Oyster Water Purifier

So you're looking for a water purifier.

No doubt you've seen reverse osmosis sytems, ultra violet sanitisers, and filters that are claimed to give you water as pure as an angel's tears.

What is Pure Water?

Just like the bewildering array of water treatment systems you've already found, there are differing ideas about what pure water actually is.

Many people want to buy a filter that takes everything out and just leaves the H2O.

While that may be great for car batteries, there are minerals in drinking water that are vital for health.

A strict definition of "purified water" is that it is water with impurities removed.

A better, more healthy definition may be water that has had the unwanted impurities taken out.

What's the Solution?

The Oyster Water Purifier does just that in two stages.

First, chemicals that make your water taste and smell bitter and unpleasant, such as chlorine, are removed.

Along with nitrates, endocrine disruptors, certain volatile organic compounds (VOCs), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and many others.

The second stage is a sub micron pleated filter from Argonide. The NanoCeram® cartridge is a 0.2 micron high capacity electropositive filter medium that removes and reduces a whole spectrum of impurities and contaminants.

What does the Filter System Remove?

Lots of things, so let's also compare other systems while we're at it:

As you can see from the table above the combination of carbon block and NanoCeram covers just about everything you'd want to remove, while also leaving health critical things your body requires.

What are the Dissolved Salts?

Dissolved salts that are retained includes calcium in carbonate form. If you've looked at the newer models of reverse osmosis (RO) systems you'll have seen that many of them now have an extra stage that adds calcium carbonate back into the filtered water. And then there's magnesium removed by RO too...

If it's desirable to have those minerals in the water why remove it in the first place?! By now, you may be seeing that over purifying water is not necessarily a good thing to do for your health.

You may also have noticed that this water purifier does not take out iodine. Did you know that there's an iodine deficiency problem in the UK? This is especially true of pregnant women, according to Independent Nurse, who need it for the proper neurological development of their babies. As it's vital for health it's best to leave it in your water.

Is this Better than Reverse Osmosis?

Unlike RO systems with 5 or more cartridges to replace regularly (between 6 months and 2 years, depending on the item) it's a unlikely that you'll need to replace the 2 cartridges more than annually, although this does depend on the volume of water your houshold uses.

There's also no waste water at all, and no electricity supply required to make the system work.

Installation is simple - unfiltered water goes in on one side and filtered water comes out of the other - no need for a drain. And once it's fitted, you can carry out the filter cartridge change over yourself.

All in all this water purifier is the smartest way to get the highly improved water quality you want.

* Occasionally Watts components may be replaced with other high quality items as a result of unexpected supply chain issues. This does not affect the quality of the product or its function. Brassware and other plumbing accessories are sourced from UK suppliers.

** Many but not all VOCs are removed with carbon filtration.

You can install this filter either under your sink.

The housing dimensions are 34H x 26W x 13D (volume occupied in cm).

Your kit will include:

• 2 x white filter housings
• 1 x doule white housing bracket
• 1 x Watts F109009 coconut shell carbon block filter cartridge for chlorine, taste and odour reduction*
• 1 x NanoCeram cartridge from Argonide.
• A choice of single flow taps or you can choose the 'no tap' option.
• A choice of either a self-piercing saddle valve or a 15mm compression valve.
• Blue tubing (approximately 2 metres)
• Red tubing (approximately 2 metres)
• 1 x housing spanner
• DIY instructions - No need for a plumber!

Cartridge details:

• Watts F109009 coconut shell carbon block filter cartridge for chlorine, taste and odour reduction in water.*
• 2.5 x 10".
• 5 micron - up to 99% chlorine removal.
• Chlorine reduction >4,000 gallons @ 1.0gpm or 12 months; whichever comes first.
• Thick wall carbon construction for superior performance.
• Outperforms granulated activated carbon (GAC) cartridges as it has superior chlorine reduction, lower pressure drop and will not channel.
• Media wrap between centre tube and carbon block to reduce carbon fibres.
• Maximum operating pressure - 125psi.
• Operating temperature - 50°F to 125°F / 10°C to 52°C.
• Tested and certified NSF/ANSI standard 42 for materials only.
• FDA grade components and materials.
• Tested and verified by independent laboratory testing.

* On some occasions a CTO 2510-05 cartridge may be used in the kit. This does the same job as the Watts F109009. They're just different brands.

And:

• NanoCeram pleated cartridge from Argonide - 2.5 x 10"
• Chemical free scale prevention and protection - converts hardness minerals to harmless, inactive microscopic crystals.
• Maintenance free - just replace the cartridge every 1-2 years.
• No control valve, no electricity, and no wastewater.

What order do the cartridges go in?

In most circumstances the lowest micron rated cartridge goes last in the sequence (on the water out / blue tubing side). For the Oyster Water Purifier the 5 micron carbon block cartridge goes first in the sequence, followed by the NanoCeram cartridge.