38: Hidden Hazards in Your Tap Water

Narrator

How would you like to improve your health and keep your family safe? You're listening to the healthy home hacks podcast where we firmly believe enjoying optimal health shouldn't be a luxury healthy home authorities and husband and wife team Ron and Lisa will help you create a home environment that will level up your health. It's time to hear from the experts. listen in on honest conversations and gain the best tips and advice. If you're ready to dive in and improve your well-being and increase your energy, you're in the right place. All right, here are your hosts, Baubiologists, authors, media darlings, vicarious vegans, and avocado aficionados. Ron and Lisa Beres.

Ron Beres

You've heard it said before water is essential to life. Our bodies are comprised of 50 to 70% water, our brains 75% our blood 85% in our bones 25% water is a miracle elixir of sorts, aiding our body's ability to digest transport nutrients, remove waste, lubricate joints and improve overall immune function. While the EPA may deem your tap water safe, the list of contaminants they test for is surprisingly short. And I want to tell all of you right now, you have to absolutely stay to the end of this podcast to find out how you can win your very own reverse osmosis water filtration system valued at over $400 we're going to sell more at the end.

Lisa Beres

Yes, you don't want to miss that friends. And as it turns out, the scientists at the Environmental Working Group, otherwise known as EWG analyzed 32 million water records from across the country and we're shocked at the results. Out of almost 50,000 utilities studied 45,000 detected contaminants linked to cancer and 10,000. Community water systems detected higher lead concentrations than what the American Academy of Pediatrics says is safe for children.

Ron Beres

That's right, Lisa, and that is not all the EWG scientists also found highly toxic fluorinated chemicals called PFAS. Now listeners head back to Episode 33, where we discussed the dangers of this forever chemical in detail with a senior scientist from EWG. PFAS builds up in our bodies and never breaks down in the environment. Very small doses of PFAS have been linked to cancer, reproductive and immune system harm and other diseases. EWG found that up to 110 million people may be drinking PFAS tainted water.

Lisa Beres

Well, and that's probably you. Yes. And another water contaminant that many people aren't aware of is prescription medication. That's right, it makes its way back into our waterways. In fact, nearly one in three Americans have placed left or unused prescription drugs in the trash. And more than one and four have flushed leftover unused prescription drugs down the toilet and that's according to the second annual 2019 drug take back survey.

Ron Beres

To get started. I want to talk about the most common contaminants that are found in today's tap water across the country like heavy metals, bacteria, fluoride, chlorine, and its byproduct pharmaceuticals, pesticides parasites, millions of Americans are even at risk of drinking a toxic chemical that can turn male frogs into female frogs with viable eggs. Atrazine is one of the most widely used pesticides in the US. More than 70 million pounds of Atrazine are dumped on American farmland each year. It's been linked to serious health risks like cancer, shorter pregnancy, and even hormone disruption.

Lisa Beres

Yes Ron, and guys, if that's not enough, trichloroethylene, which is used in industrial solvents, and is a known carcinogen. Yet it's found its way into our tap water and into the tap water of over 14 million Americans. not okay. Our guest today, Eric Kurbanov, is going to filter through the misconceptions and myths around drinking water contamination, and share the best filtration methods with us today. Eric, and aspiring young entrepreneur saw the limitations of reverse osmosis systems needing to be installed. If you've ever tried to install one, you know, it's a bear. He wanted to develop an RL system that anyone could benefit from, even if you're not a handyman, which is that so we're going to tell you about that later. Thank you, Eric. Thank you, Eric. Eric teamed up with pure calm to design and engineer the Zero Installation Purifier and established Puricom USA, which is now called RKIN. that's spelled r k I n. Stay tuned till the end, as Ron said, to learn how to win your own Zero Installation Purifier, which is the reverse osmosis countertop water filter system valued over $400 Welcome to the show, Eric.

Erick Kurbanov

Thank you. It's great to be here.

Lisa Beres

Oh, we're so happy to have you. This is a hot topic. And this is the first podcast on the healthy home hacks podcast that we have talked about water filtration and all of the problems. So, we're going to dive deep into these issues today.

Ron Beres

All right, Eric, let's get right into it. According to The Guardian, plastic bottle consumption in the US is set to reach half a trillion bottles by end of this year, with a million bottles a minute currently being bought, most of which are not recycled, and are polluting our landfills. It goes without saying that filtering our own water is healthy for you, saves you money and is better for the planet. Eric, I'm assuming you agree that every home needs a water filter. But aren't city municipal water companies complying with EPA standards?

Eric Kurbanov

Yes, you're absolutely correct. Most of the time, all the municipalities do comply with a strict EPA standards. The main problem is that most of those standards are very, very outdated. And as you have discussed this in one of the previous podcasts, with other guests, it's very hard for legislature to keep up. There are so many things that are changing in the industry. And it's so fast. It's hard for municipalities and legislature to keep on track. For each and every little, well, my might be a little but for each and every contaminant. And there are so many of them. And one of the main new ways of approaching it is grouping that type of contaminants into under one umbrella like PFAS. And I think that would cover a lot more, a lot faster, instead of attacking each and every contaminant one at a time.

Lisa Beres

That's a good point. When we had Tasha Stoiber on, an EWG scientist, she did talk about that. And even with PFAS, they only had it as a standard that they were testing. I think she said one year, it's not even on the list every year and I believe perchlorate I think that's one the rocket fuel derivative. I think that's not on the list. Is that correct? Does anybody know? I mean, there's a lot of chemicals that like slipped through the radar that just aren't being tested for. Friends, if you ask your water company, they'll probably tell you that the water that comes into your home meets all the government safety standards, but they probably won't tell you it could contain a dose of chemicals like the cancer, brain damage, nervous system damage, fertility problems, or hormone disruption. Eric, why don't municipalities do a better job at cleaning the water?

Eric Kurbanov

Well, that's a great question. And the answer to this question is also very simple. Most of the water that municipalities do produce don't get consumed, they do not directly affect your health, because it's not consumed over 90% of the water that municipalities do produce, doesn't get consumed. You're not cooking with it, you're not drinking with it, there is a huge volume of water that municipalities need to make and clean that will not be used. And if let's say, Well, you know what, we want pure water coming into our pipes at the volumes that the household uses. And the cost for the type of pure water coming in through municipality is simply will not be affordable for probably 90% of the population in us because it just doesn't make sense to purify or filter water, clean water that's just not going to be consumed. It's going to be flushed down the toilet sand, etc., etc.

Ron Beres

I never realized 90% of the water you said was not even consumed?

Lisa Beres

Yeah, what is that used for?

Eric Kurbanov

Bathing, dishwashing, washing clothes, flushing toilets, Leni, etc., etc. And

Lisa Beres

It's not like they have two vats of water, one for your sink and one for your household duties. Yeah, so and that makes sense. I mean, a lot of people, it's hard enough getting people to filter their own water at home, right? I mean, it's challenging enough, Okay, that makes sense.

Eric Kurbanov

Throwing water or cleaning the water from those new types of contaminants that are coming up on the radar that people are concerned about, like PFAS, like lead, and some other ones that could be even naturally occurring in the water sources around the country, it's going to be very hard to do on the volumes that are required for a single household. For example, my water bill, when I'm looking at it every month, when we paying the bill is 11,000 gallons. And I have a large family. I have three small kids. And my mother in law lives with us, with three adults and three kids, but still 11,000 gallons. It's a lot of water. Can you imagine treating that much water?

Lisa Beres

I don't think I've ever paid attention. We're going to have to look at the bill next time around.

Ron Beres

Yeah, I can't believe I never paid attention in the galaxy that I always look at the dollar amount of what I owe.

Lisa Beres

Exactly. Most people just look at the dollar, we need to know how much we're using. That's great.

Ron Beres

Can you share with our listeners, what type of filtration technology is best for drinking water? There's a lot of confusion out there. There are water pictures that go in the fridge? There's the fridge itself that might have a water filter, right? The mount on the faucet. Tell us what the best filtration system is?

Lisa Beres

Whole house or under the sink? Also, the types of water filtration now, right? There's so many.

Eric Kurbanov

That's correct. Yes, in my opinion, the best way to treat water is to have a combination of different filtration methods. And nowadays, when people say reverse osmosis systems, they think about just the reverse osmosis process. And they might be going out there and reading different articles saying, Oh, you know, reverse osmosis doesn't remove this, and it doesn't remove that when in reality. Nowadays, I want to say, probably all the reverse osmosis products out there that are meant for drinking water, combine at least two different technologies, which is carbon filtration, and then reverse osmosis afterwards. In my opinion, the best way to go about cleaning the drinking water is using reverse osmosis. And like I mentioned earlier, it usually always implies that there's a carbon pre filter as well, which on its own, does a great job in removing a lot of different contaminants from the water. And when you combine that with reverse osmosis, you're getting water that's far better than anything else can be achieved with any other type of technology out there.

Ron Beres

Can you explain to us for our listeners, the reverse osmosis system? So, what exactly is that? Is it going through a series of membranes? What is that process in a very basic level for our listeners, certainly,

Eric Kurbanov

Reverse osmosis contains at least two or three different filtration methods within one unit. And what they are is you have a sediment filter, which is usually five or 10 microns, takes out all the larger particulars from the water like sand or rust or anything else that's larger size, then you usually almost always have a carbon filter. And the reason for having carbon filter on the reverse osmosis system. One is to take out those items that are not filtered out by reverse osmosis. And two is to protect it against chlorine. That's in all the municipal supply in United States. The reason being is the cooling is very harsh, chemical, even though you know, we don't feel it when we're showering. But it actually does damage the reverse osmosis membrane. It makes the reverse osmosis membrane pores that are on the surface, larger kind of eats them up to where the reverse osmosis membrane is no longer as good as can be.

Ron Beres

It's a filter for the filter, it's a filter for the filter.

Eric Kurbanov

That's correct.

Lisa Beres

And for listeners, your carbon filters your basic Brita pitcher and your basic inexpensive filter that you might be using the ones that are built into your refrigerator that Ron reference this ones that you install on the sink, those are very basic, and those are carbon and most of them will claim Eric reduces chlorine taste and odor because I don't even think they can claim an amount because they are smaller. They don't have the capacity to get to filter all of the chlorine.

Eric Kurbanov

That's correct. The interesting part is it comes down to water flow for the amount of media that's in the water filter and maybe It's called contact time, you've got to have enough time of water being in contact with the carbon media or any other filtration media, for it to work effectively,

Ron Beres

is that why kind of slow drips out, when you just use a carbon filter, it's very slow for the filtered water to become filtered.

Eric Kurbanov

That's correct. In certain applications, they actually slow the water flow, to be able to comply with those claims that they make.

Lisa Beres

Reverse osmosis, we have the pre filter, we have the carbon filter, and then we have the membranes that make up the reverse osmosis itself, right, which is how many membranes usually?

Eric Kurbanov

Usually there is one membrane in most drinking water systems, because it's enough, once you do get into whole house applications that are becoming more popular this time, but they're not quite there yet. You will get more than one membrane, but most of the time, it's one membrane. And then after the membrane, there's also another, the carbon in combination with some other mineral filter, or just a generic carbon filter after the membrane as well. Like a four-stage filtration, maybe five depending.

Lisa Beres

Okay, that's correct. That's for drinking water. Yeah, that's for drinking and cooking. One of the questions that we get asked all the time is, reverse osmosis isn't good for the planet, because it uses so much water, it wastes a lot of water. What do you say to that?

Eric Kurbanov

That is to compare it to any other filtration method out there. When the reverse osmosis, you do get some what is called wastewater or concentrate water. And it can be reused. It's very easy with our countertop system where you can use it to water your plants, or even rinse dishes. But then, you know, it comes down to convenience. Do you really want to do that and go through all of that? Some people do, some people are committed. At the same time, when you look at the alternatives, what else is out there, that's going to give you that type of quality water. I mean, we're talking about 90 to 90% pure water, it's hard to beat. There is nothing out there. One example might be, let's say distillation.

Lisa Beres

Yeah, vapor distillation, that's what we found is the next best, right.

Eric Kurbanov

And those systems have been around for a very long time, they were very popular before reverse osmosis came on the scene. But when you calculate the cost of distillation, or distill one gallon of water versus reverse osmosis, it's negligible the amount of water that can be wasted with reverse osmosis. And you calculate what you're paying for it per gallon getting it from municipality, I don't have a reference that is just doesn't make sense. It doesn't make anything else out there. When you calculate all the costs is going to be 100 to one 200 to one, you're going to be paying a lot more for the distillation.

Ron Beres

Can you explain the concept of distillation to our audience and readers to So basically, original water source is in a chamber and you heat it more or less, right, and you're trying to take the water vapors and put into another chamber and kind of leave back the other.

Lisa Beres

Boiling it like is just like kind of boiling water.

Eric Kurbanov

That's correct, yes, if you imagine an electrical kettle that you use to prepare your teas, or coffee, or etc., when it's boiling the vapors produced and you collecting that vapor. That's what essentially you drinking, imagine how much energy it takes energy to boil out either one gallon of water. And then once you calculate that, and after that, you have to think about the maintenance with a distillation that would need to be cleaned out every so often. And in some cases, it takes one hour to just to get half a gallon of water out of the distiller all that heat that's produced in the house, then your house would need to be cooled during summer. And then now using the AC to just counteract that heat has been produced to just the water. When you calculate all those things into convenience, the cost, the maintenance, reverse osmosis just makes sense by far.

Ron Beres

And the reverse osmosis includes carbon back for the listeners. And the carbon-based filters are the simple ones, the low-price units which do an okay job that is don't get everything and then the vapor distilled is just not really feasible. Correct. Those are really the three major areas then you have the UV but the UV tends to use more in whole house filtration.

Eric Kurbanov

That's correct. UV is a very interesting animal there, in my opinion on municipal supply. You don't really need you the and the reason being is that the water is already heavily chlorinated. So, what is UV doing that what's the main purpose of the UV? The main purpose of the UV is to kill living organisms, like bacteria that might be in the water, and also like destroy viruses, if any. But with that in mind, the chlorine already does that. Everything is already dead by the time it gets to you.

Ron Beres

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, like you do is you take the chlorinated water and you put it to the RO system. takes out the chlorine and its byproducts. Yeah, things fluoride.

Lisa Beres

It is the only drug added to our water supply, which, and I'm sure you are well aware of this is that there's no benefit of actually ingesting fluoride, fluoride on your teeth. That's a whole other story whether you choose to use fluoride toothpaste or not, because you can still swallow it, but there's no benefit to actually ingesting fluoride. And that's the great part about reverse osmosis is it does filter out the fluoride. And that's one of the main reasons we and the chlorine and the chlorine disinfection by products. Right, you said Ron, trihalomethanes, and all of these harmful chemicals that are formed in the disinfection process that a lot of people don't think about, even when you are using your little inexpensive, over the counter pitcher, you might be getting out some of the chlorine, but you're not getting out those other chemicals that are byproducts that are more harmful and quite frankly, cancer causing.

Eric Kurbanov

That's correct. And many years ago, when I just got into the water treatment industry, I have heard this story, but I do not recall where I heard it or read it from, I don't know might be stepping on conspiracy theory area. But from what I read, it's a toxic chemical, if it's a byproduct from what else you're manufacturing, the phosphate, phosphate fertilizer, you guys heard that story? So that's a byproduct of the phosphate industry, and they cannot discard it, then they will look for ways to get rid of you cannot legally bury it, you cannot take it out there and throw it in the ocean somewhere. It's illegal because it's a hazardous waste hazardous waste. They found the outlet.

Lisa Beres

I mean, and even on the children's toothpaste, there is the danger if swallowed. If they swallow more than a pea size you are to call, go to the ER or whatever, it becomes like a danger and I've heard the boxes when they're shipped have the skull and crossbones on the box of toothpaste because of that. Yes. And I have read all those conspiracy theories about fluoride, the Nazi concentration camps using fluoride gas and all of that. But it really comes down to just you don't have to believe that basic science tells you, there's no benefit to ingesting it. There's no benefit if you believe that it's good for your teeth, which we know too much. fluoride causes dental fluorosis, which is the spotting of the teeth. And also, there's been studies linking fluoride to bone cancer in boys, I believe there's big studies on that. And they showed a lot of their studies where they show countries that eliminated fluoride from the drinking water, had no increase in cavities whatsoever. If you want it, get your toothpaste, put it in your toothpaste. That's your choice. But why would you drink it? The science doesn't add up. And the EPA, over the years has lowered the amount of allowable fluoride. They've been lowering it because they're finding out there are health problems associated with it. Yeah, the whole fluoride, I think we could do a whole show on that. Eric, we often get asked, what is the difference between a whole house water filter and a water softener? Do you need both? And can you explain?

Eric Kurbanov

Yes, certainly. It's a very good question. And it's also can be a little bit confusing to a lot of people, when they just start doing the research. The way to look at it is what is the purpose of a water filter? And what is the purpose on water softener, or the scaler. The main reason to have a water filter is to filter out certain things or the water that you don't want and the water softener. What does that do? That takes care of negative effects of hardness in the water. If you guys in California, there's way too hard water there in most of the municipalities and most of homes, the hardness or calcium and magnesium and certain forms, basically just builds up on the pipes and in appliances and on showerheads. And anything else that touches water. The hardness is treated with a water softener. Anything else that you want out of your water is treated by a water filter. Those are two main differences. Some people would prefer to have just a water filter. They don't mind the harness building up maybe inside appliances, which don't last long nowadays. Anyways, some people might say, right, I agree with that. And they don't want to do with the water softener. So that's one theory and the secondary. Some people might not want the hardness building up in their appliances and pipes and etc. Because eventually, depending how hard the water is there have been cases to where the water pressure would keep dropping because the harnesses building up inside the pipes and the pipes.

Lisa Beres

And the pipes can burst, right? Would that cause the pipes to burst? We have that in our community. There were a lot of neighbors. We had metal pipes and They were bursting and the homeowners came in and changed everybody's pipes because it was going to be a lawsuit situation to the PEX, which I'm not a huge fan of. But I know it's supposed to be safer. I just don't like anything synthetic. But are you familiar with PEX piping?

Eric Kurbanov

Yes. Personally, I have not had it in any of my homes. So, I could not tell from my experience, but from the industry, the PEX is getting more and more popular.

Eric Kurbanov

Yeah, it started in Europe, I think. Do you think that's what caused the pipes to burst the buildup of? It's possible but unlikely, because how the buildup happens? It kind of goes in layers. There's no outward pressure from pushing it out. Oh, I don't know what cause the pipes to burst.

Lisa Beres

Okay, well, we got to investigate that.

Ron Beres

We thought we had an answer here.

Eric Kurbanov

Okay. There are certain types of PEX that no longer used, and no longer allowed by the code. So, it could have been just that. The piping that hasn't been�

Lisa Beres

Oh no, we had metal. We had metal originally. And then they got replaced Oh packs because of the metal, metal. Crazy, right? Thankfully, not our house. I know. That's no fun when you have water issue, water damage, and potential of mold and all of that. That's another podcast episode.

Ron Beres

Another question from readers we often get to is what is the difference between salt-based water softeners and salt free alternatives?

Eric Kurbanov

Yes, the main difference comes down to how the water feels in your hair when you're bathing in you when you're washing your hands. Because the way soap interacts with salt that will be present in the water using salt-based water softener is a little bit different. How soap interacts with calcium and magnesium that might be present in the water. If the saltless water softeners use. Those are the difference. You know, some people might call it a slimy feeling. People that don't like it.

Lisa Beres

Yes, I don't like it. I grew up in Arizona, and we had a water softener. And I did not like that slimy feeling

Eric Kurbanov

So that's as from week one, that's kind of from the soffit sprays by the softener, yes, and thoughtless system, you will not have that feeling. Some people like it, and some people dislike it. And there is where a few people don't really mind it either way, they will basically come down to that the saltless systems do a very good job of preventing hardness build up inside of the piping and or on appliances, especially the ones that we have and a few other brands out there, they do a very good job, it comes down to personal preference how you want your water to feel when you bathing and washing your hands in etc. Also, with a saltless water softener, the installation is a little bit more involved, because it does require an outlet electrical outlet to be nearby. And also, a way to have a discharge when the system regenerate. A drain would be required as well.

Lisa Beres

Are they similar in price, the saltless?

Eric Kurbanov

Cost wise, they're very similar in price the salt-based system will cost a little bit more to maintain, simply because of the requirement that you have to have salt to be replenished every so often depending on how hard your water is. Also, you know, just driving and getting that stuff. That's where the first difference long term will come in.

Lisa Beres

And then the non-salt does that feel like your hard water. And when you shower is that similar?

Eric Kurbanov

The saltless systems that are based on template assisted crystallization, how they work is they do not remove the hardness from the water. They basically transform the hardness into miniature, very small crystals that no longer have the same ability to attach to the surfaces.

Lisa Beres

Hey, who doesn't want crystal water? Be in crystal water. That sounds fun.

Eric Kurbanov

They're so small, you'll be able to see him or feeling but basically now the form that calcium and magnesium or the hardness is in it no longer able to attach to the surfaces, but it's still there, how the water field is going to be exactly the same. But you will see the differences in the hardness builder that is no longer present.

Lisa Beres

Gotcha. It's kind of like the Redux filtration that is in a lot of shower filters where it's actually converting the molecule.

Ron Beres

Making it larger.

Lisa Beres

Yeah. I have read that with a water softener, there are no spots on dishes and glass shower doors anymore. And I know our listeners want to know the answer to this. This is a problem for so many people. Is that true, Eric?

Ron Beres

I want to know too.

Eric Kurbanov

Yes, with a saltless water softeners, it's a common question that we get as well or it's a common assumption that people have that with a saltless water softener. You don't have spots. That's simply not true. Because what's happening is you take it out the hardness and you replace it with salt. Well, the salt is still present. If the water dries up, you still have that salt show up on the surface, there will be some spotting, it may not be as bad or may not show up as much as without a water softener. But it's still there. For example, in our home, I put in a saltless water softener, simply because I need to know how it works. Not only how it works, but also how it presents itself in the home environment. We still have to clean out or at least use a squeegee on our shower doors that are glass to make sure.

Lisa Beres

Now you're regretting that decision and wishing you went with the saltless.

Ron Beres

What about your glasses in the dishwasher?

Lisa Beres

Your wife's mad at you for that one, Eric?

Eric Kurbanov

Oh, yes. She doesn't like it at all. I mean, we did have a saltless system before.

Lisa Beres

Oh, you did? Right. And you didn't have to use the squeegee.

Eric Kurbanov

We did use a squeegee before as well. Oh, so that one has spots too. Unless you physically remove the hardness or any other total dissolved solids out of the water, there will be spots.

Lisa Beres

But, the salt-free water softener. I would think that wouldn't have spots, right?

Eric Kurbanov

Well, the spots come from the minerals and the water and hardness or calcium and magnesium is still present in the water. When the water dries up. Just like with salt. You'll have those minerals show up.

Lisa Beres

I thought you have a salt free alternative to the water softeners. Yes, that's correct. Oh, that's not taking out the minerals, right?

Eric Kurbanov

That�s the one that changes the crystal structure of the hardness to where they no longer stick to the surface.

Lisa Beres

Oh, it's just a hardness. It's keeping the minerals in there. Oh, I see. Okay. You just got to clean your showers guys. There's no way around it. I was trying I was trying to find a way.

Ron Beres

I was looking for a quick fix and I'm going to buy a new squeegee. As we mentioned at the top of the show shocking EWG analysis found that a complex toxic cocktail of chemical pollutants in drinking water could result in more than 100,000 cancer cases. And PFAS chemicals have been detected also in every person tested as well as breast milk. Eric, what can our listeners do right now to treat PFAS, or what we call forever chemicals.

Eric Kurbanov

Yes, as we discussed earlier, the reverse osmosis system is all-around kind of well-rounded system to treat. most if not all contaminants that might be present in the water for drinking water, the reverse osmosis systems would be the best way to go one of the previous episodes, the EWG scientists also mentioned that reverse osmosis might be the best way to do it. Now for the whole house application. We do have a system that's based on a carbon technology, but it's a next step up from that. There's also able to take out and it's been tested by a third party and certified for that PFAS and also lead filtration. Okay, correct for the whole house. There are new systems out there now that are able to take out those items from the water.

Lisa Beres

That's great. What's the name of that filtration?

Eric Kurbanov

We call it OP1L system.

Lisa Beres

I'll put a link to that in the show notes, OP1L. Okay, so that's great. If I get a whole house system, do I still need a reverse osmosis for the drinking water?

Eric Kurbanov

That's also very good question. And it comes up quite a bit with conversations with customers the drinking water, I would assume that most people would want the best that they can get for drinking water. And that's usually delivered and able to be obtained by reverse osmosis system. Whole House systems, once again, just like similar to the municipalities, because the requirement is to filter all the water coming in into the house, it's a little bit harder to deliver the same quality water as reverse osmosis can, for example, the carbon filters, and or the Opie one L system will give you a lot better filtration than most simple carbon filters will do, but it's not going to be as good as reverse osmosis. Now, if you are the type of person that is okay with having just a Brita filter quality water or like a fridge filter quality water, that whole house system will give you just as good water in that regard. But if you want absolutely the best for drinking water, then the only way to get there is through reverse osmosis system.

Ron Beres

That's so great combination of both. You want a whole house and a RO system for your kitchen. Yeah.

Lisa Beres

So, we're talking about a point of use, which is something that's under the sink which is the reverse osmosis or in this case a countertop, and then we have point of entry which is the whole house. Can you explain to our listeners, okay, I'm living in an apartment or I'm in a condo or habitats walls, or I have a single-story home or a single-family home, who can use the whole house filtration and who can't?

Eric Kurbanov

Yes, whole house filtration will require modifications to the plumbing, meaning that the pipes would need to be cut in the system will be to be plumbed in somewhere where the water comes in into the home or a condo. In some cases, it may not be possible at all to install a whole-house system, and condos probably a lot more likely to be in that category. If you're living in single house, in a single-family home than 99% of the time, there is a way to install the whole house system, because you have a main line coming in, they have a shot off while they're somewhere that you can pipe into. If you're in an area where it gets freezing temperatures, then the whole house system would need to be installed somewhere where it doesn't freeze, simply because when the water freezes, it expands. And when it expands, all the pipes break and etc., etc. The requirements are you got to be able to get to a main line that's coming in into the house so you can catch all the water. Some people ask is where my hot water heater is? Maybe. But maybe not simply because if you hook it up to the pipe that's going into the hot water heater, it's only going to be the hot water that's going to be filtered.

Lisa Beres

Yeah, we discovered that recently. Our entry point is bizarre. It's in a strange place in the garage, actually, I think under like it's an it is in a weird spot. So, what about an apartment they can't put in?

Eric Kurbanov

Usually there's no way to because there's only one line coming in into the whole building, right? Like you mentioned, we would need to filter the whole building the whole house system.

Lisa Beres

And what Ron and I recommend, if you are in a situation like that, where you can't do a whole house water filtration, or maybe it's just not in your budget right now, getting this reverse osmosis countertop filter, which, by the way, I can't rave about enough run and I have been using it, I wrote an article and if you want to, I'll put a link to it in the show notes. It's on Yahoo Finance, and I break down how much we save by switching we were buying bottled water like a lot of you guys listening, spending boatloads of money we're buying, you know quality water from Trader Joe's and we're just copious amounts, we switch to this zero installation. Reverse Osmosis purifier, which sits on our counter, it's actually very stylish. I know a lot of people got I don't want anything else on my counter. But you have to look at them. They're very pretty. They come in black and silver or white and silver. That's small. And when we have it tucked in a corner; you can barely see it. And we saved I think it was $1,800 the first year and then it was $1,400 the second year. Anyway, I break down the cost. And this article that I'll put the link to this in the show notes. And it's pretty mind-boggling, you guys, that's a lot of money to save every year. And with each year that goes on, you've paid off your filter, and now you're just in the savings mode, I highly recommend checking that out. I think it's just a great thing to do for yourself. But if you are in a small place where you can't put the whole house in, you get the countertop filter, and shower filter, you can get the shower filters individually for each of your showers. That way you filtered your cooking and your bathing and you're drinking water. So just a little tidbit in there.

Ron Beres

I wanted to ask Eric, getting to reverse osmosis. Do you recommend an under the sink? Or a countertop? reverse osmosis system?

Eric Kurbanov

Yes. That's another very good question. For me personally, if you renting, there is no other way but to go with a countertop, most likely because usually the landlord would not allow any kind of modification to your plumbing, hello or own your own home and you can do modification to the plumbing or install anything that you want. Then this question comes up a lot. It all depends on your preference and how much space you're willing to sacrifice either under the sink or on your counter each time when the question comes up. My recommendation is if you can go with the under-sink system. The reason being is the usage or daily use of the system is so much easier than refilling the countertop each and every time when you need water. And we do have undressing systems now you guys might look into and they do use the same filters as our countertop system. There just has one extra carbon because usage of under sink system tends to be higher than a countertop. You have a separate faucet. If you have granite countertops, then it might be an issue.

Ron Beres

That's right. So, you have to drill a hole on the countertop and you need a plumber to call the under sink.

Lisa Beres

Well that's a consideration, the drilling of the hole. You do have to hire a professional whereas the ZIP, you're done and ready to go. Eric, what's the under-sink price versus the countertop?

Eric Kurbanov

The under-sink systems go for about $200. They're very affordable. But once again, you have to figure out the price of the installation. If you can do yourself great. It's very affordable, very economical. If you have to hire somebody is going to cost you a little bit more than a countertop, the countertops ago for around $400. And they go on sale every once in a while. To answer your question, if you can, for convenience, it's the under sink is a lot easier to use. Once you cross that barrier of the installation, that's the main thing to get started. The easiest way countertop is the best way to go.

Lisa Beres

But you're right. I mean, we fill ours constantly. We drink a lot of water; we filter our ice cubes with it. We use it for coffee, we use it for everything we are filling in a lot with time maybe is it going to the same. I think we just wanted something simple, because we know we made that transition from drinking bottled water, which is crazy, because we've been in the green industry for a very long time. And like so many listeners, it was the convenience, right? It's just the convenience and you felt like you were getting such great water. But your water filtration will also alkalinize the water correct? That's correct. This maybe brings me to my next question. What's the difference between the AlkaPure and the OnliPure editions of your RO systems?

Eric Kurbanov

AlkaPure versus OnliPure. AlkaPure is the original countertop system that we have. And basically, what it does, it adds a little bit of calcium and magnesium into the water for better taste. There have been studies done double-blind studies out there that people do prefer lightly mineralized water. As far as taste is concerned. That's the original. And then we have been asked over and over by our customers, they do have something that would be similar to the distilled water tastes completely free of minerals and everything else. And for the longest time, we keep saying no, we don't have it. But then finally, about a year or two years ago, we have launched OnliPure version. And what that does, it has a deionizing media inside of it. That basically takes out anything and everything that might be left over after the reverse osmosis process, giving you zero TDS just like distilled water.

Lisa Beres

Total dissolved solids for anyone who didn't know what that was. TDS, total dissolved solids, which are basically, yeah, contaminants in your water.

Eric Kurbanov

That's correct. With that in mind, we're doing it primarily for taste, because the difference in water purity between the two is very minute. Reverse Osmosis does a great job. The only thing to consider would be the taste. Do you like mineral water? Or do you like distilled water?

Lisa Beres

That's a taste issue. And are they both alkaline? By the time they come out of the spout?

Eric Kurbanov

Yes. So that our AlkaPure will be alkaline, the OnliPure will not be alkaline, it will be just like any other reverse osmosis system out there.

Lisa Beres

Okay. And what do you think about the people that spend copious amounts of money on these alkaline water systems?

Eric Kurbanov

The industry as a whole, they've been kind of staying away from that type of technology and making those claims simply because the filtration use before the water gets organized, is carbon filters. I'm not a big expert on how those machines work. But my basic understanding is the current is run between the plates. And to bring the alkalinity up, the certain ions get pulled to that one side, or the water that you're going to be consuming. And along with those ions, there also have metals or anything else that might be left over. After carbon filtration. Basically, you get a concentrate of all the impurities that might be in the water. Interesting. In my opinion, that's not the best way to go about filtering water.

Lisa Beres

Yeah, and I've heard there's actually not one scientific study that proves that alkaline water is better for you. Is that true? Have you heard that?

Eric Kurbanov

My personal opinion is that your digestive tract contains a lot of acid, that acid is very strong. It's six to five pH, if I remember correctly, by the time you drink something and it gets digested by your gut acid, none of the alkalinity stuff, there's not enough alkalinity in the water to make any difference in that regard. If you think about, for example, when you have heartburn, you know when you take Tums or something else, basically, just calcium and magnesium and a pill, and those things are really big, you know, new tune, there's a lot of mineral coming in and that helps neutralize that acid, but a little bit of thing that you get in the water itself. Probably not enough to make much difference. Interesting, okay.

Lisa Beres

But if you do like alkaline water, the AlkaPure does make it neutral, right pH neutral.

Eric Kurbanov

It makes it slightly alkaline, correct between seven and eight, slightly alkaline.

Lisa Beres

Okay, so that's great. Yeah, and I have a bonus question for you. What would you say to our listeners is the worst contaminant that we are exposed to in our drinking water?

Eric Kurbanov

I would say it's chlorine, chlorine simply because it may not be in a drinking water specifically, but it's in the household. And you're showering in it every day. The maximum allowed chlorine level in municipal supply is the same as in a swimming pool. Most of the time the municipalities do crank it up, all the way up, just to make sure you know nothing survives through the journey of the water at home, and you're showering in it, I would say that's probably the most, in my opinion, that's harder to deal with, especially if you're renting. I know you mentioned the shower filters, we do not promote any shower filters, just because based on our testing, they're not very good at removing all the chlorine from the water, they will cut it down the water flow, right, when there's too much of a water flow in the shower. The filter can heal, that's correct.

Lisa Beres

I'm going to put some links in the show notes, the shower filters that we recommend, because I know some of them only take out chlorine, dirt, sediment odors, maybe sulfur, but there's a couple that actually takes up trihalomethanes, the disinfection byproducts of chlorine. And I'm going to put those links in there too. I mean, it's obviously better than not having it and it's really good for your hair and your skin. If you get those white spots from the chlorine, you'll notice a huge difference. But you know, it goes without saying with everything, you have to change those filters, whether that's your air filter, your shower filter, your drinking water filters, a lot of people neglect that. And you can cause more problems when you get this bacteria buildup because now your filters clogged. It's also going to affect the flow of the water, especially in your shower if you haven't changed that. And they don't come with lights or buzzers or indicators. So, you have to like keep a note of when you changed it. When you start using a shower filter. You'll notice the chlorine smell come back. That's usually the indicator that you haven't changed it and you're overdue. Well, thank you for joining us, Eric. This was so great. Yes, thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. Yeah, we loved having you and friends, we hope you enjoyed today's show as much as we have. Now you have homework head to RKIN which's rkin.com now to shop for the perfect water filtration system for your home.

Ron Beres

Yes, and for all the show notes and links head to run elisa.com forward slash podcast and for a chance to win your own countertop reverse osmosis system from RKIN valued at over $400 visit RonandLisa.com and be sure to sign up for our newsletter. Until next time, have a great week. Bye, everyone. Thank you.

Narrator

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