Micron Rating

Micron ratings are used to measure the size of particles that a water filter cartridge can effectively capture. A micron (μm) is a unit of length equal to one millionth of a metre, and its commonly used to describe the size of microscopic particles. Water filter cartridges are assigned a micron rating to indicate the size of particles they can remove from water. Filters with a 1- micron rating can capture particles that are 1 micron in size of larger, which covers a wide range, such as 50 microns to capture larger particles like sand and sediment, to smaller microns such as 1 micron or 0.5 micron, which capture particles like bacteria and certain viruses. These filters may have absolute or nominal micron ratings, where an absolute rating indicates that the filter can capture particles of that size with a high level of efficiency where a nominal rating suggests that the filter can capture a majority of particles of that size, but not necessarily all.