What is KDF and What Can it do for My Water?
KDF-55 filter media is a patented, high purity alloy of copper and zinc. It eliminates contaminants from water using electrochemical oxidation-reduction, also known as redox potential.
KDF-55 uses the redox principle to effectively remove chlorine, chlorinated hydrocarbons, hydrogen sulfide, iron, copper, lead, arsenic, aluminum, mercury and cadmium from your water.
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 contaminants pass 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 skin, but is also inhaled as vapors because chlorine quickly turns to a gas at typical shower temperatures.
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 at the point of use, like in your shower, makes sense.
KDF's redox reactions cause free chlorine to combine with alkaline minerals like calcium in your shower water. This transforms the 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 and is certified by the NSF Standard 61 and Standard 42 - your assurance they meet appropriate public health standards.
The systems below filter chlorine, lead, arsenic, THMs, VOCs and more for safe and great tasting water. All this without the installation and maintenance hassles of reverse osmosis.
What about KDF and whole house water filters?
Surprising fact: eliminating chlorine and other volatical organic chemicals 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.
Which Replacement Cartridges Include KDF?
If you already have an under sink water filter that uses standard size (9-3/4") cartridges, you can update your existing system to use KDF-55 filtration.
Does KDF Add Copper to the Treated Water?
KDF-55 filtration does add trace amounts of copper to the water. These small amounts of copper prevent viruses, algae, fungi, and bacteria from growing in the water.
These trace amounts are well below the daily required minimum of copper, so there is no concern of getting too much copper in your diet...unless you drink something like and entire swimming pool.
Lab tests prove that well designed systems with KDF-55 filtration match or outperform reverse osmosis in all categories except for removal of calcium and magnesium ions. But you actually want reasonable amounts of calcium and magnesium in your drinking water!
