If you know some things about filters and micron sizes, then you know that in order to remove bacteria from water, you need a filter that is .2 microns to 2 microns in size. To remove giardia and cryptosporidium (cysts) you need an absolute filter size of 1 micron or less. With the manufacturing process of applying heat and pressure to the activated coconut carbon to create the solid carbon block, it is hard to measure the exact micron size. This is because we create such a maze of different micron sizes for the water to pass through the walls of the Smart Shield via the water pressure from the user's cold water line; it's called Depth Filtration. Based on our testing, we know that we remove all cysts at the 99.99% level. So, it's safe to say that the Epic Smart Shield filtration level is consistently below 1 micron in size. We are probably not at the .2 micron level because we make no claim on removing bacteria with this filter. We know it removes a very high level of bacteria from the water (.2 microns to 2 microns), just not enough to make a claim.
So the short answer to your question is that we are at sub-micron level filtration while still allowing a good flow of water to your faucet. But we are not filtering consistently at the .2 micron level.