A few days ago, 11 models of water purifiers of many foreign famous brands * * * had problems such as excessive arsenic, excessive total number of colonies and unqualified organic matter removal rate in health and safety sampling inspection.
some "foreign brands" that should be leading in products and technology fail to pass the quality inspection of relevant departments. Is it because enterprises are lax in control? Behind the incident of arsenic exceeding the standard, what kind of chaos is hidden in the water purifier market.
adjustable cost structure
It is understood that the filter element is the core component of the water purifier, which can be generally divided into RO reverse osmosis water purifier and ultrafiltration membrane water purifier according to the structure of the filter element.
RO reverse osmosis water purifier has the highest purification accuracy because the pore size of RO membrane is far less than several hundred times or even thousands of times that of case virus and bacteria, but this method has higher cost, but the output rate is low, and only one third is left after a cup of tap water is filtered.
Another common water purifier is ultrafiltration membrane, which is mainly composed of ultrafiltration membrane, supplemented by other filter element technologies such as activated carbon and hollow fiber, and can filter out odor, impurities, rust, bacteria and other pollutants. Of course, its purification accuracy is also low. The problem water purifier detected by this sampling basically belongs to the latter category.
after investigation, the author found that although the filter elements of the problem water purifier are made of different materials, they all use basic filter materials such as activated carbon and PP cotton, and hollow fiber ultrafiltration membrane or KDF (pure copper-zinc alloy) is added.
Experts from testing institutions and relevant people in the industry believe that among these materials, activated carbon is the most likely to lead to arsenic exceeding the standard, because the raw materials or manufacturing process of activated carbon may be polluted and contain trace arsenic. In addition, the alloy material may also be the source of arsenic exceeding the standard (note: arsenic can be used to make cemented carbide, such as copper can prevent dezincification when it contains trace arsenic, and KDF is pure copper-zinc alloy).
as the filter element is made of multiple materials, the raw materials of minerals mined in many mining areas around the world contain different metal components, and the quality inspection standards of the company are inconsistent, which is also one of the key factors that may cause problems.
according to public information, the liquid filtration department of a company has more than 9 years of industry experience; An American company that produces water purifiers is one of the largest producers of domestic water treatment systems in the world, focusing on domestic water treatment for 86 years; Another company's water purifier has been sold well in the United States for more than 2 years, and there are also many well-known enterprises in the United States and Japan, all of which are large enterprises specializing in filtration and purification industry for many years.
the national standard of activated carbon used in water treatment in the United States is "there should be no impurities that have toxic and harmful effects on the health of users of water treated with activated carbon; It should not contain special impurities beyond the limit range specified in the Pharmacopoeia of Chemical Substances in Water.
for the above questions, the author verified a number of companies. Mr. Hua, senior manager of corporate communication and public relations, marketing and public affairs department of China, a well-known company, told the author that the official reasons for the decline in filtering performance were carefully investigated and I don't want to explain more.
Manager Zhu of another brand's after-sales department said that he was "surprised" by the test results of arsenic exceeding the standard. "We are also thinking about the specific reasons. Everyone points the finger at activated carbon. If this is the case, it may be that the coconut shell raw material used is polluted and not completely purified."
confusion of matching: there is no such thing as "original import"?
Xiao Meng, a salesman of a company in Shanghai who represents many well-known brands of water purification equipment, told the author that most of the hosts of American brands are imported, and the host part includes filter elements and filter heads. Other accessories such as faucets, filter bottles, pre-filters and so on are produced by domestic general agents looking for manufacturers. Because the United States is drinking water directly, there is no need for pre-filter and other devices, while the water quality in China is relatively rich in impurities, so it is necessary to add additional devices to protect the main filter to prolong its life.
compared with some foreign brand factories, the production and supporting quality of domestic water purifier products are even more uneven.
according to figures released by China Consumers Association, at present, there are more than 1,2 regular water purifier manufacturers in China that have obtained or are about to obtain hygiene license approval, and there are more than 2, small workshops without professional design and hygiene license approval.
Gu Jiuchuan, secretary-general of the Water Purification Industry Committee of China Private Economy Research Association, pointed out that "activated carbon is the most widely used material in water purifiers, including coconut shell carbon, fruit shell carbon and cheap coal-based carbon, etc. Because of the great price difference and the disparity in adsorption capacity, its purification effect decreases in turn."
and these material differences are invisible from the appearance. Therefore, some small factories have replaced coconut shell activated carbon with low-priced coal-based activated carbon, and used recycled plastics instead of food-grade plastics in wading parts. What's more, some activated carbon factories recycle the discarded activated carbon, and then sell it with new products or mix it with new activated carbon to reduce the cost and price.
"The water purification industry in China is an industry that has been promoted by many small and medium-sized enterprises for ten years." Pang Yahui, the chief consultant of Shanghai Zhuoyue Management Consulting Co., Ltd., once described this, but the domestic water purification industry has great growth potential, and the relevant norms and management need to be improved.
In 29, many well-known brands of water purifiers were notified by the Ministry of Health because the total number of colonies exceeded the standard. Then there was a problem that was sampled and the product stopped selling.
in recent years, the water purifier industry in China has developed rapidly, and the output of water purifiers has increased by 42%~5% every year, ranking first in the world. At the China Safe Drinking Water Summit held not long ago, some experts calculated that if a quarter of households in China installed water purifiers, the demand for water purifiers would be 1 million units. If calculated by each 1 yuan, the market size of water purifiers in China would reach 1 billion yuan. The huge potential market has attracted many enterprises of different sizes to flood into this blue ocean one after another.
However, there is no clear evaluation system for the quality, safety and function of activated carbon in China. Even water treatment equipment has not established a complete industry standard system.
The reasons for the market confusion are as follows:
1. The door frame of the water purifier is low, and the factory can be opened with a screwdriver. As the supporting facilities of the industry are mature, all the accessories can be purchased.
2. There is a serious lack of industry supervision departments. An industry has been developing for more than 1 years, but there is no industry standard, which is unique in the history of home appliance development. Although the health department is issuing health approval documents, products without health approval documents are still sold throughout the industry, and no department has come forward to supervise and manage them.
3. Modern promotion means are diversified, and network promotion is the main means of major manufacturers. Because of its low cost and lack of supervision, it is said that "it is not illegal to brag" (for example, they all boast that they are top ten brands, international companies, industry standard drafting units, etc.), which has seriously misled many practitioners and even been deceived.
4. There are few companies that actually produce in the industry, and most of them are products processed on behalf of others. Their purpose is to put their own trademarks on their products for financing. Cooperation with such manufacturers will not have any advantages in after-sales guarantee, sales support and subsequent development. Their purpose is to make a profit, not to mention new product research and development and long-term planning.