There are white floating objects in the water from the water purifier

Because purified water is relatively expensive, many families will connect a water pipe for direct drinking water in the kitchen. Some people are always worried that the direct drinking water may not meet the drinking standards, so they will install a water purifier in the kitchen. The water purifier purifies water through a physical method, so the side effects of using a water purifier on the human body are relatively small. So what are the white floating objects in the water of the water purifier?

The kitchen water purifier is an ultrafiltration water purification product. Its filtration process is composed of PE, granular activated carbon, ultrafiltration membrane, etc. The whole treatment process is a pure physical filtration and adsorption method. It will not precipitate any substance into the water, and will not add calcium and magnesium ions. The water output under the detection environment meets or exceeds the national drinking water standards and can be used with confidence. But why do white floating objects appear after the water from the ultrafiltration machine is boiled in some areas?

Water already contains a large amount of mineral substances such as calcium and magnesium, as well as many large particle impurities such as bacteria, colloids, and microorganisms that are invisible to the naked eye. These calcium and magnesium ions are like water vapor in the air, and the solid impurities are like "condensation nuclei". As the water temperature gets higher and higher, the surface area of ​​a single solid impurity will continue to expand due to thermal expansion and contraction, and it can absorb more and more impurities. As time goes by, a thick layer of scale forms at the bottom of the kettle.

Ultrafiltration water purifier is a water purification device that uses ultrafiltration membrane as the core filtering element. The average pore size of the ultrafiltration membrane used is about 0.01 microns, which can remove almost all solid impurities such as bacteria, colloids, microorganisms, etc. larger than 0.01 microns.

This causes the hardness ions such as calcium and magnesium in the water to lose their "condensation nuclei", but as the water temperature continues to rise, the impurities smaller than 0.01 microns that were not filtered out by the ultrafiltration machine expand and contract due to heat and expand their surface area, and then act as "condensation nuclei". Since there are very few impurities with a diameter less than 0.01 microns, hardness ions such as calcium and magnesium cannot be fully adsorbed, and thus remain suspended in the water in the form of "loose scale" instead of forming a whole piece of scale attached to or scattered on the bottom of the kettle.

When the old filter element's ability to adsorb residual chlorine decreases, the residual chlorine in the water reacts chemically with the water to form hydrochloric acid, which has a strong anti-scaling effect. After the filter element is replaced, the activated carbon's adsorption effect on residual chlorine is enhanced, which prevents the formation of a small amount of hydrochloric acid in the water, and loses its inhibitory effect on scale, resulting in the appearance of white floating objects after the filter element is replaced.

These white floating objects are crystals of calcium and magnesium ions. Their main sources are water-soluble calcium carbonate, magnesium carbonate or a small amount of calcium sulfate. Generally, they do not affect human health.