Good water is one of those things that you always take for granted. I had never even thought to question that the water quality in my town was good. It tasted fine, and none of the kids in the neighborhood seemed sick.

We live in a fairly affluent suburb, and although it had recently been farm land, I never even thought about the possibilities of contamination from farm run-off. It just seemed too safe and sheltered.

Things appeared to be too good here for environmental hazards like that - that is until I heard the bad news. Apparently, there was a great deal of groundwater contamination in the area from a variety of fertilizers, pesticides, and other pollutants. I wanted to protect myself and my family so I bought a drinking water filter.

I thought that drinking water filters would be complicated and difficult to set up. I thought that the way they operated must inevitably mean that they would need a science degree to understand. I was expecting this device to be about the size of a refrigerator I guess. When I saw its diminutive size I’ll admit to being blown away.

I thought I was being scammed, in fact. I couldn’t believe that something that small could do that much to safeguard myself and my family. Drinking water filters might be high tech, but could they be that high tech? Could those tiny little boxes filter out particulate matter reliably enough to protect us from the accumulation of some pretty deadly additives?

Well, the reality is that the drinking water filters on the market today are better than I at first thought. After doing some research on this matter I discovered that as long as the proper maintenance is carried out, most drinking water filters are at least 80% effective or more.

I must admit that even given these facts, using just one drinking water filter just didn’t seem to cut it for me. I instinctively knew that nothing was going to be 100% effective. But I still wanted better than 80%. I put together a double drinking water filter system that I figured could remove 80% of the remaining nasty chemicals thereby giving me 96% protection.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t think that’s a bad outcome. I understand that provided I make sure that the drinking water filters are maintained and changed regularly then my family are going to be protected from dangerous levels of chemical pollutants in their drinking water. Knowing this is certainly helping to give me less sleepless nights.