Does black carbon silt coming from the filter in my ZeroWater pitcher co

November 22, 2013 3:25 PM

Does black carbon silt coming from the filter in my ZeroWater pitcher contain any of the stuff it filtered out?

I have a ZeroWater pitcher. Sometimes (it seems to be after about a month into a filter's use), I notice black specks in my water. They seem to be either dissolved or like a sediment, because I can't see them when I pour a full glass. It is only when I have drunk most of the glass that I notice the water left over has what looks like black silt suspended in it. The TDS meter will read 001 when the glass is full.

Apparently this is carbon from the filter. But what I'm wondering is, if this carbon has been used to filter stuff out, does this carbon carry with it the filtered material?

I had this picture in my mind of a carbon filter working by bonding carbon atoms to w/e is being filtered out. How does it actually work?

posted by vash to Science & Nature (1 answer total)

Best answer: Whatever is filtered out sticks to the carbon, as though the carbon is a magnet. Just like a magnet though, pieces of the carbon filter can break off the main body. If those particular atoms of carbon had filtered something out, then yes, whatever was filtered is probably still stuck to the carbon.

To be more clear though, what is filtered out by the carbon finds the carbon more attractive than it does the water, which is why it sticks to the carbon, rather than staying in the water.
posted by Tandem Affinity at 5:55 PM on November 22, 2013