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What is KDF and What Can it do for My Water?
KDF filter media is a patented, high purity alloy of copper and zinc.
KDF filters contaminants from water using electrochemical oxidation-reduction, also known as redox potential.
KDF uses the redox principle to filter:
- Chlorine
- Chlorinated hydrocarbons
- Hydrogen sulfide
- Copper
- Lead
- Aluminum
How Does KDF-55 Filtration Work?
Atoms with a positive charge are attracted to the negative charge of the zinc, while atoms with a negative charge are attracted to the positive charge of the copper.
The space between the copper and zinc is a electrolytic cell, with the water and its contents acting as the electrolyte.
When water passes through, heavy metals attach to the surface of the granules.
Chlorine and the disinfection by-products it creates are turned into harmless chloride ions and ozone.
Can KDF improve my shower water?
Did you know that most of your exposure to chlorine comes in the shower?
Chlorine is absorbed directly through your your skin's open pores in a warm shower.
In a warm shower, chlorine also evaporates into the air so you inhaled even more through your lungs.
For people with asthma or other breathing conditions, another irritant like chlorine is not helpful.
Chlorine also directly attacks your skin, killing skin cells, just like chlorine kills the bacteria that cause water-bourne diseases.
By the time water has reached your home, chlorine has done it's job by killing any bacteria in the water source or introduced in the water system.
So removing chlorine from the water once it enters your home makes sense.
KDF's redox reactions cause free chlorine to combine with alkaline minerals (like calcium) in your shower water.
This transforms highly reactive chlorine into harmless, water soluble chlorides, which slide right off you and go down the drain.
You can read more about the health and beauty benefits on our shower filter page.
Can KDF-55 be used in drinking water filters?
KDF is fully approved for use in drinking water filters.
KDF is certified to NSF Standard 61 and Standard 42. KDF meets appropriate public health standards for drinking water.
The systems below use KDF among other components to give you safe and delicious water without the installation and maintenance hassles of reverse osmosis.
What about KDF and whole house water filters?
Surprising fact: eliminating chlorine from the water as it enters your home also improves the indoor air quality.
This is because chlorine evaporates quickly at room temperature, so chlorine gas is released into your home every time you run the water, wash clothes, bathe or even flush the toilet.
The Aquasana EQ-300 uses KDF and carbon filtration to deliver better than bottle water quality to every tap, tub and shower in your home.
Which Replacement Cartridges Include KDF?
The following replacement cartridges use KDF along with either activated carbon, chlorgon, or carbon block filtration.
Does KDF Add Copper to the Treated Water?
KDF-55 filtration does add trace amounts of copper and zinc to the water.
These small amounts of copper inhibit growth of viruses, algae, fungi, and bacteria in the water.
These trace amounts are well below the daily required minimum of copper, so there's no way you'll get too much copper in your diet. Assuming you're not going to drink a an entire swimming pool.
How does KDF compare with Reverse Osmosis?
Lab tests prove that well designed systems with KDF-55 filtration match or outperform reverse osmosis in all categories except one.
Reverse osmosis is better at removing alkaline minerals like calcium, potassium and magnesium. But you actually want alkaline minerals in your drinking water!
Alkaline minerals make your water less acidic, so it does not react with the containers you may use to store it.
Alkaline minerals make your water taste great.
Why remove good stuff like alkaline minerals from your water?
