I have a PUR ulatimate water filter that fits on to my tap fosit. In the directions on how to use it, they say never use hot water through the filter. I use the filter to cook and the time it takes for me to boil water would be cut in half if I could send hot water through that baby!
So, is my filter going to give me dirty water if I use hot water? Is it going to void my warrenty? Is the filter going to grone and then explode into little tiny charkoll bits. What’s the deal?
I found the filter you had mentioned, but there was no information on how its exact filtration process works. If it uses activated carbon, like most other water filters on the market, then here’s the tidbits I know on the subject. Activated carbon works by adsorption of various molecules in the water. High temperatures will lower the efficiency of adsorption, and even reverse it to cause desorption, where all the materials adsorbed earlier will be spewed out again. This, by the way, is how used activated carbon can be recycled. I don’t know at what temperature the desorption process will begin to kick in, but the box for the Brita filter I have states an upper limit of 80 degrees Celsius for best filtration results.
Given the above information, I think you can run hot water through your filter to your heart’s content. Tap water can hardly reach 80 degrees Celcius (that’s enough to cause third degree burns I believe), and your filter certainly will not explode. I’m not sure about your warranty though…
The one thing I can tell you for sure is this: If the manufacturer tells you not to do something, then you go off to do it, you’ve just voided your warranty.
As for the type of malfunction, I don’t know. I doubt that the unit will fail spectacularly (that is, no explosions). But if you’re being specifically told not to use hot water, I suspect it will eventually cause the filter to fail. You might see some charcoal particulates, or maybe even some smell water caused by algea growth.
Hot tap water also tends to have more dissolved contaminants in it, so the filter will get clogged up faster. Also, if the filter removes 95% of the lead (or whatever) in the water, and you start with a higher level of lead, your end result will be correspondingly dirtier.
I went out and bought a replacment filter this morning and right on the box it says i can use it up to 100 degrees fahrenheit. so that ansers that, but i’m now curious of if i can recycle my old one now. any ideas? i haven’t checked what kind of water heater i have, but i’m sure that it doesn’t get up to 80 celsius?
You can set the temperature on your water heater. There’s a doohickey on the side, towards the bottom.
Re: not using hot water in the filter, my guess, based on previous experience with hot water and plastic, is that yeah, there’s probably a plastic thingamajig in it somewhere that, if you have your water heater set on really hot water, will melt or warp the thingamajig, rendering the filter useless. Since the manufacturer doesn’t know how hot your water comes out of your faucet, they just tell everybody, “Don’t use hot water,” then they’re covered if you DO and it screws it up.