With no chemical additives, KDF media water treatment is a safe way to remove unwanted impurities such as heavy metals (lead, copper, mercury etc.), microorganisms or chlorine from your mains water and make it healthy to drink.
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KDF media reduces harmful contaminants from your drinking water
At Aqua Works, KDF (kinetic degradation fluxion) is an essential media we use nearly every day. It was developed in the USA in 1989 by Don Heskett. Heskett is considered a water pioneer and visionary who discovered the essential properties of KDF. This media is a high-purity copper-zinc mixture in granular form to reduce heavy metals, microorganisms or chlorine from your water. It is a patented water treatment for domestic and commercial/industrial applications.
KDF media – an electro-chemical reaction to minimise toxic impurities from your water
The interaction of copper and zinc produces a so-called redox reaction (oxidation reduction process). This is an electro-chemical reaction in which contaminants such as chlorine, heavy metals such as lead, mercury or copper, but also odours such as hydrogen sulphide in your drinking water are reduced.
In this chemical process, new elements are created when electrons are transferred between the molecules. This means that harmful impurities are transformed into harmless components. The unique redox process is certified by NSF International (NSF 61).
KDF media reduces heavy metals by over 90%
Why do we use KDF media at Aqua Works? The main reason KDF-Media is used every day in our water treatment applications is heavy metals. It reduces more heavy metals in a simple format than any other type of cartridge water filter. If you look at test results from around the world and some conducted in New Zealand, it clearly shows that KDF and GAC together can reduce a whole range of heavy metals by over 90%.
Heavy metals are a significant problem in New Zealand, in our homes and workplaces. We predominantly use KDF in the mains water supply, where heavy metals are a major issue. Watercare in Auckland regularly advises all home users to flush their taps every morning before drinking the water. The reason is the risk of consuming heavy metals above the NZ Drinking Water standards’ maximum levels.
KDF media helps to reduce alarming levels of lead in NZ drinking water
The reason this occurs is that water is sitting in metal pipes and fittings such as copper, brass, and plumbing flux and solder in everyday plumbing pipelines in your home. Studies have shown that water that comes into contact with these heavy metals over a long time, such as overnight, leaches them into your drinking water. This is why flushing the taps in the morning removes the water contaminated with heavy metals before using it for drinking or making a cup of tea.
Recent studies by Master Plumbers show alarming lead levels in our water from poorly designed and manufactured fixtures. Lead is a neurotoxin like mercury. These substances achieve a damaging effect on nerve cells or nerve tissue even at a low dose. KDF/GAC 30/1 filters have effectively shown to reduce lead and mercury by over 95%.
With no chemical additives, KDF media is safe for the whole house or under bench filtration. For the same reasons, we often use this in commercial applications where chemical additives can be an issue. Unlike silver-coated filters (which can be toxic), KDF media is a harmless alternative.
KDF media for the whole house, under bench single-use filter taps or inline
Aqua Works has been using KDF/GAC in whole house applications, in kitchen single-use filter taps or inline on your mixer tap for over 20 years. Manufactured in the USA, KDF media has proven itself over this time as a leading filter cartridge for New Zealand water conditions.
Kitchen filters are trendy. The modern version uses the existing kitchen mixer tap and filters all the water that runs through the cold side of the faucet. The advantages are less clutter on the countertop since you don’t have an additional faucet (just the existing one) and higher flow rates on the inline side. We use a particular cartridge for this that is NSF certified and meets our high standards.
Whole-house filtration on mains water is also becoming more popular. At Aqua Works, we have been getting great results using KDF and GAC as a POE (point of entry). Our customers have noticed less itchy skin conditions, easier hair management and great tasting water from every tap in the house. We use custom-made filters to our specifications with USA-made KDF and GAC media. As a note, we often combine this with other technology to reduce silica scale and calcium build-up that is usually found in our main water supplies, especially in the Warkworth and Orewa areas.
What types of KDF do we use at Aqua Works?
Our service team uses KDF 55 and KDF 85 in our water treatment and filtration systems. KDF 55 is predominantly used in our domestic systems for chlorine and heavy metal reduction. KDF 85 is used more for commercial applications, especially for iron problems or problems with smelly water such as hydrogen sulphide.
We usually use the KDF media as part of a three-stage system.
1 – Mechanical filtration, where the particles are more significant than the pore size of the filter, so it removes suspended solids and large particles. Sometimes the service technician put a pre-filter in front of the water that is suspected to be dirty and run this down to 1 micron.
2 – Redox is an electro-chemical oxidation process that pulls out heavy metals and chlorine. The KDF has two dissimilar metals which are highly effective in reducing metals, such as lead, iron, cadmium, mercury and aluminium.
3 – GAC (granular activated carbon) adsorption effectively reduces organic contaminants such as sprays, herbicides and pesticides, and by-products of the water treatment process trihalomethanes THM’s or haleocetic acids. The GAC means that the carbon has a massive surface area in the filter and, in combination with the KDF oxidising the chlorine, leaves the GAC to do its job and absorb the nasty chemicals that could potentially cause harm.
Call us on 0800 278 288 and make an appointment on site so we can give you free advice on which choice is best for your home and water.
For more details and information, please visit the following websites
Kdff Media http://www.kdfft.com/index.html
Master Plumbers (2018). Unsafe levels of lead in tapware products readily available in New Zealand. Retrieved from https://www.masterplumbers.org.nz/about/news/unsafe-levels-of-lead-in-tapware-products-readily-available-in-new-zealand-2/
Majdi, H. S., Jaafar, S., Abed, A. M. (2019). Using KDF material to improve the performance of multi-layers filters in the reduction of chemical and biological pollutants in surface water treatment. South African Journal of Chemical Engineering, Volume 28, April 2019, Pages 39-45. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1026918518301033
Pure Water Freedom. Water test for KDF/GAC. Retrieved from
https://purewaterfreedom.com/kdf-gac-test
https://purewaterfreedom.com/australian-kdf-gac-test