I’ve been checking different water filter pitchers over the past few days because I really want clean and safe drinking water at home. I’m trying to set up something simple but reliable.
While researching, I came across a couple of options with really good reviews. What I like most is that they offer strong filtration without being too expensive.
Right now I’m a bit unsure which one is better for daily use. Sometimes my tap water tastes off, so I want something that removes impurities, improves taste, and is safe for drinking and cooking.
Which one would you choose and why?
Any tips or personal experiences would really help. Thanks in advance!
Because I got it with my espresso machine and I can readily buy replacement filter cartridges.
Does it work? I have no idea. I don’t really taste a difference before / after filtering the water. I mostly use it to prevent scale build-up in my expensive coffee machine.
Is it a pain? Yes - if you forget to fill it, you have to wait for the water to run through before you can use it. But I still do it - only for the coffee machine.
I live in Pretoria and other than “coffee water” I drink water straight from the tap.
If I was serious about this I would:
Have my tap water directly tested by a lab (I’ve done it with my borehole water and the stats you get back are fantastic)
Do research to try and figure out the science behind the filters and thus get a better idea which one would impact me the best (based on the lab results and thus what I know about the water quality I have at home)
Buy the appropriate filter
Filter the water and send the water to the same lab for testing
But that’s also wasting quite a bit of money.
My personal opinion is that there are areas where the water is quite bad and you absolutely need something like this (but probably something better). But then there’s areas where the water is actually fine and most of it is scare mongering.
That being said, I’m not oblivious to the fact that everything around us is crumbling and that water infrastructure and thus water quality can’t be the “exception to the rule”. But I somehow still prefer hard evidence of this before I stop drinking tap water (perhaps/likely stupidly so).
Sorry, probably not the best advice. I would be interested in knowing what the culprit is if “it tastes a bit off” and thus have a better idea of what you should be doing about it.
Just infact replaced the filters this past week on it, we ran ours for about 4 years (probably too long). When the filters came out, they were really dirty, as in you can clearly see the crap it DOES filter out.
We started using this water in our kettle etc too. We had a kettle at our previous house for YEARS with this filtered water. Clean clean inside still by the time we moved out, it still was silver all over inside. At the new house, didnt immediately put in a filter, that kettle very quickly gained that buildup you get inside kettles. Another way I know these filters do filter out a lot of chemicals that otherwise goes into your body.
Definitely will always have one of these installed in the house we stay in. Very handy to have right there and not having to buy filtered water all the time if you do want filtered water.
ps. While that link’s company can come install for you in Gauteng, its very doable to DIY if you willing to drill a hole for the drainage (the bad water to go out) and drill a hole for the faucet in the counter top. Everything else is just connecting pipes and stuff to existing plumbing.
Thanks — your explanation really helped. The BWT pitcher also seems good, but there aren’t many reviews about it in the market yet, so I’m being a bit careful. My main need is simple daily drinking water, which is why I’m leaning more toward Brita and PUR, since their demand is higher, the reviews are strong, and people seem happy with the taste and impurity reduction. That’s why I’m especially curious whether anyone who has used PUR or Brita has noticed a real, noticeable difference.
Have a look at the Berkey water filters. We’ve been using then for the past , i think 7 years. its a gravity filter. Fill it up in the evenings and the next morning clean soft water.
They remove the taste of the chlorine in the water aswell.
Reason why i brought it is because of a test the guys did. They pored water init, and red food colouring and it filter that out. Knowing how difficult it is to remove red food colouring , i bought it. And did the test! Successful!!!
The filters are not cheap, but i only replaced the filters once sofar.