At WFA we’re proud to have supported many Australian charities and community events over the years.
A regular cause close to our hearts is the Mcdonald Jones “Build for a Cure Home”. And we are excited to be part of this amazing project again this year.
Our friends at Mcdonald Jones Homes and Walker Corporation have teamed up to build a house in 28 days with the help of volunteers, sponsors and donations.
WFA have donated a Platinum inline water filter system for the house. This system will be perfect for the new home buyers because it means the new owners will have fast flowing filtered water direct from their kitchen tap whenever they want it.
The volunteers have 28 days to build a house. So it’s a bit like “The Block!” And they actually have Scott Cam as an Ambassador! Then, they auction the home off with all the proceeds going to the Children’s Cancer Institute – the only independent medical research institute in Australia wholly dedicated to childhood cancer.
This year the Build for a Cure house is being built in the historical and picturesque town of Appin, Macarthur. It’s 90 minutes west of Sydney and 30 minutes from the beaches of Wollongong. They are building a beautiful two storey, four bedroom house, featuring the Halifax facade and best of all, it comes fully furnished with furniture from Freedom and appliances from Fisher & Paykel…and of course that all important WFA water filter!
On Sunday 17th September it was the big reveal. The home was open for the first time for visitors to take a look through and Scott Cam was there to help show people around.
In the words of Bill McDonald, Managing Director, McDonald Jones Homes,
“Build for a Cure is a fantastic opportunity for us to give back to families in need as well as do our bit for the health and wellbeing of children across Australia.”
The home will be auctioned off on 22nd October. It’s hoped that it will be sold for over $680,000. And all proceeds will go to the Children’s Cancer Institute to help put an end to childhood cancer. It’s well worth checking out the home and supporting this amazing fundraising initiative. We wish them all the best and hope they get a great price at auction.
If you would like to make a donation. Head to the Build for a Cure website and buy a virtual gold brick, you will go in the draw for a $30,000 home furnishing package.
Meet Paul, Beth and their young family…dedicated WFA customers who love their home water filter system so much they decided to take one away with them in their campervan!
A three week trip through the Flinders Ranges with another young family in convoy was the perfect testing ground for their new WFA Eco Inline system.
For Paul, the WFA brand was one that he trusted,
“Obviously we had that water filter brand and system at home and my wife likes to have clean filtered water for the kids. So for us to have the confidence of knowing that we had the good water from home while we were away was fantastic!”
With a new campervan, Paul was keen fit the water filter before the trip and test it out for taste.
“Obviously it was quite a new van so there wasn’t a great deal of bad taste previously.
But you could notice a slight plasticky taste when we first got the camper filled up.
I don’t know how much of that is just flushing through a few tank fulls of water or that now the filter is there it is doing the job to get rid of that.
But once the filter was fitted, the water tasted great so we put it down to the filter! “
The young family travelled from Sydney to Broken Hill and then on to Silverton and from there continued on to the Flinders ranges where they travelled along the Oodnadatta track as far as Coward Springs.
For Paul and the families, the hot springs were a real highlight,
“They were a natural hot water spring in the ground and we were able to take a dip in there in the middle of winter and it was still quite warm, so that was great.”
The families travelled back through the Flinders ranges where they stayed at the Merna Mora Station, a working sheep and cattle station which was another highlight.
“It was the first time we had done a big trip like that. We had done a couple of weekends nearer home to get the bugs out of the campervan but that’s the biggest trip we’ve done with that particular camper for sure.
It was really good just to get away with the family and detach from city life and the stresses and technology that goes with it.”
Throughout the three week trip the new RV water filter certainly got a good workout!
“Another big plus was the flow rate. It remained the same so we were able to use the filter for cooking, drinking and even washing up. Some places had dedicated places for washing up so we sometimes used those so that we didn’t waste our drinking water.”
“For us being able to make use of the onboard water, topped up from good known water supplies.
And to be confident that the filtration would get rid of as many nasties as possible before we got to drink it was a huge benefit.
It saved in cost too as it saved buying and carrying bottled water for the trip.
That was a big thing for us.”
If you are planning a road trip and want to have clean, filtered water with you wherever you go, read more about the benefits of WFA RV water filters before your next adventure!
Take a look at our RV water filter range.
Happy travels.
Coconuts and water filters…A surprising combination don’t you think?
The words conjure up images of drinking refreshing filtered water on a white sandy beach with palm trees swaying the breeze!
But that’s not the link…the coconut connection is more surprising than you think…
It’s actually because the inside of a water filter is made out of coconut husk (well it’s carbon – fired and then steam cleaned) but it started out life as a coconut!
Rather topical when you think how many uses the humble coconut has in our modern world today. Just step into a local supermarket and the shelves are ever growing with coconut products… coconut milk, coconut water, coconut oil… and the list goes on. The coconut inside WFA’s water filters is just one part of the water filtration process.
Water filters have evolved a long way since the early days but the basic principles are much the same. There are actually two stages of water filtration – mechanical and chemical filtration.
To best explain this process, there are various sizes of particles in our tap water. These particles can be things like sediment, rust and cysts.
A single particle is known in size by its “Micron” rating – the lower the micron rating the smaller the particle and it’s rated by size.
Just to give you an idea. Take a human strand of hair. It has a diameter of 75 microns in size.
The smallest particle visible to the human eye is 40 microns in size.
And cysts such as giardia and cryptosporidium are 1-4 microns in size.
So if a water filter is filtering down to 1 micron in size, it’s filtering tap water very finely and producing very high quality filtered water, similar if not better than bottled water.
So the first stage is to trap these particles with a something called a particle barrier.
The second stage of the process is called chemical filtration and it’s this process that improves the smell and taste of the water.
Why do we need this?
Well, tap water has to be treated with chlorine as a disinfection agent before it reaches our kitchen sinks for health reasons. The water also often passes through aging underground pipes before it reaches our kitchen tap which again can affect the taste of the water. So this is where the carbon filter comes in.
In WFA water filters we use a food grade carbon block and it’s the tiny pores within the carbon that absorb the nasty tastes and odours. And remove the chlorine from the tap water making your filtered water taste so much better!
Another advantage of the carbon block system that WFA use is that it covers the two stages of the water filtration process within one filter system. It acts both as a mechanical filter and a chemical filter.
Let’s take a closer look at how it all works inside the filter cartridge and the four phases of water filtration.
Phase 1
First of all the water comes in through the inlet at the top. It’s the water pressure that pushes the water through the filter media. Without water pressure a water filter just won’t work.
The carbon block inside is a hollow cylinder. And there’s coating on the outside of the cylinder called a sediment wrap and this is the material that traps the larger particles first. It’s basically a pre-filter and there to get rid of all the big bits like dirt, sand and silt which in turn helps make the internals of the carbon cartridge last longer.
Phases 2 & 3
Once the water has passed through the first phase, it gets forced through the carbon block.
The carbon block has the pores and performs phases 2 and 3 in the above diagram.
The pores not only trap small particles but also filter everything down to one micron. So the carbon block does two things. It’s removes the chlorine and bad tastes, odours and smells, plus traps any cysts like giardia and cryptosporidium that may be in the water.
Phase 4
Once the water has passed through the carbon block, it’s then in the hollow inside of the cylinder. Inside the hollow part of the carbon block is a substance called polyphosphate. This coats any calcium and magnesium particles and it inhibits their ability to stick onto stuff, especially important in hot and cold water appliances. So it inhibits the calcium and magnesium particles from forming limescale.
The polyphosphate substance inside the core of the carbon block dissolves over time so that’s why it is recommended that the cartridge is changed every 12 months. Not only because you want your carbon working efficiently but the filter won’t be able to inhibit the limescale after 12 months because all of the polyphosphate will have dissolved away.
That’s why it is super important to change your water filter cartridge every 12 months.
Ready to purchase your next one?
Buy your water filter cartridge today.