Our Aqua Guard water purifier is now more than 16 years old!

We had a new Aqua Guard water purifier installed 16 years back and it is still functioning!

We take annual contract for its maintenance, which has worked well. The contract includes replacing the filters inside (Carbon as well as the fiber thread based) and fixing it when occasionally its electronics inside fails or the plumbing outside to the filter tank fails.

Now a days, there is far more sophisticated water purifiers available, especially the ROH water purifiers which are not only bit expensive for purchase and maintenance, they waste a lot of water for filtering the metal content in the water. One should plan to reuse the water these filters waste, else it looks criminal for the Indian realities!

The Aqua Gurard water purifier is bit simple compared to today's offerings. It uses three times filter: One through a fiber filter, which needs to be cleaned once a while by changing the direction of flow of water into the separate tank it is kept in. This is a must if the water coming in is too muddy, else this filter can get clogged and water may not flow through it anymore. Second filtering is using carbon charcoal, which absorbs some toxic contents.  Both the filters need replacement once a year, the annual maintenance covers for it. The third filter is to send UV rays across the flowing water, that is why this apparatus needs some electronics and electric supply.

Since, due to grounding issues, the service person had to visit at least three times more than usual to fix the failing apparatus, I asked the service engineer how he rates this old model compared to recent offerings and should we upgrade. He gave an honest answer which I appreciated very much.

What he said is that the old filter is simple but effective. For our health reasons, we should not remove all the minerals from the water. Since ROH removes all the minerals, it is not favorable for long term health. Though this old filter does only 90% of the job compared to new offerings, it helps by retaining the minerals.

I felt that he was right, especially for those homes who are supplied with Kaveri water, which typically contains metal content anywhere between 170-220 ppm, when I tested last in this summer, it was 220 ppm, bit high due to summer (water sources drying).

But, if you are using ground water, you will need ROH filter as the ground water is likely to have 400-500 ppm or more metal content, and that is definitely harmful on longer term use.

When the Aqua Guard filter failed multiple times (fault was ours, the sensitive electronics failed due to grounding issues, which we eventually fixed), the service engineer was even thinking to get a replacement old model for us, and was telling that it is difficult to get such one. Since he could not isolate the reason for electronic failure multiple times, he was thinking this way, but his smarter supervisor caught on to the root cause.

Bottom line, if you have an old Aqua Guard purifier still working at your home and you are happy with it, there is no compulsion to replace it, at least until the company servicing refuses to service it through annual contract.

Our old Aqua Guard water filter now feels as sweet as the older spouse at home!

Viva Older Aqua Guard Old Water Purifiers!