Image Source: webuildvalue
Most of us turn on the tap without a second thought. But the water that fills your glass has been on a remarkable journey — and understanding it tells you exactly what a filter can (and can't) do for you.
We tend to treat water as one simple thing. It isn't. The water in a river, dam, mountain reservoir, a coastal aquifer and the open ocean are wildly different to begin with, and getting any of them safely into your glass takes a different combination of steps. So before we talk about filters, it's worth understanding where your water actually comes from — because not all water is equal.
Where your water begins
Broadly, drinking water in Australia starts life in one of a few places.
Surface water — rivers, lakes and dams — is the most common source. Because it's open to the environment, it tends to carry a mix of suspended solids (fine sediment and particles you can sometimes see), some dissolved solids (minerals and salts you can't), and natural organic matter from decaying leaves and plant material. It's perfectly treatable, but it arrives at the plant needing work.
Groundwater, drawn from underground aquifers, is often clearer to begin with — but as it moves slowly through rock and soil, it picks up dissolved minerals. That's where hardness (calcium and magnesium) comes from, and depending on the local geology it can also carry dissolved inorganic compounds and, in some areas, traces of heavy metals.
Seawater is, obviously, full of salt and dissolved ions. Turning it into drinking water takes a different technology altogether — desalination — which forces water through membranes to strip out the salt and minerals. Several Australian cities, Sydney included, rely on desalination plants to top up supply during dry spells.
Recycled water is the frontier. Purified recycled water is already used in parts of Australia for source water recharge (such as aquifers or rivers), but not yet as a direct potable use. As our cities grow, carefully treated recycled water will likely play a bigger role in the years ahead.
Different sources, different starting points — but they all converge on one final, non-negotiable step.
The one thing every drop has in common: disinfection
You can filter and treat water beautifully, but treatment isn't finished until the water has been disinfected — because the single most dangerous thing in water (in most instances) isn't a chemical, it's pathogens. Bacteria, viruses, protozoa and other microorganisms are what make water acutely unsafe, and disinfection exists to kill them.
There are several ways to do it. Ultraviolet light and ozone are both used, but the workhorse of water disinfection worldwide — and across Australia — is chlorination.
Chlorine's real genius isn't just that it kills microbes (with some exceptions like protozoa) at the treatment plant. It's that it leaves behind a small, lasting residual — a trace of disinfectant that stays in the water the entire way from the plant, through kilometres of pipes, into your home, and even while it sits in storage. That residual is what keeps the water safe on the long journey to your tap. It's a quietly brilliant piece of public-health engineering, and it protects lives every single day.
Chlorine or chloramine?
You may have heard both words. Free chlorine is the classic disinfectant — fast-acting and effective, but it dissipates relatively quickly and has a stronger smell and taste. Chloramine (chlorine combined with a little ammonia) is more stable and longer-lasting, which makes it useful for large distribution networks — though it behaves differently and can be trickier to remove. Both do the same essential job: keeping your water microbiologically safe until you drink it.
The trade-off: taste and byproducts
Here's the catch. The same chlorine that keeps water safe is also the reason some people don't love how tap water tastes or smells — that faint "swimming pool" note. The amount involved is small: chlorine residuals in most Australian networks sit around 0.2–0.5 mg/L, a fraction of the 5 mg/L health-based limit in the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines. It's there to protect you, not harm you.
There's a second, more talked-about trade-off. When chlorine meets the natural organic matter in source water, it can form trace levels of byproducts called trihalomethanes, or THMs. The Australian Drinking Water Guidelines set a limit of 250 micrograms per litre for total THMs, and research into long-term exposure is ongoing. But the consensus from health authorities is unambiguous, and worth stating plainly: the risk of not disinfecting water far outweighs the small risk from these byproducts. The International Agency for Research on Cancer has found the evidence that chlorinated water causes cancer in humans to be inadequate. In short — your treated Australian tap water is safe to drink.
So if the water is already safe, what's left to improve? Two things: taste, and the handful of substances you might simply prefer to reduce.
So where does Mira100 fit in?
Here's something you won't often hear from a company that sells water filters: we don't treat your water — and we'd never claim to.
Real water treatment is an enormous, sophisticated, industrial undertaking. The authorities who run it have major infrastructure, accredited laboratories, deep expertise and round-the-clock monitoring. No benchtop filter can replicate that, and honestly, none should try. By the time water reaches your tap in Australia, the hard part is done — it's been treated, disinfected and made safe by people who are exceptionally good at their jobs. Re-treating already-safe water isn't just unnecessary; it misunderstands what the job even is.
What a filter like Mira100 does is different. It polishes. It's the final, optional step for water that's already safe but that you'd like to enjoy more — cleaner, crisper, fresher.
Specifically, Mira100's activated carbon and ion exchange resin does three things worth knowing about:
- It reduces chlorine and the taste and odour that come with it — the function our filter is independently certified for under NSF/ANSI 42. This is the difference you notice first.
- It's recognised for reducing chlorine byproducts like THMs — in fact, activated carbon is one of the very tools the water industry itself uses to remove them. You're applying the same science, one last time, at your bench.
- It's recognised for reducing long-chain PFAS such as PFOS and PFOA — the most common types of these "forever chemicals" found in Australian water
There's more to say on a couple of these — fluoride and the harder-to-capture short-chain PFAS each deserve their own article, are being targeted by the ion exchange layer. But the principle stays the same: Mira100 isn't here to replace the professionals who make your water safe. It's here to take safe water and make it taste the way water should.
That's a job worth doing well — and doing honestly.