Can you filter out lead from water? Find out how to remove lead from drinking water.

We receive frequent phone calls and messages about lead in water and people are genuinely concerned and want guidance on the best water filter to remove lead in the UK.

If you’ve done the necessary investigative work and it turns out you have lead in your water we can help you find a lead water filter system so you can ensure your drinking water is safe to consume.

So, the very easy answer to ‘do water filters remove lead’ is YES, water filters DO remove lead from water.

We hope that alleviates your concerns and you’re ready to learn about how you can benefit from a lead filter for water.

How does lead get into water?

Lead is toxic.

The widespread use of this naturally occurring metal has resulted in the problems we see today with contamination of some drinking water in the UK.

The most common way lead gets into water is from existing lead pipes.

The lead within the pipes dissolves into the water while the water stands in the pipe. If you know that there are connecting lead pipes between your local water authority and your house, or there are lead pipes in your house, then there is a high probability that you’ll have traces of lead in your drinking water.

How much, we can’t tell you. You need to have your water tested to establish just how much lead is in your water.

The concentration of lead in the water is determined by several factors which include:

• The condition of the lead pipes – the more corroded and worn the lead pipes are the greater the concentration of lead.
• The time of year – during spring and summer months more lead will dissolve into the water because the temperature of the water will be slightly higher.
• Water hardness - hard water produces scale, this scale can form a protective barrier on the internal surface of the pipes which means less lead can seep into the water.
• The amount of standing water in the lead pipe and how long it’s been there.

There are other, less common ways that lead can be present in water.

If you’re on a private water supply, your source supply may contain lead.

Or lead contamination of ground water from industrial facilities, which would be a rare situation in the UK.

Is lead in water bad for you?

Yes, the presence of lead in water is not conducive to good health and you should do everything you can to minimise or remove it. 

It is particularly bad for infants and young children. If you are pregnant, and drinking water that contains lead, the lead can cross over the placental barrier and could harm your baby.

Young children who are exposed to lead in drinking water may experience delays in their development and possible learning difficulties. 

For adults, drinking water that contains lead over prolonged periods of time will lead to a gradual build-up of lead in the body and is associated with conditions such as high blood pressure, renal disease, digestive diseases, circulatory problems, and cognitive decline.

How do you know if you have lead pipes?

If you live in a house that was built before 1970 then you may have lead water pipes. The use of lead pipework was commonplace in UK houses built before 1970.

Then the use of lead was banned.

Obviously, the UK is full of old houses, and we have a lot of conversations with people who are worried about lead in water. Most recently, we’ve been getting an increasing number of calls from people in Scotland, particularly Edinburgh, about lead in water.

But to allay your fears, unless you live in a house that you know for sure has lead pipework, it’s highly unlikely that you will have lead in your water. Water companies in the UK are responsible for ensuring that people have access to safe drinking water, and in areas where there is a risk that lead exists they treat the public water supply with a food grade additive called orthophosphate.

Orthophosphate forms a coating on the inside of the pipe which creates a protective barrier between the lead pipes and the water so that lead does not dissolve into the water. 

There’s a really easy way to do a home test to see if your pipes are made of lead.

Just follow these three simple steps:

1. Find where the water first enters your property. This is called the internal stop tap and it could be in or behind one of your kitchen cupboards or a downstairs lavatory.
2. Unpainted lead is soft and dull grey in colour. The joint next to the tap can often be swollen.
3. Scrape the pipe with a coin to see if there’s a shiny silver coloured metal underneath.

In most cases your pipes are going to be made of other materials such as copper, iron, or plastic. 

• Copper is bright, hard, and dullish brown.
• Iron is very hard, dark, and often rusty.
• Plastic pipes can be a variety of colours such as white, blue, black, or grey.

It’s also important to remember that the use of lead-based solder to join sections of copper pipe together is illegal. A plumber or DIY enthusiast should never use lead solder on drinking water pipes.

If you have lead pipes, who is responsible for them?

We receive lots of enquiries about whose responsibility it is when you have lead pipes in or around your property.

The best way to explain this is with an infographic.

It’s all down to where those lead pipes are.  

• The water company is responsible for the pipe that links the water main in the street to the stop valve outside your property. This is known as the communication pipe.
• You are responsible for the pipe that runs from the stop valve outside your property to the point where it enters your house. This is known as the private or supply pipe.
• You are also responsible for your home’s internal pipework.

What are the legal limits for lead in water?

The current legal limits for permissible levels of lead in drinking water are 10ppb in the UK. This limit was set in 2013.

However, the World Health Organisation (WHO) have stated that there is ‘no level of exposure to lead that is known to be without harmful effects’ It’s an interesting read.

It is hoped that the UK will drop the legal limit of permissible levels of lead further to 5ppb.

How to test for lead in water?

If you have done the necessary checks and believe that your drinking water may contain lead, the first port of call should always be your water company. Ask them to come out and test the water coming out of your kitchen tap.  

If the result comes back positive and it’s confirmed that you do have lead in your drinking water, and that you’re responsible for removing it, then you need to do something about it.

Contacting us is the easiest thing to do as one of the first things you’ll want to know is: can you filter out lead from water?

The easy answer is yes. We can talk you through some options as to the best whole house water filter for lead removal.

How do you filter lead out of water?

If you have lead pipework, you’ll probably have worked out that it’s time consuming and expensive to replace it with something lead free.

Can lead be filtered out of water by another less expensive and more readily available means?

Yes, and there are a few different water filters that remove lead. A water filter for lead reduction may be a short term solution for you, but we find that our customers are happy to install a water filter to remove lead as a longer term measure because it deals with the issue quickly at low expense so that you and your family are not exposed to lead toxins in drinking water.

There are also some options that do not filter out lead from water.

We’ll cover both in this article.

While you are waiting to receive and install your lead filter for water, you can follow these two top tips to minimise your risk of exposure to lead.

• Clear any standing water in your pipework before drinking the water by running the tap for a while. You’ll know when it’s ready because the water will run cold as the fresher water comes through. This is always a good habit to get into whether you have lead in your water or not.
• Don’t be tempted to draw water from the hot tap for drinking and cooking. Always us the cold tap. This is because hot water dissolves and corrodes lead more than cold water, so you’d be putting yourself in more danger. Remember prevention is better than cure. And never use water from the hot tap to make drinks, mix baby formula or baby food.

It’s important to note that human skin doesn’t absorb lead from water, so always treat your drinking water before anything else.

Let’s move onto the different ways to filter lead out of drinking water.  

Distillation – not recommended by Fountain Filters

In a nutshell, distillation uses precious energy to boil water in one vessel, catch the steam and condense it back into water in a secondary vessel. The boiling process filters the lead out of the water, as well as bacteria, parasites and viruses.

There is no doubt that it works but drinking distilled water is not recommended in the long term and we will hazard a guess that there are not many households in the UK who have a distillation system installed. We certainly don’t offer these to our customers.

Stepping away from lead for a moment, the reason we talk people out of drinking distilled water is down to the lack of minerals. From a health and well-being perspective, drinking distilled water messes up your body’s pH, electrolytes, fluid, and mineral composition. We’re just not designed to drink it and if you do, you’re effectively destroying your body’s healthy status quo.

You may also be experiencing, and probably wouldn’t join the dots between the headaches, tiredness, muscle cramps, fluid retention, issues with heart rate, because water is healthy…isn’t it?

Reverse Osmosis – Fountain Filters 2^nd choice lead filter for water

Reverse osmosis water filtration systems are an effective, but not necessarily efficient lead filter for water. 

Your household water pressure pushes water through a series of five or six filters. One of those filter cartridges is what’s called a membrane filter. It’s the membrane filter that will remove the lead from your water. 

A reverse osmosis system will also filter out the good minerals from your drinking water, that you may want to keep in there.

Most reverse osmosis systems throw a certain percentage of water away.

Do water filters remove lead? – Fountain Filters no. 1 recommendation

We know that people search the internet asking ‘do carbon water filters remove lead?

And the answer isn’t a straightforward yes or no.

Let’s look at a few of our water filters that reduce lead in water:

But before we do most manufacturers refrain from publishing exact performance data on just how much lead is removed from water when you install a specialist water filter. This is because the composition of water is different wherever you go, and reduction values can differ from consumer to consumer.

The comfort is that you know it’s doing something, and something is better than nothing when it comes to lead in water.

Pearl M lead filter for water

Without going science mad on you our Pearl M heavy metals water filter will effectively remove lead and other heavy metals from your drinking water.

Using a unique combination of granular activated carbon (GAC) and Kinetic Degradation Fluxion (KDF) our Pearl M drinking water filter will remove chlorine, lead, mercury, iron, hydrogen sulphide, aluminium, arsenic, cadmium, copper, nickel, chromium, and any other water-soluble heavy metal.

This drinking water filter will also remove sediment, dirt, rust, sand, silt, scale bacteria, algae, VOC’s, THMs and much more.

Max-PB carbon water filters removes lead

Another carbon water filter that reduces lead is the C Max MAXPB-975 .This cartridge is specifically designed for lead and cyst reduction.

This is a high quality carbon water filter to reduce lead through 2,400 gallons of drinking water.

It’s a 0.5 micron solid block activated carbon filter that will effectively reduce chlorine, lead, VOC’s, giardia, entamoeba, toxoplasma and cryptosporidium cysts.

It drops perfectly into any 2.5 x 10” water filter housing.

Nano filtration

The NanoCeram cartridge reduces particulate lead.  

However, when you combine a NanoCeram water filter cartridge with a carbon block you can reduce total lead content by over 98% according to Argonide.

Does a Brita water filter remove lead?

After doing some research of our own, the only Brita water filter that would remove 99% of lead is the Brita Elite.

The bad news is that the Brita Elite water filter is only available in the US and only designed for US waters.

So, we got in touch with the Brita UK customer care team as we wanted to see if the Brita Maxtra Pro, which is available in the UK would reduce lead. There is reference made to the Brita Maxtra Pro reducing lead, but it doesn’t give by how much. Their website simply states ‘reduces chlorine, lead, and copper.

However, the customer care team told us that the reduction rates for metals are at least 90% and for chlorine 85%. This is a generalisation for all metals, so no specific data for lead. This is not an unusual situation when you can’t get specific data about the % reduction.

To be honest, the Brita Maxtra Pro water filter cartridge just uses natural carbon from coconut shells and ion-exchange pearls for the metals reduction. And they are expensive to run.

You can read all about how much money you can save to one of our easy to install and more affordable drinking water filters that do the same job (and more!) than the Brita water filter jugs will ever do for you.

Why pay more when you can install one of our heavy metals drinking water filters.

Does a water softener remove lead?

No, a water softener does not remove lead in water.

Water softeners deal with calcium and magnesium, the minerals that result in hard water.

Does boiling remove lead from water?

No, don’t be tempted to think that this is a quick and easy fix.

Boiling your water will not remove lead.

In fact, it will do the opposite.

Boiling water that is contaminated with lead will increase the concentration of lead. This is because as water evaporates during the boiling process, the ratio of lead to water is greater than when you started.

Key takeaways on lead drinking water filtration

For this topic, we feel it’s important to highlight four key takeaways if you have lead pipes in or around your property and are concerned about lead in your drinking water.

• Lead is toxic and particularly harmful to young children and pregnant woman, so if your water contains lead do all you can to reduce it by installing a water filter.
• Check your pipework using our simple coin method that we talk about in this article.
• Ask your water company to test your water.
• Speak to a water filtration expert before rushing off to buy anything.

Why buy from Fountain Filters

Let us help remove the lead in your drinking water. We’ve been in the water filtration business since 2011 and have had lots of discussions about lead and do water filters remove lead.

It’s important not to panic because you can filter out lead from water, and we will help guide you to finding a lead filter for water that’s right for your circumstances.

It’s easy to get in touch with us, either by calling us on 01352838281 or sending us a message on our helpdesk. 

 

Image by Nick Magwood