Review Ultimate WATER PURIFIER Buying Guide.!

Hey guys...! I wanted to buy a Water Purifier recently... and call it a habit.. But I NEED to EXTENSIVLY research something before Buying. So.. I thought Let's share my research.

Most of us just drink RO Water without even knowing what we are drinking. In Most cases.. The RO Water we drink is just a tasteless liquid which has no health benefits at all but just a medium to quench our thirst.

This is a comprehensive Guide covering most of the aspects one should look at before Buying a Water Purifier. I Focused upon HEALTH instead of fancy Features.

First Confusion is always about.. What to Choose...eh..? I mean.. there are SEVERAL VARIANTS..! RO.. UV... UF... NF... Alkaline... Copper... and even their SEVERAL Combinations..!!!! .

FIRST AND MOST IMPROTANT STEP :

If your TAP Water TDS is Below or around 200 mg/l --> UV + UF Combination.
If your TAP Water TDS is above 300 mg/l --> RO+UV+UF+ TDS Controller Combination. ( Set Water Output TDS above 150mg/l ).
If your TAP Water TDS is above 800 mg/l --> RO+UV+UF Combination.

Explanation.


1. Before Buying.. Always.. and I mean Always Check the TDS of you Tap Water. You can use any TDS metre available on Amazon ( around INR 250 ).

Now.. If your TDS is around or below 200 mg/l... YOU DO NOT NEED RO.. I REPEAT.. YOU DO NOT RO. Why.. ?? .... cause RO is a process that removes most of the ( Around 90% ) TOTAL DISSOLVED SOLIDS / SALTS ( TDS ) from your water and makes it slightly ACIDIC in nature. And as you know.. Human Blood is slightly Basic in nature and thus drinking acidic water on a regular basis increases acidic content in your body.. making your immunity slightly weaker. If you use RO in this case. Your Output Water will have a TDS around 20 to 50 AND PLEASE READ THIS CAREFULLY... PLEASE DO NOT DRINK ANY WATER WITH TDS BELOW 150 mg/l on a regular basis ( EXCEPT COCONUT WATER which has a surprisingly high TDS OF MORE THAN 1000 mg/l ) If you really care about your health. . You can see this article. Also. do note that TDS around 300 mg/l is excellent for you health ( WHO Report ).

SC stays NGT ban on water purifiers where TDS below 500 mg per litre

The top court was hearing an appeal filed by the Water Quality India Association challenging the December 1, 2021 order of the NGT

www.business-standard.com

Now.. it's clear You DO NOT need RO if your water TDS is around 200 mg/l. Still.. It may contain some impurities as well as harmful bacteria. So.. You will need a UV ( for organic impurities ) + UF ( For inorganic impurities ) Combination in this case.

2. If your TDS is above 300 mg/l --> Go for a RO+ UV +UF + TDS Control Combination. Because.. even in this case.. RO will decrease your TDS to around 50 to 70 mg/l... BUT here.. You also HAVE A TDS CONTROLLER.
Now remember... A Water Purifier works on several steps. First Water passes through Several Filters.. then through RO Membrane.. Then through UF Membrane.. then UV.. and other membranes if any and finally in the Storage tank.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0262/8419/5949/products/IMG-20220314-WA0009_d4f036d9-fc7a-4692-be7c-620a65c6998f_900x.jpg?v=1655705936

Here.. the TDS Controller bypass some of the water directly to UF Membrane instead of passing it through RO and then add that water into the output of RO Membrane... thus increasing TDS by adding original Salts present in the Tap Water. So.. your Output TDS will be whatever you desire below your Tap Water TDS. I recommend above 150 mg/l.

3. If your TDS is Way above 300 mg/l.. I mean like 800mg/l or above.. you DO NOT NEED TDS Controller... as After RO Process.. your Output will be around 150 mg/l or above. So.. Go for a RO+UV+UF Combination.


NEXT STEP :

Electrical Type.. / Mechanical Type / Or a Combination of Both.

Answer is simple.. A combination of both BUT Please do note that some Electrical Water Purifier DO NOT allow Water Output when there is a power cut even if Water is present in the storage tank. So.. check before buying.

NEXT STEP :

Mounting Type... / Table Type / Undersink Type.

Undersink Type.

It really depends on your preference. Mounting Types are Wall Mounted.. Table Types are put on the table... and Undersink types are used in households having smaller kitchen or no space for wall mounting and table.

NEXT STEP :

Storage Tank Material:
More than 95% of the Water Purifiers use FOOD GRADE PLASTIC as a Water Storage Tank. But a few also use Stainless Steel. Some Water Purifiers that offer Hot Water Output have a combination of both Food Grade Plastic ( For Normal Water Tank ) and Stainless Steel ( For Hot Water tank ).... I would suggest to go for Stainless Steel. Still.. it's my personal opinion.. rest is your choice.

Stainless Steel Storage Tank Water Purifier.

NEXT STEP :

Alkaline Membrane or Copper Membrane or Both.

This is also the most confusing part. Alkaline Membrane can be used if you are using RO... as it adds some basic salts in your RO Output Water increasing it's basicity as RO Water is slightly acidic in nature.
The Problem is there is no hard evidence that such water is really good for health. Some studies have shown that such water really helped many people to gain better health.. even removing joint pain... while other studies have shown no conclusive results. So.. it's your preference.

Alkaline Water: Benefits, Side Effects, and Dangers

What's alkaline water, and why is it raved about in the health industry? We explain if it’s safe to drink, what the research says about alleged benefits and more.

www.healthline.com

Now Copper Membrane is just a marketing gimmick. Don't go for it. Rest is your choice.

CRUCIAL STEP:

Sales After Service and Yearly Charge.
Many Companies like Kent or Pureit.. provide better service in some areas only. IN MY AREA.. KENT SERVICE is ABSOLUTLY pathetic. So.. please consult your neighbours or even online about the service of the company.
Also.. some Water Purifiers have an annual charge as high as 5K ( For Filters and Membranes ) while some has around ( 2K .. The minimum I Saw ). So.. check this beforehand.

That's it... follow these steps and gift yourself and your family a healthy Water Purifier. Again.. it's not a comprehensive guide.. as there are several features.. like Hot Water or Cold Water Output or fruit washer or Digital Display...and many more ... that today's Water Purifiers offer. And it's very important not to favour such fancy features over health. Please Prioritize You health.. and then your environment.

Finally.. Keeping all of the above in consideration.. I have decided to Go with BePure.
Now.. you must be thinking.. what's BePure..? Never heard of it...!???

Bepure is actually an Indian Startup providing Water Solutions. It has even won Silicon India Award and has many favourable reviews online.
So.. I am buying it's Bepure Alken Stainless Steel 12L ( RO + UV +UF + TDS + Alkaline ( Let's try it ) ) Model with an annual charge of around 2K. If anyone has used it.. Please write your experience. Thanks.

I will edit the Guide with Pictures later as I have been writing for over an hour now..

 

[Soyab0007]

Nice Post, got all the doubts cleared
The water purifier market is flooded with 100s of models similar to mobiles.

 

[lockhrt999]

Good guide!

My 2 cents about the minerals in water. It doesn't go along with traditional thoughts in this country. [ Disclaimer: I don't have an RO. I have a UF+UV based water purifier but it's mostly being used as convenience rather than water filtration. Our tap water is ~150 TDS and we drank it just like that for many decades. ]

• Need of minerals in water is over hyped.
• Our body needs more than 10 grams of minerals everyday. Our food serves 99.99% of the minerals we need.
• Next time you buy a bottle of mineral water, do check how much magnesium, sodium and potassium it has. And then google how much magnesium, sodium and potassium a human body needs daily. You would literally have to drink thousands of bisleri bottles daily to cover your mineral needs. But drinking so much water would essentially remove minerals from your body and you will die.
• Drinking the water for its minerals is like marrying all the women in India so that you can call Katrina Kaif as your wife.
• One can easily survive on distilled water (aka battery water) which has a TDS of 0. It's a superstition that one can't.
• Secondly, you don't know what kind of mineral you are getting in the name of drinking TDS water. In southern India, it may be laced with industrial chemicals whereas in northern India, it can carry fertilizers. Let's not expect that water you are getting is cleaned of pollutants.
• I agree on that we can do away with copper infusion like gimmicks. Because,
  • Minerals are considered in pairs. Copper pairs with zinc. Our digestion system usually can't differentiate between copper and zinc. Both are important minerals and used for different functions. But intaking one more will suppress the other. You take copper supplements and you will find that it comes with zinc too.
  • Slightly unrelated, our bodies aren't good at absorbing metals in the pure form. Essentially, they need a bus. Meaning in order to absorb a metal it needs to be in a form of oxide, sulphate, phosphate, carbonate etc. There's no benefit using copper vessels by thinking it'll refill your copper levels. If that had worked, people would never develop an iron deficiency.
• Another important yet highly unknown factor: The chemical called Phthalates.
  • It's found in most of the plastics, cosmetics, fertilizers etc. It's everywhere. It could even be food grade plastic, IDK. It's one of those bad plastic ingredient that no one yet talks about because no one knows. It's a hormone blocker. It's anti testosterone and estrogen. It makes your capital-D into small-d. Although adverse effects are temporary for adults, but if they reproduce, the next 2 generations may have adverse effects (I really don't mean to offend anyone). Plastic plumbing is everywhere these days. I did some research and PVC pipes have it while uPVC don't. Some people use cPVC for drinking water but I couldn't make sure if it carries phthalates or not. Somebody working in chemical industry please let us know. Edit: cPVC do contain phthalates. Just found out.
  • AFAIK, RO and charcoal filters can remove phthalates. No idea about others filters.
• About taste, a good RO should produce distilled water like taste. Distilled water has no taste. People who complain that their RO has changed the taste never knew how pure water tasted like.

 

[dexterz]

• Need of minerals in water is over hyped.
• Our body needs more than 10 grams of minerals everyday. Our food serves 99.99% of the minerals we need.

Basically this. Alkaline water, water pH, remineralization of water are all gimmicks. We are not dependent on minerals from our drinking water. Esp for south indians, food like Rasam which is acidic with 4pH is consumed on a daily basis for generations with no adverse effects.Our kidneys perform the task of maintaining the required pH balance. I'm ambivalent about UV as most of the time people don't even check if the UV light is still working or not after some time passes.

As far as RO systems go, buy something with UV UF and RO(if required) preferably something that can be maintained by yourself.

 

[blr_p]

• Need of minerals in water is over hyped.
• Our body needs more than 10 grams of minerals everyday. Our food serves 99.99% of the minerals we need.

If you eat a balanced diet.

• Next time you buy a bottle of mineral water, do check how much magnesium, sodium and potassium it has. And then google how much magnesium, sodium and potassium a human body needs daily. You would literally have to drink thousands of bisleri bottles daily to cover your mineral needs. But drinking so much water would essentially remove minerals from your body and you will die.

My experiments with the bottled water sold here indicate almost no minerals in the water unless it's Evian. The hardness of aqua fina was under 10mg/L. A lot of them are just RO.

• Slightly unrelated, our bodies aren't good at absorbing metals in the pure form. Essentially, they need a bus. Meaning in order to absorb a metal it needs to be in a form of oxide, sulphate, phosphate, carbonate etc. There's no benefit using copper vessels by thinking it'll refill your copper levels. If that had worked, people would never develop an iron deficiency.

I didn't get the connection between copper vessels and anaemia.

• Another important yet highly unknown factor: The chemical called Phthalates.
  • It's found in most of the plastics, cosmetics, fertilizers etc. It's everywhere. It could even be food grade plastic, IDK. It's one of those bad plastic ingredient that no one yet talks about because no one knows. It's a hormone blocker. It's anti testosterone and estrogen. It makes your capital-D into small-d. Although adverse effects are temporary for adults, but if they reproduce, the next 2 generations may have adverse effects (I really don't mean to offend anyone). Plastic plumbing is everywhere these days. I did some research and PVC pipes have it while uPVC don't. Some people use cPVC for drinking water but I couldn't make sure if it carries phthalates or not. Somebody working in chemical industry please let us know.

That's a new one for me. All the water we get from the water utility comes from those pipes these days.

As for plastic food containers, BPA-free is the big thing nowadays.

• AFAIK, RO and charcoal filters can remove phthalates. No idea about others filters.

There is one of those in my aquaguard. course I've not replaced it in a while

 

[lockhrt999]

Esp for south indians, food like Rasam which is acidic with 4pH is consumed on a daily basis for generations with no adverse effects.Our kidneys perform the task of maintaining the required pH balance.

Yes. Our internal stomach acid is super strong compared to anything we eat. In the name of science, one can put 3 finger down the mouth and vomit some clean stomach acid on the hand. It's going to burn the top layer of the skin. It's that strong.

I didn't get the connection between copper vessels and anaemia.

People eating and drinking out of vessels containing iron and still be anemic. Same applies to copper. Using copper vessels doesn't increase copper levels in our bodies.

That's a new one for me. All the water we get from the water utility comes from those pipes these days.

As for plastic food containers, BPA-free is the big thing nowadays.

There are several things a food grade plastic shouldn't contain and BPA is well known.

Phthellets is a group of chemicals which makes plastic durable and flexible. It also make cosmetics absorbable into the skin. People don't know much about it as there's no awareness. And BTW, it's in PVC as well as cPVC (these look yellow) pipes.

More info:

I have been slowly phasing out plastics from my life. But it's hard. Take example of water purifiers themselves. We don't know the plastic used in purifier and filters contain phthalates or not.

Sorry for OT.

 

[Soyab0007]

Can anyone recommend budget range Stainless steel UV+UF purifier?

 

[animishticomb]

Any idea about livpure smart... Dont want to waste money on useless aquaguard support...

Has anyone rented and used livpure? Looking to do so in bangalore

 

[6pack]

I would like to add something here. I bought a no name non ro water purifier whose parts are readily available for cheap in market. It's good and does the job if everything is to specs. See that bolded bit? A lot of faith rests in that if. Why? I ordered replacement filters from the same company. Problem is these no name people just buy wholesale from somewhere without proper testing etc. What happened is the size of the replacement filters is off by a mm so my unit does not close properly. And another problem i found was the carbon block filter started leeching some dirty smell and color in the water. Thing looks like it started breeding mold inside it.

Had to remove it and clean off other filters and replace them with new ones. This is the major drawback of such unknown brands where you can end up spending double the amount of money if even one filter in between is some nasty crap.

I've decided to stick with branded ones. Even if they cost more, you can raise a stink on twitter or their helpline and get them to replace them parts of you have amc. No such luck with your own setup.

 

[Emperor]

Some Matka Filter just upto Rs.400/- for more details click here

 

[TEUser2K1]

@Soyab0007 Last year purchased LG PuriCare ~@19K on an offer.
Water storage area is stainless steel, 10yrs warranty mentioned in front, don't know in detail how warranty works.
For first year, they are coming every quarter for maintenance checking, replaced filter once.

 

[ascalon]

What's the advantage of having a stainless steel storage area over plastic? Algae growth and cleaning is one major selling point I can think of. Anything else?

 

[blr_p]

• About taste, a good RO should produce distilled water like taste. Distilled water has no taste. People who complain that their RO has changed the taste never knew how pure water tasted like.

What's your take on consuming alkaline water?

Meaning water that has a higher than usual pH coming out of the tap. So if normal water is around 7, then I'm referring to water of pH 8-9

I wonder if RO can reduce pH.

 

[lockhrt999]

What's your take on consuming alkaline water?

Meaning water that has a higher than usual pH coming out of the tap. So if normal water is around 7, then I'm referring to water of pH 8-9

I wonder if RO can reduce pH.

I have no opinion on this matter. Still, I think it depends what kind of minerals the water is carrying. Metal salts increase the water Ph. Our bodies need dozens of metals to survive. In the cities, the groundwater is bound to carry harmful metals. Lead is one such example. It's omnipresent. You don't want alkaline water with lead salts.

Our digestive system, although a state of art technology, isn't perfect. It sometimes fail to distinguish between different metals thanks to their similar valencies (I think that's the word).

But yeah, RO should be able to decrease the pH.

 

[Ssreek]

Any idea about livpure smart... Dont want to waste money on useless aquaguard support...

Has anyone rented and used livpure? Looking to do so in bangalore

I've been using Livpure smart for 2 years.

 

[animishticomb]

I've been using Livpure smart for 2 years.

All good? Have you had to call their service? How much is typical a water downtime in a month?

 

[Ssreek]

All good? Have you had to call their service? How much is typical a water downtime in a month?

Will tell you in detail, before that, what is water downtime?

 

[animishticomb]

Will tell you in detail, before that, what is water downtime?

I just made up this word... Essentially like Internet downtime where you had no data access while waiting for the isp to fix the connection

Do they also delay the service for long? How long?

 

[Ssreek]

So here is "my experience" with Livepure smart rent-type water purifier.
Got it after the first lockdown ended. Back then, they only gave Bolt Model. Now there is another one, Zinger Copper something, but advantage is it has hot water facility too. Not sure if the hot water area is plastic or metal in Zinger. Bolt is simpler and doesn't have any additional features, just twist the tap and u get water.

• We get around 690-750 tds water in taps, so with this purifier the tds comes around 60-70. Tds is not customizable.
• In 2 years, I had downtime issue only once. The recharge wasn't somehow updated from their end and downtime was 2 days.
• You have to recharge it just like mobile prepaid plans.
• The app shows water balance and filter life.
• Usually they don't come and change filters when the filter life goes red. You have to call them and initiate the process. They didn't ask any questions or charge anything, mechanic just comes and replaces filters.
• You have to check what filters they are replacing. Sometimes the mechanics are lazy and change only the main filter. But there are 3 inside, so u have to ask him to change others as well.
• Customer care is excellent, I really liked how prompt they are. They don't bother you with questions or need lengthy explanations, I just told them issue and they go with the process. In all these 2+ years, I had to contact them 3 times.
• Didn't pay anything apart from recharge. Changed filters thrice, no service charges also.

Now some cons:

• Entire thing is plastic, yes there is UV light but u don't know if it's working or not, entire parts are concealed.
• Tds is not customizable.
• While I had great experience, I asked mechanics what other subscribers felt. They say usually there is problem every now and then with these models, but things are basic and repairable.
• My neighbor too got this, he had issues several times and they called 7 times in a year for various issues. I checked his complaints and simply posted to twitter and demanded to replace the product. They gave him new one, and no issue since then.
• So what I'm try to say is, your mileage may vary, but if you don't like it, just replace or cancel the subscription.

So all in all, a very good experience for me. I just wish we could get atleast 100 tds, that's all. Feel free to ask any questions if you have.

 

[ibose]

So here is "my experience" with Livepure smart rent-type water purifier.
Got it after the first lockdown ended. Back then, they only gave Bolt Model. Now there is another one, Zinger Copper something, but advantage is it has hot water facility too. Not sure if the hot water area is plastic or metal in Zinger. Bolt is simpler and doesn't have any additional features, just twist the tap and u get water.

• We get around 690-750 tds water in taps, so with this purifier the tds comes around 60-70. Tds is not customizable.
• In 2 years, I had downtime issue only once. The recharge wasn't somehow updated from their end and downtime was 2 days.
• You have to recharge it just like mobile prepaid plans.
• The app shows water balance and filter life.
• Usually they don't come and change filters when the filter life goes red. You have to call them and initiate the process. They didn't ask any questions or charge anything, mechanic just comes and replaces filters.
• You have to check what filters they are replacing. Sometimes the mechanics are lazy and change only the main filter. But there are 3 inside, so u have to ask him to change others as well.
• Customer care is excellent, I really liked how prompt they are. They don't bother you with questions or need lengthy explanations, I just told them issue and they go with the process. In all these 2+ years, I had to contact them 3 times.
• Didn't pay anything apart from recharge. Changed filters thrice, no service charges also.

Now some cons:

• Entire thing is plastic, yes there is UV light but u don't know if it's working or not, entire parts are concealed.
• Tds is not customizable.
• While I had great experience, I asked mechanics what other subscribers felt. They say usually there is problem every now and then with these models, but things are basic and repairable.
• My neighbor too got this, he had issues several times and they called 7 times in a year for various issues. I checked his complaints and simply posted to twitter and demanded to replace the product. They gave him new one, and no issue since then.
• So what I'm try to say is, your mileage may vary, but if you don't like it, just replace or cancel the subscription.

So all in all, a very good experience for me. I just wish we could get atleast 100 tds, that's all. Feel free to ask any questions if you have.

Any idea of the TAT for complaints if you face issue with the purifier ? Same day, next day, hours ? I would expect hours if the issue involves the purifier not working at all. Also if the filter status is red, does it stop working or is it just a notification to change it ?
Also your location / locality since the service quality usually depends on location. Kent has excellent service back home in Kol while it is pathetic here in Bangalore.