Five Reasons Why O-rings Are Important

When you begin investing in a water filter for your home, you are investing not only in the durability and effectiveness of the filter, but also in the health benefits that filtered water provides to you and your family. There is no price tag on this investment.

It is important to understand how to keep your water filter operating at optimal capacity by understanding the key components of a water filter, especially the O-ring.

What is an O-Ring?

O-rings are gaskets of flexible material that create a strong seal between two parts that come together. In the case of your water filter, the O-ring prevents leaks and keeps the filter running smoothly.

Five reasons why O-rings are important

1. Durability

A properly installed and fabricated O-ring will increase the durability of the seal and improve the overall quality of the component using it. The specific component, machinery or environment in which the O-ring is used can determine which material should be used to manufacture it. O-rings are typically made of polyurethane, silicone, neoprene, nitrile rubber, fluorocarbon, etc.

O Ring

These natural and synthetic elastomeric materials are highly flexible and add a durable layer of protection to the joints in which they are used. o-rings are available in a variety of sizes and even shapes, making them more versatile as a necessary part of most machinery.

2. Sealing

For most forms of machinery, proper sealing is not only important, but critical to proper equipment operation. O-rings are the reason they are subject to inspection.

Consider the human knee: a joint made of bones that are joined by layers of muscle, tendon, and cartilage. Without these sealing layers, the bones would simply collide together, breaking and preventing movement. o-rings are these layers: they are the cartilage that prevents parts from colliding together by providing a protective seal between components.

O-rings are also an important sealant to prevent leaks. On water filters, O-rings ensure that the water pressure from your faucet doesn't send your water filter flying across the room or otherwise malfunction, leaving you and your home a mess. This small, seemingly insignificant part is powerful in ensuring proper function of the equipment that uses it.

O Ring

3. Easy to Install and Affordable

Unlike many other necessary components, O-rings are very affordable. Depending on the size and style of O-ring you need, you can find low to high quality products. These small, flexible devices are not only essential to the proper function of your water filter, but they are inexpensive and easy to replace when needed.

O-rings do not require you to own or buy a lot of new, advanced tools to install them properly. They are simply placed between the two components they seal and squeezed between them. And, since O-rings do not require any degree of torque or other forms of tightening, you don't have to worry about any damage to the component being connected.

4. Muscle Memory

One of the great advantages of the O-ring design is its ability to remember its original shape, which means that it can resist the pressure applied to it (because it sits between the two components), resulting in an O-ring that fills all gaps, large and small, between the two components for which it provides a seal.

EPDM Rubber O-ring

The components will easily slide together, sandwiching the O-ring between them, and the O-ring will retain its original shape to some extent to ensure a solid seal. If you remove a fairly new O-ring from the assembly, you can see the elastomeric material re-form its original shape and density. Hence, the "muscle" memory. 

5. Resistance Properties

The elastomeric materials used to make O-rings are highly resistant to the different chemicals and compounds to which they may be exposed. For example, with your new water filter, you may use cleaning solutions that can sometimes damage some materials - but with a well-made O-ring retainer, you don't have to worry about O-ring degradation or worry about it allowing chemicals to leach into the filter.

Conclusion

The right water filter is a great investment that will keep you and your family healthy and happy. To keep your water filter running strong, make sure you have the correct O-rings installed, which will allow your filter to continue working as intended.