Whether it’s for your home or an emergency, drinking water needs to be available at all times. This is how you’re going to be able to hydrate yourself. If your well water is contaminated or if you’re traveling and dealing with contaminated water, here are some ways by which you can disinfect drinking water. However, for homes, a better option is to install a well water filtration system.

Why Is Water Disinfection Important?

Disinfection is basically the process of removing all kinds of germs, bacteria, microorganisms or other harmful toxins in the water that can cause a lot of problems in the body.

Disinfection is key when it comes to making water potable and safe for use and drinking. It’s also crucial to give children and infants disinfected water, because their stomachs are very sensitive and they can’t manage to fight these toxic organisms on their own.

Disinfection is going to save your body from a host of disorders and ailments and it also improves the taste of water, which is what you want.

Effective Ways To Disinfect Drinking Water

So, now that you know why disinfecting water is crucial, here are some of the most common and effective ways by which you can get rid of those nasty impurities in water that you don’t need in your body to cause a host of problems.

Boil The Water

First of all, and the most effective and easiest way of disinfecting water, is to use the good ole boiling method. This method of disinfection has been around for decades if not centuries, and it’s one of the easiest ways to boil water and forget about any dangers of impurities in it. So, to boil the water, you need to fill a stainless steel or cast iron pot with water. This is important because you want to boil water in a pot whose material is heat-conducting.

It will be fast, easy, and very effective, at the end of the day. Then, you want to put it on the stove and fire away. You want the water to reach a good rolling boil, which is the boiling point of water and then you can let it cool. It will remove all sorts of impurities and you will be safe to drink it. Keep in mind though that you will need a stove and gas availability for the water to boil.

It can also be done on an induction or electric stove, but you can’t boil water when you’re on the go, so this is something that you should keep in mind. But boiling is one of the foolproof ways of disinfecting water, because the high temperature kills all bacteria and viruses in it, which is amazing and very healthy for your body.

Use Chlorine

This is an amazing fix for disinfecting water if you don’t want to go through the trouble of boiling it. You can use simple chlorine tablets and drop an allocated amount into a set quantity of water.

Chlorine is nature’s disinfectant and it can also go into the water, dissolve, and kill all of the harmful microorganisms and viruses in it. The only thing you need to worry about is the quantity of chlorine you put in it. You need to follow the instructions, because if you add too much, then the water can taste bleachy and chemical-like.

Iodine

A great alternative to chlorine is iodine. They work the same, but iodine is way more effective and it kills an even wider range of viruses and bacteria, which is amazing. So, if you can’t get your hands on chlorine tablets or you are afraid that it will turn the water chemical-like, then you can go ahead and use iodine.

It will work just the same and it won’t alter the taste of water either. Iodine is available in tablet form or even in drops, so just make sure that you’re following the instructions and adding the iodine as per quantity.

Granular Calcium Hypochlorite

If you have neither chlorine nor iodine and you want to disinfect your water, then you can use granular calcium hypochlorite. This is also known as HTH. First, a solution is made by mixing a very small quantity of HTH with water. This makes a chlorine solution and then this solution is added to 100 parts of water that you want to disinfect.

This is how the water is treated. The chlorine in the solution is what kills all of the bacteria. The difference between HTH and regular chlorine is the potency, so in HTH, a little bit goes a long way.

UV Light Disinfection

Next up is UV light disinfection and purification. UV light is an amazing and innovative way of disinfection without actually having to incorporate anything in the water. This is good because a lot of the time, people are wary of having anything mixed with water they’re trying to disinfect.

Even if it doesn’t alter the taste of water, people can’t help but feel like there’s something mixed in it. So, you can use UV light disinfection to take care of that problem once and for all, and the results are amazing. There are portable UV light filters and also whole house UV light water filters Gaithersburg.

Filtration

Next up is another method of disinfection and that is filtration. You might be surprised to know that even filters are capable of removing bacteria and viruses from water, as long as you use a filter with a very small micron size. This is important when you’re choosing a filter  that will essentially disinfect water because the micron size says it all.

You want to choose the right filter otherwise it will not be able to disinfect the water. The rest is pretty self-explanatory. The water is passed through the filter and that’s how all of the impurities are removed for good.

Use Coffee Filters

If you’re in a pinch and you don’t have a filter on hand but want to disinfect water, then you can easily use coffee filters. Coffee filters are also like regular filters. Once the coffee comes in contact with water, it swells and that causes the rest of the grains to stay back and the water is infused with a strong coffee taste with zero granules.

So, you can pass the water through a coffee filter too. It might not be able to remove every single impurity, but it will get the job done, which is what you want when you’re out and about.

Solar Disinfection

If you want the great ball of fire, a.k.a. the sun to come in handy in the process of disinfection, then it has your back. You can easily put a clear bottle of water in the sunlight and let it do its magic. However, you want to keep in mind that solar disinfection will only work if the water is clear and not cloudy.

So, if the water is cloudy, then you want to first pass it through multiple filters to get it clear, and then you can employ solar disinfection. It will work amazingly.

Conclusion

Disinfection is a very crucial process, because it removes all kinds of microorganisms that can cause a whole lot of damage to the body. Well, now you know exactly what to do. For your home, if your main concern is microbes, use a water treatment Darnestown system like a UV light filter or a reverse osmosis system.