You are probably drinking and bathing in contaminated water. Why? Because most raw water supplies are contaminated with micro-organisms, and in order to kill these bugs, city water suppliers must add poisons like chlorine to the water. Unfortunately, the same chemicals that kill bacteria can sicken you or cause other problems, like dry skin. A home water purifier may be the answer to this problem.

There are three primary types of water purification systems: the reverse osmosis water filter, the activated carbon or ceramic water filter, and the ultraviolet purifier. Each of these acts in a very different way, and any one may be adequate to clean your water, depending on your local impurities. They are often used together as well to make an extremely good complex water purifier that addresses every water purification problem.

The most basic water purifier is the activated charcoal water filter or ceramic water filter. In each of these filters, water is forced through a granulated chemical (activated carbon or diatomaceous earth, depending on the type of filter). The chemical in the filter grabs onto impurities in the water, allowing purified water to pass through. The result: much cleaner and better tasting water. You can get shower filters that do much the same thing, but with metallic filters instead that work well in hot water conditions. All these water purification systems are the least expensive water purifiers and are adequate in most cases.

An ultraviolet light purifier is also simple, but much more technologically advanced. This water purifier is not a filter at all, but a device that shines powerful UV rays down through your water, killing any microorganisms that may be there. While it won't get rid of sediments and chemicals, an ultraviolet water purifier is among the best and most reliable removers of biological contaminants you can buy.

The most advanced home water purifier is the reverse osmosis system. These complex devices use passive osmotic filtration, allowing pure water to pass through while holding almost all chemicals and impurities on the other side to be flushed out later. Almost any chemical or biological contaminant is removed by these water purifier systems, including minerals that are good for humans like fluoride and calcium. The water resulting is of equal or superior quality to most bottled water at your grocery store.

The most complicated water purifiers use several different filters for their various advantages: an ultraviolet purifier to kill bacteria, an activated carbon filter to get rid of large sediments and many impurities, and a reverse osmosis filter to remove almost every other contaminant and store the clean water in a collection tank. You wind up with water superior to any bottled water you could purchase, all for five or ten cents a gallon.