With personal health concerns at an all time high, many people are considering home water filters. Contaminated water is a problem prevalent throughout the world, irrespective of whether you live in a third world country or in developed countries. Different bacteria, viruses and other microbes are found in the water we use, causing many water-borne diseases such as cholera, or diarrhea, just to name a couple. Effects of those alone are a big threat to the lives of children and people with a low level of immunity.

As for how do water filters work, home water filters have been developed to ensure the elimination of all types of contaminants; organic and inorganic chemicals along with all the disease-inflicting microbial presence. This, however, is just expecting too much from a water filter if it was not ever designed to do all the work. Microporous basic filtration, for instance, is really as basic as the name suggests. This will just stop the germs and microbes larger than the pores of the filter. The rest stays in the water and you cannot seriously expect these filters to do anything about the chemical contaminants.

As they get more complex, the filters improve but they have their weaknesses. The ceramic water filters will give you clean water but with most of the chemical contaminants still there because it just isn't designed to remove those. Reverse osmosis filters will give you very 'pure' water but they are in fact too good at purifying water. 'Pure water', by the way, means the water loses its minerals even when those are important and necessary for the human body. Without these minerals, incidentally, the water takes an acidic quality and if used persistently it can harm the body more than drinking unfiltered water would generally.

Experts agree that granulated activated carbon filters impregnated with silver are among the best water treatments currently in use as they remove chemical impurities with the carbon filter. Combine that with colloidal silver, a known anti-biotic, and purging water of dangerous germs is not a farfetched assumption. While we consider how water filters work, it is good to note that the working of Carbon filters ensures that these filters are capable of retaining the useful minerals vital for us in the water.

As humans, we have contributed our fair share to pollute our water with the 'by-products' of our industrial progress. We cannot forget the harmful indiscretion of polluting our water reserves either, we may not be the ones throwing trash in water, but it has happened and too long at that. Today, it is much more important now to protect our family and their health proactively than it was a couple of decades back. Home water filters are just a means to that end.