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What does NSF certification mean in a water filter?

While the process of choosing the type of water filter can be overwhelming itself, you may also find yourself confused about whether you should invest in only a certified water filter or if it is okay to buy a non-certified water filter for your home or office. In this blog, we will help you understand what it means to buy NSF-certified water filtration systems, what different certifications you might see on them, and what these certifications indicate. So, let’s get started.

NSF Certification National Sanitation Foundation International (NSF) plays an important role in helping you decide how sure you can be in your choice. How? NSF/ANSI Standards The NSF is an independent organization that certifies a variety of products including water filters. It follows the standards set by the American National Standard Institute (ANSI). Its professionals and public health experts test the product to check if it exactly does what it claims to do.

Thus, an NSF-certified water filtration system means that it has undergone rigorous testing to ensure if the water coming out of the filter is free from contaminants that it promises to remove.

However, it does not mean all non-certified water filters don’t do what they claim. The only drawback with non-certified water filters is that you never know whether they are true to their claim or not. But, with an NSF-certified water filtration system, you can be certain that the system is doing what it claims to do.

When it comes to water filtration systems, there are several standards you may find on the labels of water filtration systems.

NSF/ANSI 42 (Evaluate Aesthetic Effects) This certification means that a water treatment system meets the minimum requirements that are designed to improve non-health-related aspects of water quality. Thus, when you are looking at a water filter with this certification, it indicates how well it filters the water that impacts its taste, odor, and appearance of water. It might also include the removal of chlorine, total dissolved salts, iron, and many other minerals that can affect water quality but are not health concerns.

NSF/ANSI 44 (Designed for Water Softeners) This certification evaluates the performance of water softeners. It means that the product has been tested for its minimum requirements for different factors including hardness reduction, softening capacity, material safety, and structural integrity. Besides, it also checks drops in water pressure and the accuracy of the brine system.

NSF/ANSI 53 (Evaluate Health Effects) This standard is meant for evaluating requirements of water filtration systems designed to reduce more than 50 contaminants that can cause specific health-related concerns. Examples of such contaminants include volatile organic compounds, Cryptosporidium bacteria, lead, and other heavy metals.

NSF/ANSI 58 (Designed for Reverse Osmosis) This certification is designed to test the effectiveness of a reverse osmosis system to ensure that it removes and reduces everything that it claims. Apart from checking contaminants, it also evaluates the efficiency, the system’s recovery rating, and safety and integrity of materials.

NSF/ANSI 401: (Verifies Emerging Compounds/Incidental Contaminants) Emerging contaminants include 15 certain pollutants that can cause health concerns. The problem, in this case, is that there may not be enough evidence to confirm these concerns. As per the NSF, around 82% of people are worried about negative effects caused by trace amounts of those specific pollutants in their water. Some water filters claim to remove these chemicals.

NSF/ANSI 401 standard verifies that the compounds are effectively reduced or eliminated by the water filtration system in question.

Thus, if you are buying an NSF-certified water filtration system, you can have peace of mind that it does what it is claiming. source: https://www.uvwatersystems.co.nz/nsf-certifiedsystems.html