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Why buy a replacement filter for $6 to $10 (or more) when you can refill your old filter cartridge housing for about 50 cents?!
Refilling is quick, easy and economical. If you can refill a salt shaker, then you should be able to refill a Brita, PuR, or other brand water pitcher cartridges. All that you will need is an old cartridge, some activated carbon, a polyethylene plug, a sharp utility knife or Xacto knife. A 1/2" drill motor and 1/2" drill bit are optional, but can aid in rounding out the hole.
Refilling is quick, easy and economical. If you can refill a salt shaker, then you should be able to refill a Brita, PuR, or other brand water pitcher cartridges. All that you will need is an old cartridge, some activated carbon, a polyethylene plug, a sharp utility knife or Xacto knife. A 1/2" drill motor and 1/2" drill bit are optional, but can aid in rounding out the hole.
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Signing UpStep 1A bit about activated carbon and where to buy small quantities.
Activated carbon is also known as activated charcoal and is a VERY effective substance at absorbing many unwanted contaminants in drinking water and other liquids.
The History of Activated Carbon
Activated Carbon was first known to treat water over 2000 years ago. However, it was first produced commercially at the beginning of the 20th century and was only available in powder form. Initially activated carbon was mainly used to decolorize sugar and then from 1930 for water treatment to remove taste and odor. Granular activated carbon was first developed as a consequence of WWI for gas masks and has been used subsequently for water treatment, solvent recovery and air purification. The unique structure of activated carbon produces a very large surface area: 1 lb of granular activated carbon typically provides a surface area of 125 acres (1 Kg =1,000,000 sq. m.). Activated carbon can be produced from a variety of carbonaceous raw material, the primary ones being coal, coconut shells, wood and lignite. The intrinsic properties of the activated carbon are dependent on the raw material source. The activated carbon surface is non-polar which results in an affinity for non-polar adsorbates such as organics. Adsorption is a surface phenomenom in which an adsorbate is held onto the surface of the activated carbon by Van der Waal's forces and saturation is represented by an equilibrium point. These forces are physical in nature, which means that the process is reversible (using heat, pressure, etc.) Activated carbon is also capable of chemisorption, whereby a chemical reaction occurs at the carbon interface, changing the state of the adsorbate (dechlorination is an example of a chemisorption process). (You can read more here: http://www.carbochem.com/activatedcarbon101.html )
Activated charcoal is good at trapping other carbon-based impurities ("organic" chemicals), as well as things like chlorine. Many other chemicals are not attracted to carbon at all -- sodium, nitrates, etc. -- so they pass right through. This means that an activated charcoal filter will remove certain impurities while ignoring others. It also means that, once all of the bonding sites are filled, an activated charcoal filter stops working. At that point you must replace the filter. (You can read more here: http://science.howstuffworks.com/question209.htm )
Over 100 years ago Ellen White, a health reformer & pioneer of the Seventh Day Adventist movement strongly advocated the medical uses for charcoal powder. The modern medical establishment has only recently begun to use activated charcoal powder as the preferred method of treating oral poisonings and drug overdoses: "It is thought to bind to poison and prevent its absorption by the gastrointestinal tract. In cases of suspected poisoning, medical personnel either administer activated charcoal on the scene or at a hospital's emergency department. Dosing is usually empirical at 1 gram/kg of body weight, usually given only once. Depending on the drug taken, it may be given more than once. In rare situations activated charcoal is used in Intensive Care to filter out harmful drugs from the blood stream of poisoned patients. Activated carbon has become the treatment of choice for many poisonings, and other decontamination methods such as ipecac-induced emesis or stomach pumps are now used rarely." (From the Wikipedia entry for Activated Carbon)
You can find it at any fish & aquarium supply. If your concerned that the quality of the carbon from an aquarium shop might not be up-to-snuff, then go to a homebrew shop, or some other source that you are comfortable with. The granule size you'll want should be relatively close to 8 x 16 mesh size or smaller, but NOT so small that it falls out of the holes in your filter housing. I purchased the NSF approved carbon I used for my filters through an ebay merchant (here: http://stores.ebay.com/Carbon-Eze ). No, that's not me, & I don't know them. :) They describe their products well and have a good reputation & that's why I've included them here.
The History of Activated Carbon
Activated Carbon was first known to treat water over 2000 years ago. However, it was first produced commercially at the beginning of the 20th century and was only available in powder form. Initially activated carbon was mainly used to decolorize sugar and then from 1930 for water treatment to remove taste and odor. Granular activated carbon was first developed as a consequence of WWI for gas masks and has been used subsequently for water treatment, solvent recovery and air purification. The unique structure of activated carbon produces a very large surface area: 1 lb of granular activated carbon typically provides a surface area of 125 acres (1 Kg =1,000,000 sq. m.). Activated carbon can be produced from a variety of carbonaceous raw material, the primary ones being coal, coconut shells, wood and lignite. The intrinsic properties of the activated carbon are dependent on the raw material source. The activated carbon surface is non-polar which results in an affinity for non-polar adsorbates such as organics. Adsorption is a surface phenomenom in which an adsorbate is held onto the surface of the activated carbon by Van der Waal's forces and saturation is represented by an equilibrium point. These forces are physical in nature, which means that the process is reversible (using heat, pressure, etc.) Activated carbon is also capable of chemisorption, whereby a chemical reaction occurs at the carbon interface, changing the state of the adsorbate (dechlorination is an example of a chemisorption process). (You can read more here: http://www.carbochem.com/activatedcarbon101.html )
Activated charcoal is good at trapping other carbon-based impurities ("organic" chemicals), as well as things like chlorine. Many other chemicals are not attracted to carbon at all -- sodium, nitrates, etc. -- so they pass right through. This means that an activated charcoal filter will remove certain impurities while ignoring others. It also means that, once all of the bonding sites are filled, an activated charcoal filter stops working. At that point you must replace the filter. (You can read more here: http://science.howstuffworks.com/question209.htm )
Over 100 years ago Ellen White, a health reformer & pioneer of the Seventh Day Adventist movement strongly advocated the medical uses for charcoal powder. The modern medical establishment has only recently begun to use activated charcoal powder as the preferred method of treating oral poisonings and drug overdoses: "It is thought to bind to poison and prevent its absorption by the gastrointestinal tract. In cases of suspected poisoning, medical personnel either administer activated charcoal on the scene or at a hospital's emergency department. Dosing is usually empirical at 1 gram/kg of body weight, usually given only once. Depending on the drug taken, it may be given more than once. In rare situations activated charcoal is used in Intensive Care to filter out harmful drugs from the blood stream of poisoned patients. Activated carbon has become the treatment of choice for many poisonings, and other decontamination methods such as ipecac-induced emesis or stomach pumps are now used rarely." (From the Wikipedia entry for Activated Carbon)
You can find it at any fish & aquarium supply. If your concerned that the quality of the carbon from an aquarium shop might not be up-to-snuff, then go to a homebrew shop, or some other source that you are comfortable with. The granule size you'll want should be relatively close to 8 x 16 mesh size or smaller, but NOT so small that it falls out of the holes in your filter housing. I purchased the NSF approved carbon I used for my filters through an ebay merchant (here: http://stores.ebay.com/Carbon-Eze ). No, that's not me, & I don't know them. :) They describe their products well and have a good reputation & that's why I've included them here.
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http://www.cdc.gov/FLUORIDATION/benefits.htm
As if the government wants to save your teeth. What a laugh.
The fluoride is called a "slow kill".
I think all people over 50 should be wise and use good judgement on how much water they consume form municipal water sources.
Just sayin.
The unfortunate thing about people who are suspicious of dentists is that their suspicion leads them to avoid dentists which in turn leads to poor oral health which eventually leads to a dentist telling them that they need extensive work, often at a high cost. Their suspicion thus becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
If we start with two basic assumptions
a) pain and infection are undesirable for overall health and quality of life,
b) having teeth is better than not having them
and we look at the disease processes that result in oral pain and loss of teeth, we eventually reach the inescapable conclusion that the mouth requires regular maintenance by highly trained professionals. It is a very rare person whose diet, lifestyle, immune system, anatomy, and genetics all align themselves in favor of perfect oral health.
Finally, the scientific method is unquestionably the greatest invention of the human race. Every other human invention around you exists because the scientific method works, and works well. I've provided links to the science behind the fluoridation of water. I can't force you to read it or believe it. It is up to each individual to choose truth or ignorance. I hope for your own sake that you choose wisely.
What's important is people are waking up and they are making choices based off the information of their own research.
For me, I indeed choose truth. Wisely.
In a study published in the journal Nuclear Medicine Communications this month (Jan. 2012), researchers assessed fluoride uptake and calcification in the major arteries of 61 patients who were administered sodium fluoride, the active ingredient in most fluoridated toothpastes.
Here is the link to the study;
http://www.greenmedinfo.com/article/there-association-vascular-fluoride-uptake-vascular-calcification-and-coronary-artery-diseas
The first clue to the problem is that the linked abstract is for an article published in a journal of nuclear medicine. Why would there be an article about fluoride and arterial plaques in a journal of nuclear medicine? Why not in a journal of cardiology?
The answer is that the article is NOT about a causal relationship between fluoride ingestion and formation of arterial plaques. It is about using a radioactive fluoride compound as a contrast agent to improve image quality on PET/CT scans. The fluoride in question is swallowed or injected into the patient prior to performing the PET/CT scan. The article is saying that the fluoride compound contrast agent appears to be taken up in the plaques rendering them more readily apparent in the PET/CT images.
Here's a link to a reliable site that explains what PET scan and contrast agents are: http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=pet
Here is another article that explains the use of a fluoride compound as a contrast agent for detecting breast cancer using PET scans (NO, it doesn't imply that fluoride CAUSES breast cancer!):
http://radiographics.rsna.org/content/27/suppl_1/S215.full
The people who posted the link at greenmedinfo.com apparently didn't read or didn't understand the article whose abstract they published. They simply saw the words "fluoride" and "arterial plaque" and leapt to the incorrect conclusion that fluoride causes arterial plaque.
http://fluorideinfo.org/index.html
It also has some information about the sort of nonsense being served up as science at mercola.com and other antifluoride web sites.
Notice that the FIN site doesn't try to scare you then offer to sell you pills/potions/filters that will save you from the thing they were trying to scare you about.
Cheers!
Petersen PE, Lennon MA. Effective use of fluorides for the prevention of dental
caries in the 21st century: the WHO approach. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol
2004; 32: 319–21.
The bibliography lists many peer-reviewed scientific papers that will update your knowledge on the subject. I recommend you peruse the Cochrane Collaboration web site (http://www.cochrane.org/#). It is considered the gold-standard for quality, peer-reviewed medical and dental science.
Those healthy, unvaccinated people you mention have the people around them who have been vaccinated to thank (and lady luck!) that they have never come down with the diseases those vaccinations prevent. Look up "herd immunity". I wish them continued luck.
Here's another page to read that may help you in your journey:
http://www.freeinquiry.com/critical-thinking.html
I wish you the greatest of success in your effort to educate your self!
Please provide a source or edit this line out - I would love to know if it's true, but if it's not, it shouldn't be causing alarm to people like me who use PUR-filtered water for me and my pets.
Thanks.
nice concept. good for tast and odour issues (and pesticides).
All the activated charcoal I have seen is very expensive. A standard container even from the big box stores is about $8 for 9 ounces. This would maybe fill three Britta filters. One of the links to a bulk charcoal website lists 4 pounds for $52, that's $13 per pound while charcoal for BBQs is about 27 cents per pound. Is there a manufacture of filter grade charcoal that will be in the middle? Please post a source or link or don't make such a claim.
You could always just find some brita coupons if you want to take the easy way out.
That advice will cost you $3.75.
Not sure where you're looking but I found this pretty quick. For 5 lbs it's $6.08 per pound. It also says that the density is approximately 28 lbs/cu.ft.
1 cu.ft. = 958 oz.
28 lbs/cu.ft. = .0292 lbs/oz
Using your approximate 3 oz. per filter this gives .0876 lbs per filter.
Using the above cost per pound it gives $.532.
Even if these equations are rough and not including shipping it shows that sources can be found that make $0.50 per filter feasible.
To Rob5i, I ask that you do a little more research and a little more math.
To IAMSatisfied and all ibles authors, I ask that these types of analysis be added to any ible where an efficiency is stated.
Other than that great instructable, I look forward to trying this. Thanks
http://www.instructables.com/id/Filtered-Pet-Watering-Bowl/?&sort=ACTIVE&limit=40
I mainly want to refill a filter on a running water pet bowl for cats to cut down on the gelatinous gel layer that forms on the bottom of bowl. I was wondering if the carbon needed would be same with running water being recycled with pump. Would just simply measuring the amount of carbon in existing filter and replacing it with same amount be adequate and safe for my pets? Does anyone have insight? Could there be a hazard in adding tooo much carbon to a filter? Thanks in advance!!
I can't guarantee that will take care of any stuff sticking to the bowl, but it seems like it's worth a try.
Oh wait, here's an instructable: http://www.instructables.com/id/LED-Water-Purifier/
(still stupidly expensive, as someone says up there, there is silver in them? the price of silver has tripled in the last few years so thats probably why)
I'll shall try this instructable - thank you!
Now the issue is with the activated carbon. We got some from a pet store, but the particles are much too large. So we tried making them smaller using a coffee grinder, but it didn't make them uniform, so some were the right size, while others were fairly large, and there was a lot of really tiny particles. So when we soaked the filter, the water kept turning black from all the small particles leaching out of the filter.
I realize I can buy some online that are the exact size I need (which I plan on doing), but I am also wondering if I can still use the carbon I already bought. I am thinking that if I use it as is (big particles), the filter will just not last as long, and I will have to change it more frequently (because the big particles have less surface area). Does that sound right? Or does anyone know of a way to make the particles smaller, but consistent in size?
Ace Hardware has them. Had to buy some for a broken drain on a camp cooler.
Don't bother asking for help, as I'm sure you've discovered, the staff at HD are lucky if they know how to find their way out of the break room :-( You might get somewhere by taking a picture of the caps with you to show them. But no guarantees.