually compacted charcoal filters, with layers of membranes wrapped to form a tight filter that can capture offending bacteria as small as .0001 millimeters and keep them out of the drinking water supply.

One of the drawbacks of a reverse osmosis salt water purifier is the amount of pressure needed to force the water through the filter. It requires about 60 pounds of pressure to force it through the filtering membranes, and additional pressure will be needed as the membrane fills with contaminants. Temperature also plays a role in the filtering capability as the colder the water, the harder it is to get through the salt water purifier filtering system.

Making Salt Water Safe To Drink

Those living near oceans or other areas where salt water tends to seep into their water supply, whether through a municipal water system or into private wells, removing the salt and other harmful bacteria is an opportunity to insure the drinking water and the water used in cooking, requires a salt water purifier connected to the system.

Many home water softeners filter water through salt to remove the dissolved minerals calcium and magnesium, which typically make the water considered hard. With a salt water purifier, salt is usually not used, since the salt water purifier is attempting the desalinate the water anyhow. Reverse osmosis is the usual method of removing salt, as perfected by the United State Military. Vacation homes and municipal water treatment plants near the ocean typically use this method as well as a chlorination process to kill bacteria in the water supply.

The salt water purifier is typically installed after a filtering system since the amount of particulate matter can slow down the purification process and removing the hard particles prior to purifying makes the purification process more efficient and complete. Pre-treating water is becoming a standard in municipal systems, and also in many homes.

Author Details:
Tony Cunningham is a gadgets fanatic writing about electrical items such as cellular mobile phones, HDTV, Satellite TV and other household gadgets such as water purifiers.

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