Discover How Consumer Reports Best Rated HEPA Air Purifiers Can Improve Your Quality of Life

If you are searching for a way to make sure that your home humidifiers are producing only top quality air for your family to breathe you may to check out the consumer reports best rated HEPA air purifiers. This is because not all purifiers are created at the same quality, although the manufacturers would like you to believe so. In fact, sometimes even the most expensive purifiers are not the best choices for you home as they rank low on the consumer reports best rated HEPA air purifiers list.

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This is due to the fact that sometimes expensive air quality monitors are over equipped with fancy features that sound good, but are not overall effective at their main purpose of purifying the air in your home. Of course, on the flip side choosing a cheap purifier is not always the answer either as there are not too many budget devices that make the consumer reports best rated HEPA air purifiers. This can lead consumers to feel a little confused and wondering how they should go about choosing the best purifier for their home.

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Actually, the best way to proceed is quite simple. First, you should of course check the consumer reports best rated HEPA air purifiers. After you get a close look you should head to the store and inspect the packages of air quality monitors and home humidifiers. You will find that the best choices are usually the ones that provide simple explanations of what you want, which is ultimately a clean air environment. Choose a device that keeps it basic but with a professional body make and you will be well on your way to a clean home and air as clean as the outdoor morning.

This is the type of air environment that you want establish in your home on a consistent basis. Many people have been able to successfully get the indoor air quality they desired my simply obtaining the right purifier. It may take a bit of time and a small investment but it will surely be worth it in the end. Just stay committed to improving your air quality and it will happen.

Discover How Consumer Reports Best Rated HEPA Air Purifiers Can Improve Your Quality of Life

Consumer Reports

How Does Reverse Osmosis Membranes Work and What Affects Quality and Production?

Osmosis is the flow from a high concentration of to a low concentration of water. To help understand the flow of water imagine a sealed filled water balloon with a hole in it - what happens to the water inside? It quickly leaves the balloon because of the concentration of H2O inside the balloon is higher than outside which makes the it wants to equalize the concentration of H2O.

Reverse osmosis is quite the opposite. The flow of H2O is from a low concentration to a high concentration. Imagine an empty balloon - if you're filling the balloon with a hose then you are using the water pressure and forcing it against its natural equalization tendencies.

CONSUMER REPORTS WATER SOFTENERS

A reverse osmosis (ro) membrane is simply a thin semi-permeable layer that separates two solutions. A ro membrane is a type of physical separation that is capable of separating molecules down to 1/10,000 micron. Since the size of the pores on the membrane is so small, it requires pressure to force it through. Most molecules are too large to pass through a reverse osmosis membrane but small enough for some salts, sugars and H2O molecules to pass through. Rejection rates of ro membranes average around 96-98% under ideal conditions (250 ppm softened tapwater, 77°F (25°C), 50 psig (3.4 bar), and 15% recovery).

TDS levels, temperature, pressure and recovery rates are all things that affect the product H2O quality of reverse osmosis membrane.

Effect of Pressure

Feed water pressure affects both the product water production and the rejection rates of RO membranes. The increase of feed water pressure directly increases the water production. Rejection rates also increase when pressure is increased but will plateau.

Effect of Temperature

Temperature has a direct linear effect to production rates. As temperature increase, water production increases almost linearly because of the higher diffusion rates of water through the membrane. Rejection rates are actually lowered when temperature rises. This is due to a higher diffusion rate of salt across the membrane.

Effect of Salt Concentration or TDS

TDS inversely affects the pressure required for reverse osmosis which in turn affects the production rates. If feed water was constant and TDS increases then the production rate decreases because of the osmotic pressure difference.

Osmotic pressure is the pressure and potential energy required to force water to move against its natural direction across a semi-permeable membrane. Every 100 ppm (parts per million) in TDS equals 1 psi (pounds per square inch). The higher the TDS, the more pressure required to force through the membrane.

Effect of Recovery Rates

Recovery rate refers to the amount of product water being produced which is controlled by the flow restriction on the waste line. Most reverse osmosis systems are sized with a sized flow restrictor will have a product to waste ratio of 1 to 4 which is a recovery rate of 25% this is made purposefully as a sales point to produce more product water but lower the rejection rate. For example, the proper size for a 50 GPD membrane is a 15% recovery rate or a 1 to 6.7 ratio. Lowering the recovery rates will increase the rejection rate and improve the quality of water. Raising the recovery rates will cause the quality of the product water to decrease and will affect the required driving pressure needed for reverse osmosis to take effect.

How Does Reverse Osmosis Membranes Work and What Affects Quality and Production?

CONSUMER REPORTS WATER SOFTENERS

Use A Water Softener And Improve Your Water Quality!

The most common water problem can clog of your pipes, cause malfunctions of your washing machine. It also makes you use larger portions of washing powder and soap.

What we're talking about here is hard water.

CONSUMER REPORTS WATER SOFTENERS

So what is hard water to begin with? Hard water is caused by dissolved mineral traces of primarily calcium and magnesium in the water.

The level of hardness can vary greatly from location to location. If for example you live in an area where the groundwater is taken from wells where the water have been moving through deposits of limestone you will have very high levels of hardness in your water. If your water on the other hand comes from lakes with low ph levels then you will have a low hardness level in your water and you will have little water problems.

It is relative easy to measure the water hardness with a test sample. It is important to do this as the buildup of clogged piped can happen even if you are not aware of it.

Water softener equipments are an often used solution to lower hardness of the water as it will limit or completely eliminate any damage.

The most common form of water softener for home users is based on ion exchange.

It works on the following principle. The calcium and magnesium ions are replaced by sodium ions. This ion exchange is made in a resin bed.

The construction of the water softener is made in three parts. Resin Tank - This contains the resin bed.

Resin Bed - This is made up of tiny bead-like material often made of styrene and divinylbenzene. The beads attract and hold positively charged ions such as sodium, but will exchange them whenever the bead encounters another positively-charged ion such as calcium or magnesium.

Brine Tank - This tank contains a dissolved solution which is necessary in order to regenerate the resin. This regeneration is for the reversing of the ion exchange, which otherwise would become depleted. The calcium and magnesium ions are removed off from the resin beads and replaced with positively charged sodium ions. The regeneration happens when the resin beads are washed by a strong salt water solution. The calcium and magnesium ions are forced by the salt to be released, and are then discharged as waste in the backwashing cycle. The beads are now once again ready to be used to lower the hardness of your water.

Modern water softeners are fully automated. Some of them are regenerated at a preset clock. Other systems use electric sensors and are regenerated when the beads are becoming less effective.

Because the calcium and magnesium are replaced by sodium some consumers are concerned by the additional intake of salt in the drinking water. However this additional salt intake from drinking the tapped water is so small that the adverse affect is minimal compared from salt intake gained from ordinary diet.

Copyright 2006 Per Strandberg

Use A Water Softener And Improve Your Water Quality!

CONSUMER REPORTS WATER SOFTENERS

Car Quality - Consumer Reports' Reliability Versus JD Power's Dependability

This article examines the contrast between Consumer Reports' reliability ranking and J. D. Power and Associates' "dependability" ranking of car brands. To make the comparison, the Hummer, Jaguar, and Land Rover brands are eliminated from the J. D. Power ranking, as they do not appear in the Consumer Reports ranking.

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The contrast between Consumer Reports' 2010 reliability ranking of auto brands, based on serious problems reported in 2009 for model years 2007 through 2009, and J. D. Power and Associates' 2010 "dependability" ranking of auto brands, based on complaints reported for 3-year-old automobiles, is quite stark. A couple of examples demonstrate the point.

Consumer Reports

By infrequency of serious problems reported by Consumer Reports' subscribers, the Scion line is the most reliable brand available on the North American market. However, by infrequency of complaints, the Scion brand is ranked 28, or 5 from the bottom, by J. D. Power.

And by infrequency of complaints, Buick is ranked number 3 by J. D. Power, but by infrequency of serious problems, the Buick line is ranked 19, or 15 from the bottom, by Consumer Reports.

Below is a list of the 33 lines appearing in both studies and the absolute value of the difference in their ranks.

Scion: |1 - 28| = 27
Honda: |2 - 7| = 5
Toyota: |3 - 6| = 3
Infiniti: |4 - 13| = 9
Acura: |5 - 10| = 5
Mitsubishi: |6 - 29| = 23
Lexus: |7 - 4| = 3
Hyundai: |8 - 11| = 3
Porsche: |9 - 1| = 8
Mercury: |10 - 5| = 5
Saab: |11 - 15| = 4
Subaru: |12 - 14| = 2
Suzuki: |13 - 33| = 20
Kia: |14 - 20| = 6
Mazda: |15 - 27| = 12
Ford: |16 - 8| = 8
Nissan: |17 - 23| = 6
Volvo: |18 - 21| = 3
Buick: |19 - 3| = 16
Lincoln: |20 - 2| = 18
Volkswagen: |21 - 32| = 11
Pontiac: |22 - 26| = 4
Mercedes-Benz: |23 - 9| = 14
Audi: |24 - 24| = 0
Chevrolet: |25 - 22| = 3
BMW: |26 - 17| = 9
Mini: |27 - 30| = 3
GMC: |28 - 18| = 10
Saturn: |29 - 16| = 13
Jeep: |30 - 31| = 1
Dodge: |31 - 25| = 6
Cadillac: |32 - 12| = 20
Chrysler: |33 - 19| = 14

Twelve (more than one-third) of the above differences are in the double digits.

The very sizable differences in the rankings of many brands likely arise from what the two studies measure - serious problems versus complaints. The complaints may be secondary, tertiary, or even trivial in nature, such as color, size, shape, location, or ease of use of visors, knobs, buttons, levers, or latches, although how J. D. Power screens complaints, if at all, is not set forth in its press releases.

This is not to say that the color, size, shape, location, or ease of use of visors, knobs, buttons, levers, or latches is insignificant; however, most consumers would likely not consider such to be of equal importance to an infrequency of serious problems and would not term such a measure of dependability.

Another difference between the two studies that might account for some part of the difference in car brand ranking is that Consumer Reports' brand ranking is based on automobile performance for the first 3 years while J. D. Power's brand ranking is based on automobile satisfaction in the 3rd year. However, the age difference is likely not the reason for any sizable difference between the rankings, as CR's 0-to-3-year ranking has only modest differences with the brand ranking given by the 2010 Auto Reliability GPA for 2-to-6-year-old vehicles from model years 2004 to 2007, as the absolute values of the differences in rank between the two shown below indicate.

Scion: |1 - 2| = 1
Honda: |2 - 1| = 1
Toyota: |3 - 3| = 0
Infiniti: |4 - 6| = 2
Acura: |5 - 4| = 1
Mitsubishi: |6 - 8| = 2
Lexus: |7 - 5| = 2
Hyundai: |8 - 13| = 5
Porsche: |9 - 9| = 0
Mercury: |10 - 10| = 0
Saab: |11 - 26| = 17
Subaru: |12 - 7| = 5
Suzuki: |13 - 19| = 6
Kia: |14 - 20| = 6
Mazda: |15 - 11| = 4
Ford: |16 - 18| = 2
Nissan: |17 - 16| = 1
Volvo: |18 - 15| = 3
Buick: |19 - 12| = 7
Lincoln: |20 - 14| = 6
Volkswagen: |21 - 22| = 1
Pontiac: |22 - 24| = 2
Mercedes-Benz: |23 - 21| = 2
Audi: |24 - 30| = 6
Chevrolet: |25 - 28| = 3
BMW: |26 - 17| = 9
Mini: |27 - 33| = 6
GMC: |28 - 29| = 1
Saturn: |29 - 25| = 4
Jeep: |30 - 31| = 1
Dodge: |31 - 32| = 1
Cadillac: |32 - 23| = 9
Chrysler: |33 - 27| = 6

All of these differences are in the single digits, save for Saab's sizable 17, a difference that suggests that the Saab line may offer too little data for a stable reliability rating or ranking.

One useful way for the consumer to utilize both the Consumer Reports survey and the J. D. Power survey is to identify those brands that appear in the Top Ten of both rankings. The Top Ten brands that are common to the two studies offer both a low frequency of serious problems and a low frequency of complaints.

Within the Top Ten of both lists are the brands:

Honda
Toyota
Honda Motor Company's Acura
Toyota Motor Corporation's Lexus
Porsche
Ford Motor Company's Mercury, soon to be retired.

These five marques appear as well in the Top Ten by the 2010 Auto Reliability GPA for the vehicular age range 2-to-6 years.

Car Quality - Consumer Reports' Reliability Versus JD Power's Dependability

Consumer Reports