A friend of mine asked me today if I used a product called the “Zero Water Filter”. Because I live in Memphis, because I have spent 30 years designing water filters for a living, my answer to her was “no”. I have a GE water filter on my refrigerator which is silver impregnated carbon, and that’s it for my filtration products. If it was not a part of my appliance I would not have it either. But, let’s move on to -Zero Water-
I believe my friend has the 23-cup pitcher unit and told me that she is very happy with it. Because she is my friend I decided to look into the filter and give her my review of it. After looking at this product I will tell you that it is something I emphatically would not recommend to anyone. While the answers to why can be found elsewhere in this blog, let’s address the issues with this particular filter.
The technology used in the Zero Water filter is all tried, true and proven. I use much of it in my large industrial, medical and municipal designs. The problem is not in the purification technology, but it is in the lack of understanding of the chemistry and physics of water.
It is unnatural for water to be pure. Let me repeat and say this for the 1,000th time ; It is not natural for water to be pure . You cannot find anywhere in nature that water has the 000 TDS that the Zero Water Filter produces. By nature, water is aggressive. It dissolves anything it comes into contact with. This is why lakes, rives, oceans and groundwater are not pure.
The problem with the Zero unit, you see is that pure water seeks to become contaminated. It will hungrily absorb CO2 from the atmosphere, forming carbonic acid, as well as any contaminants in the air. More dangerous is the fact that the Zero Water Filter removes 100% of the chlorine form the water. If your municipality did that, your community would suffer another yellow fever, legionella or other bacterial/viral disease outbreak.
Bacteria will grow in water that has no chlorine in it. If you use the Zero Water Filter remember that the filtered water is chlorine free. Also remember, ion-exchange resin is also a great medium for growing bacteria. The TDS meter on this device measures electrical resistivity or conductivity. It has no capacity to measure algae, fungi and microorganisms in your water.
The purification technology in this unit itself is sound, but the product has no technology to keep the water pure once it is made so. In water treatment science it is more expensive to keep water pure than it is to make it pure. I am willing to bet that if you do not sterilize your pitcher daily, you have bacteria growing in the system.
Verdict? I would not keep this water much more than 12 hours.
