How Well Does Utraviolet Water Purification Work?
Utraviolet water purification works great for some types of contaminants! These types of filter usually have to be supplemented with a pre-filter that uses another technology, usually carbon/ceramic filtration. Ultraviolet is cost effective, and also efficient. It’s only real problem is that it can do nothing for non-living contaminants. If your water has only living contamination–bacteria, viruses, or microorganisms–then UV might be an excellent choice for you. UV works by essentially killing the organisms that are infecting the water. It does this by disrupting their DNA. For living organisms, UV is very effective. Unfortunately, this remarkable water purification technology has two faults. One: it may not be able to kill microorganisms in cyst form, and Two: it does absolutely nothing for non-living contamination. These two issues are the achilles heal of utraviolet water purification. More and more, we’re finding a class of microorganism in our water that exists in dormant, cyst
