How do Nazava Water Filters Work

The Nazava® ceramic water filters purify your water in three steps

  1. Dirt and bacteria are filtered out by the ceramic.
  2. Bacteria and other micro-organisms are killed by silver
  3. Activated carbon in the filter improves taste and makes your water taste fresh!

Tiny pores in the ceramic membrane block bacteria and most dirt particles. Only water can pass! Any bacteria that get stuck on the ceramic or in the pores are killed by nano-silver particles. The silver binds to the enzymes of micro-organisms which leaves them unable to grow and eventually dead.  Within the ceramic membrane there is granular activated carbon of the highest quality. This carbon improves the taste of your water by absorbing chemicals.

Nazava’s ceramic filter is used in all drinking water systems by Nazava. Ceramic filtration is a highly proven technology. Doulton invented the first ceramic water filters in 1827. Nazava has further improved the filtration technology with help of Santa Clara University, Delft University and Resilience BV. Nazava’s ceramic filter has better bacteria removal, faster flow speed for a lower price when compared to the original by Doulton.

You can use our drinking water filters to filter tap, well and rain water so it becomes safe to drink. Because the filter systems are gravity powered they do not use electricity or other fuels.

The ceramic water filter can filter up to 7000 liters of water. This equals 350 of the 19L water-cooler bottles. That is a lot right? This means that you will not have to purchase water for 2-3 years depending on your water quality [what can be filtered]. Nazava filters come with a simple tool to check whether the filter candle needs to be replaced [see the manual].  ).

How the ceramic water filters remove and kill bacteria

99.99% are blocked out and killed by the ceramic filtration technology owned by Nazava. How?  First, because of size-exclusion. Because the size of the pores is only 0.4 micrometer (very small) the bacteria cannot pass through them and are thus filtered out.

How does size exclusion work?

Bacteria and other small particles can be trapped in two ways. First, if the particle is larger than 0.4 micrometer the particle or bacterium can simply not pass.

Smaller than 0.4µm particles are too small to be blocked by the pore size however when two smaller particles arrive at a pore at the same time they get stuck and form a bridge across the pore by sticking to each other. Bridged particles do not always plug the pore but create an even smaller pore. This is what happens when the flow rate of the filter reduces over time between cleaning. This means a bit less water but also cleaner water!

How does silver kill microorganisms?

The Nazava ceramic water filter is impregnated with nano silver particles. Silver nano particles act primarily in three ways against bacteria:

(1) nano particles in the range of 1–10 nm stick to the cell membrane and drastically disturb its function, like permeability and respiration, this implies the bacteria cannot “eat” and “breath” anymore.  (Morones et al 2005)

(2) Silver nano particles get into the bacteria cell  and cause further damage by binding with sulfur- and phosphorus-containing compounds such as DNA (the molecules that store genetic information) (Morones et al 2005) ;

(3) nano particles release silver ions which also bind to DNA make it impossible for the bacteria to replicate itself (from Feng et al  )

The effectivity has been verified in many countries in many laboratories that you can read here.

Problems with your well water? Here are the solutions!

Turbidity – my water is cloudy

Turbidity is caused by suspended solids, such as sand, silt and clay, floating in water. Light reflects off these particles, which makes the water look cloudy or dirty. Turbidity is measured in nephelometric turbidity units (NTU) or Formazin turbidity units (FTU).

Turbidity will not make you sick; however, higher turbidity levels are often associated with higher levels of microorganisms (i.e., bacteria, viruses, protozoa) because they attach themselves to the particles in the water. Therefore, we must be cautious of turbid water as it usually has more pathogens, so drinking it increases our chances of becoming sick.

Nazava drinking water filters will make your cloudy water clear and ready to drink! That’s great isn’t it! If you need clean water for your entire house you can try one of our silica sand filters or, if that’s too heavy on your wallet, you can try our anti-mud filter.

My water is dirty and stinks

Taste and odour are perhaps the most important characteristics of drinking water from the point of view of the user. It is next to impossible to convince people that water is safe to drink if it tastes or smells bad. Safe water that does not taste, look or smell good could lead people to reject the water and use other sources that are less safe. Taste and odour are measured with our senses.

The solution for drinking water is the Nazava Riam it, will remove bad odour and make your water clean, and ready to drink. If you need a solution for your entire house you can use a green manganese sand filter. This will remove iron and sulfur smell. If your water is not clear you need to install a sand filter before the manganese sand filter.  If the upfront cost are too high you can go with a anti-mud filter in combination with spun bound filters and an activated carbon cartdridge.

I suspect my water contains many bacteria.

If you use ground water, surface water or rain water, changes are high that your water is contaminated by bacteria. Read more about microbiological contamination here. (coming soon). Bacteria in water make you ill so you need to get them out.

For drinking water, our best-selling product, the Riam is very well equipped to remove bacteria from your water. It can filter our up to 100, 000 bacteria from a glass of drinking water (what is filtered out by bacteria and what not).  Only pure sewage is that dirty. So after filtration your water will be free of bacteria so you do not have to worry.

If you need a solution for your entire house we can couple a lot of our ceramic filters together (link) .  Best to combine with some prefilters like XX and xx. Another very good solution are UV lights. We sell high quality UV with Philips lights. Check them out here!

Hard water – calcium in my water

Calcium and magnesium, that form hardness, are present in many sedimentary rocks, the most common being limestone and chalk. They are also common essential mineral constituents of food.

Calcium – Potential Health Effects

Calcium content is perceived as the main problem in some areas in Indonesia because this is popularly believed to be linked with kidney stones. Hard water causes boiler scale and makes soap harder to dilute. Calcium precipitation from hard water also causes pipes to clog and it can ruin the heating elements of washing machines. However, according to a review of literature by the WHO, dietary calcium reduces the incidence of kidney stones. Scientists do not believe that eating any specific food causes stones to form in people who are not susceptible. People who do not drink enough fluids may be at higher risk, as their urine is more concentrated.

Although high intakes of calcium in food and drinks is not associated with health risks, too small intakes of calcium have been associated with increased risks of osteoporosis, nephrolithiasis (kidney stones), colorectal cancer, hypertension and stroke, coronary artery disease, insulin resistance and obesity.

Daily Intake

The average daily intake of calcium of elementary school children in Bandung was found to be only 228 mg/l whereas the advisory intake is 800 -1300 mg per day. All kids were deficient in Calcium.  Calcium from water is reported to be absorbed very effectively by the body and is as effective as calcium from dairy in bone formation and reducing osteoporosis. Because of the importance of Calcium and the widespread problem if calcium deficiency, calcium rich water sources could be considered an asset rather than a nuisance.       

In case you want to reduce the hardness of your water to increase the life of your laundry machine or your dishwasher, you can use our zeolite filter.

Water that contains iron

Iron can be naturally found in groundwater and some surface water (such as creeks, rivers and some shallow dug wells). There are some areas of the world that have naturally high amounts of iron in their groundwater. Iron can also be found in drinking water that is passed through rusty steel or cast iron pipes.

Iron can come in two forms in water: dissolved and suspended. If groundwater comes from a deep tube well, the iron may be dissolved and not visible. However, once the iron is exposed to air, it usually turns the water a black or orange colour. If surface water has iron in it, it will be a red-orange colour from the iron that is suspended in the water.

Iron is a nuisance ± high levels can cause an objectionable colour and taste and can stain cooked food, water pipes, and laundry. Some types of bacteria use dissolved iron as an energy source and leave slimy red deposits that can clog water pipes.

Iron – Potential Health Effects

Drinking water with high concentrations of iron will not make people sick. Iron however, can change the colour and smell of water and it may cause people to not use it and choose another, possibly contaminated, water source instead.

The World Health Organization (WHO) does not have a suggested guideline for iron in drinking water since it does not have any adverse health effects (WHO, 2011).

Iron levels above 0.1 mg/L can stain water pipes and clothes during washing.

Iron Household Water Treatment Options

The Nazava water filter, which is designed primarily for pathogen removal, can also be used to remove up to 80 % of iron from drinking water. If your water contains high levels of iron,  some of the iron will settle in in the plastic of your Nazava filter. This is normal and save. You can remove the iron (or rust in fact) using detergent or (more effectively) vinegar.  High levels of iron may cause the ceramic filters to clog more quickly. When iron content is high is recommended to sediment the water beforehand.  If you want to remove iron in your entire house, you can install a green manganese filter.  If your iron levels are below 2 an 8 inch system is enough if it is more then 2 go with the 10 inch systems. Unclear water needs to be pre-treated with a sand filter before it enters the green manganese system.