Stages of purification
The number of purification stages provided for in the filter design. At each stage, water passes through its own filter element, clearing itself of certain contaminants; in this case, the steps are arranged in order from coarser cleaning to finer. For example,
a three-stage system may look like this: the first stage is mechanical removal of impurities, the second stage is the removal of ferrous, and the third is filtration through a carbon cartridge.
The more stages of purification — the more advanced the filter is considered, the cleaner water it usually provides at the outlet. Accordingly, this moment largely depends on the purpose (see “Type”): for example, multi-stage filtration is quite rare in main models, it is practically not used at all in pre-filters, but the number of stages can reach 9 in models for sink.
Water mineralization
The presence of a
water mineralizer in the filter design. The mineralizer is usually a container filled with a special slowly dissolving mixture. Thanks to it, filtered water is saturated with various micronutrients: calcium, potassium, fluorine, ferrous (of course, not harmful colloidal ferrous, but another easily digestible form) and others. They have a positive effect on the human body and improve the taste of the water itself compared to completely purified water.
Mineralizers are found mainly in filters equipped with reverse osmosis systems (see above): the fact is that during the operation of such systems, not only harmful impurities are removed from the water, but also the mentioned micronutrients that got there naturally.
Replacement cartridges
Models of replaceable cartridges for which the filter is designed. Knowing the names of models, it will be much easier for you to find a replacement for an exhausted cartridge. In addition, the options directly named by the manufacturer are fully compatible with the filter and correspond to official specifications, while there is no such guarantee for "non-native" cartridges.
Several names in this paragraph are usually indicated for filters with multi-stage filtration (see "Stages of purification") — a cartridge for each stage.
