When you turn on the tap for a glass of refreshing water you never really think about the quality of the
water that you are drinking, after all, water is good for you so how can some water be bad. It is a surprise
to most to find that until 2005 the drinking supplies in New Zealand were virtually unregulated.
So how are you to react when you find out that in 2006/7 more than 95 local authority water supplies in New Zealand failed
to comply with the new standards because of contaminants, and that 51 school water supplies failed for
the exact same reason in the same period. This is where we come in.
Each month we replace our pre filters because they become clogged up with sludge.
These images are of a clean new filter and a used filter. The build up is so thick that by just running your fingers
up the fans in the filter you can easily see the build up on your fingers. It comes out as a thick brown paste.
Big Blue supplies water in three different ways depending on your location.
In Auckland and Hamilton, we obtain pure water from the municipal supplies via the natural process of Reverse Osmosis;
in Wellington and Christchurch we use artesian spring water; and if you live in any area and have a Free Flow Inline cooler,
then you have access to unlimited filtered water.
Reverse Osmosis (Pure Water)
Big Blue water has been touted by some as the best tasting water they have had. Taken from the municipal supply for our
Auckland and Hamilton distribution, it is purified in eight steps by the process known as "Reverse Osmosis" to
remove potentially harmful contaminants or additives.
Reverse osmosis is an advanced water purification method which was invented by the US Navy in the 1970s to create
pure drinking water from sea water for its fleets.
You can find out more about reverse osmosis by
clicking here
1. High pressure pushes water through an activated carbon filter to remove any chemicals like chlorine
which are often added to water by treatment plants in an effort to clean the water.
2/3. Then the water is sent through a high density sediment filter and then another pre filter.
4. Then 150-225psi of pressure forces the clean water through a semi-tight RO membrane which has holes that are 1 Millionth of a Millimetre wide
which only a water molecule can fit through, contaminants are to big to fit through the holes and are discarded via a waste pump. The water that is received on the other
side of the RO membrane is known as "Pure Water".
5. Water that is pure enough to make it through the entire RO process is then stored in a completely sterile steel holding tank which has been
specifically treated for holding food grade products.
5. While our pure water is stored in the holding tank it is completely sterilized using extremely high concentrates of pure Oxygen
(O3), in a process known as Ozonation. Ozone is one of the strongest oxidizers available and it completely sterilizes water
before turning into normal oxygen, so it is no danger to you or our environment and leaves behind no funny taste or smell. We do not use chlorine or any other chemicals to 'clean' the water
Our bottling cycle is approximately every 12 hours during winter and only every 6 hours
during summer, which means that our pure water spends less than 12 hours
in a holding tank before being sealed in a hygienically clean and sterilized bottle.
6. Water is pumped from the holding tank past a High Intensity UV Light which kills any bacteria in the water.
7. Water is pumped from the UV Steriliser straight down into our special stainless steel
sanitization room and using a special 3 stage sterile flo-tap and hose combination, and it is pumped directly into a one of our UV
resistant, refillable and recyclable 15L bottles and sealed air-tight using our sterilized non-spill caps.
8. Once the water is pure and bottled it is stored in a pyramid configuration on special
black always clean grip mats ready to be delivered the very next day.
People say our pure water is the best tasting water they have ever had but all we are doing is removing contaminants
like lead and fluoride to provide you water which tastes like it should. We don't make water we just remove all the harmful substances.
Our Wellington/Christchurch water is supplied directly from artesian springs. Clean and pure from millennia
of natural filtering, it does not need to be treated with chlorine or chemicals, it only has its Ph balanced before it is
ready for drinking.
An artesian spring is different from a typical spring in that the water is enclosed by thick layers of sand and rock that
prevent the introduction of man-made contaminates. Slowly over the years water is forced through the sand and rock
stripping the bacteria and dissolved solids off the water molecules.
Artesian springs are tapped by boring through the rock and sand so that as water is forced upwards, where it is
collected.
Our Wellington bottling plant operates in the same way as our Auckland plant though with no need to pass through a
Reverse Osmosis Membrane.
Inside each of our free flow water coolers is a high quality water filter which is actually 2 filters in one.
The kinetic degradation fluxion filter.
This filter is made of high-purity copper and zinc and
uses chemical process known as redox (oxidation/reduction) to remove things like odors, chlorine and heavy metals from
your drinking water.
And a granular activated carbon filter.
Activated carbon is normal carbon which
has a slight
electro-positive charge added to it which makes it very attractive to organic chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, and man
made chemicals. What
happens is the water passes through the carbon filter and negatively charged ions get drawn out of the water by the
positively charged carbon.
This filter also absorbs any residual disinfectants like chlorine that made it through the KDF filter.
These filters also fully comply with Australia and New Zealand standards for the removal of protenza cysts, which are
little
single celled organisms that can make you very sick if they get into your body. The also fully comply with the Australian
and New Zealand standards for the removal of e-coli.
