If you want to improve the taste of your water – and in some cases remove lead and copper – and you do not consume vast quantities, then water delivery is a relatively inexpensive option, in most cases less than $30.

You must take care of the three following pointers to stay away from unwanted worries:

* Be wary of “free” home water tests. The people trying to sell you purifying units should not be the ones determining whether your water needs them. Put another way, most “free” tests are part of a sales gimmick designed to prove” that your water requires treatment. If you want to check the quality of your water, ask your local water utility to send you the latest computer printout of test results assessing the public water supply. Either someone who works there or state or local health officials can help you make sense of the numbers on the sheet. If you are still concerned about possible contaminants after you read the printout or if you obtain your water from a private well, you may want to have your water tested by a private laboratory. In that case, make sure to deal with the lab yourself, some fraudulent sellers offer to send water samples to an independent laboratory for you and then alter or misrepresent the results.

* Do not deal with sellers who claim that their  ماء نوفا water treatment units are government–approved. The government does not endorse or approve water treatment units or companies. It’s true that the Environmental Protection Agency assigns certain products registration numbers. But those numbers are not stamps of approval, as some unscrupulous manufacturers would suggest. They simply are an indication that a company has convinced the government certain substances in its product won’t at least cause any harm. Consider water purifiers that have carbon filters. Such filters contain silver, which slows the growth of bacteria but which can also leach into treated water and contaminate it if the unit doesn’t work properly. For that reason, carbon filter manufacturers are required to give the EPA data showing that their units don’t leach the contaminant into the water. If the data are approved, a registration number is granted. The number does not in any way signify anything about the product’s ability to remove contaminants.

* Remember that no one type of unit solves all water problems. Some systems filter just a single mineral or two, while others are capable of getting rid of all minerals and other foreign matter. By the same token, there is a wide variety of water purifiers available, ranging from low-cost filter devices that can be attached to a kitchen faucet to more expensive, complicated systems that treat all water from the point that it enters the home. To obtain reliable information regarding water delivery, the EPA recommends that you contact either of two independent, not-for-profit organizations: NSF International (formerly the National Sanitation Foundation) or the Water Quality Association. While neither one recommends particular brands of treatment units, both provide advice and literature about the industry as a whole as well as about specific types of units.