NSF certifications are not required but rather optional. In our opinion, NSF certifications are limited in their application with respect to our gravity fed purification elements. NSF Standard 42 (aesthetic effects) and Standard 53 (health effects) would specifically apply to our purification elements. NSF Standard 42 covers systems “designed to reduce specific aesthetic or non-health-related contaminants (such as chlorine, taste and odor, and particulates) that may be present in public or private drinking water. ”
This would appear to be an unnecessary certification as not only do the elements easily handle public drinking water, but also untreated raw water, exceeding what the standard would certify for. NSF Standard 53 addresses “systems designed to reduce specific health-related contaminants, such as Cryptosporidium, Giardia, lead, VOC’s, MTBE that may be present in public or private drinking water.”
The organisms mentioned are rather large in size. Our purification elements have been tested to remove not only a whole host of VOCs but more importantly viruses, much smaller organisms. Again, this exceeds what the standard would certify for. The tests we have conducted are much more rigorous than those required by NSF for the certifications required.
Our purifiers have been rigorously tested by third-party independent accredited labs far surpassing the above standards 42 and 53. For example, our systems have been tested for the removal of hundreds of contaminants including heavy metals, pesticides, herbicides, pharmaceuticals, pathogenic bacteria and viruses. These test results are published and available to all our consumers on our web site as well as published in our printed literature.
In addition, there has also been other highly publicized and notable testing of our purifiers against other so-called similar water filtration systems which clearly back up our third-party testing. The cost for NSF certification is also very expensive. Each configuration of each system would have to be certified . If you include the sport bottle and all purification systems offered, that’s 16 separate certifications (times 2 standards).
At an estimated cost of $10,000 per system configuration, that’s around $320,000, plus yearly maintenance fees. As you can see, it’s difficult to justify the cost required, just to obtain certifications that the elements already exceed.