Bottled Water Alternatives (water filters)

[Chris Padilla]

One of the items I wish to change in my household is the use of plastic water bottles. We buy several cases of bottled water every couple of months but I'd like to curb that and go with some kind of a convenient water filter at the sink. I'm just tired of tossing so many plastic water bottles into the recycle bin.

I don't mind doing the work to tie it into the plumbing under the sink but we'd like to poll the collective here on what's been used and what you like and don't like about whatever system you've used.

We do have a built-in water filter to the refrigerator but the cartridges are pricey to replace every 3-6 months or whatever plus LOML doesn't like the taste.

Thanks! :)

[Dan Friedrichs]

Chris,

I've had 2 refrigerators with built-in filters, and I didn't think either of them did anything (taste seemed the same, to me).

I had a 2-stage under-sink filter for some time (I believe it was a 5 micron sediment filter with a 1 micron carbon filter), and that worked well, but required frequent filter changes. After 6 months, some plastic pieces broke, I couldn't get the housings unscrewed, and I generally just got angry that I spent $60 on what amounted to a few pieces of cheap moulded plastic.

Finally, a year ago, we bought a proper RO system. 3 filters, a storage tank, and a carbon "finishing" filter. It was expensive (at $200), but definitely a better value than anything else I've used. The filters need attention only once a year (at the rate we use it), and the filters are some sort of industry standard, so you don't need to worry about not being able to find the exact model filter in the future.

I think that compared to any alternative (an under-sink filter, those screw-to-the-faucet-types, filter pitchers, etc, etc), this represents the very best value by a long shot.

[Mark Bolton]

One of the items I wish to change in my household is the use of plastic water bottles. We buy several cases of bottled water every couple of months but I'd like to curb that and go with some kind of a convenient water filter at the sink. I'm just tired of tossing so many plastic water bottles into the recycle bin.

I don't mind doing the work to tie it into the plumbing under the sink but we'd like to poll the collective here on what's been used and what you like and don't like about whatever system you've used.

We do have a built-in water filter to the refrigerator but the cartridges are pricey to replace every 3-6 months or whatever plus LOML doesn't like the taste.

Thanks! :)

We live off-grid and did a lot of research on drinking water filtration and in our research the best passive system you can get is a Berkey filter. Its not the flashiest thing in the world in that it doesn't give you pure water out of the tap but it is basically two tanks, one on top of the other. The upper has compressed filters in it (how many depends on your daily water needs) and you simply fill this container and the water drips into the lower holding container which has a coffee maker spigot on it for you to get water out.

These filters filter virtually everything out. You could basically dump dirty, muddy, contaminated water in the top and get drinking water out the bottom. Same technology as camping/hiking filters. How long the filters last depend on your incoming water quality which if you are putting city or well water in would be a loooong time.

The drawback to these is the counter space they take up and the quantity they will produce daily. That said, we find that for drinking and cooking needs (you may not even opt to filter cooking water) it was the best solution. We wanted a solution that gave us far better water than comes from a bottle (most commonly re-filtered municipal water) and of course didnt want the waste of bottles and the BPA exposure from bottled water. We additionally didnt want the cost, expense, and wasted water, of a RO system, and were looking for more than particulate/taste and odor filtering.

When we were on city water we often used the Britta style and still use one here at the shop but what they filter out is trivial compared to the Berkey.

Just my .02

Mark

[Bill Cunningham]

We have pretty good city water, but too much chlorine. I bought one of those 'Greenway' water filters that takes the place of a 5 gal water bottle ontop of the cooler. It filters from the upper half to the lower storage portion. We live in an area that uses lake based water, so it's very soft water, and the only thing wrong with it is the chlorine. The Greenway removes that very well, and because there are virtually no minerals (no build up 'ever' in/on anything) the filter lasts for a year or better, rather than the 6 months they recommend.

[Bryan Rocker]

We have very hard ward here and we are on a well. LOML hate the smell of the water so I had the local plumbing company install a whole house filter, its is almost 2' long and several inches in diameter. It improved the overall water quality immensly. The filters cartriges are only $5 or so.....In my last house I had a Culligan filter system, it had 3 filters that the water went through before it got into its onwn small pressure tank. Good clean water......

[Lance Norris]

Britta water pitcher. Happy.

[Rick Potter]

My wife and adult daughter were unhappy with the tap water flavor and ice cube made in the fridge. I was tired of replacing the filter behind the fridge too. We installed a much larger (Not THAT large...$40 from HD) filter under the sink. This filter feeds the sink cold water faucet, so we can make iced tea, etc. It also feeds the icemakers in two fridges. End of taste complaints, and the filter lasts a year or so.

We have hard water and I assume it does nothing for that.

Rick Potter

[Mike Cutler]

Chris

Do you know what contaminants you are trying to filter out?

[Mark Bolton]

Chris

Do you know what contaminants you are trying to filter out?

I think Mike has hit the nail on the head. If you are just trying to reduce a little taste and odor then charcoal filters like the ones mentioned can do the job if you dont mind the cost and constant replacement. However if you are trying to get very clean/pure drinking water its a totally different story. We were going the clean/pure route which regardless of what your trying to remove brings you to an RO or Berkey style system.

The question always becomes who's standards of "acceptable" drinking water are you working to.

Mark

[Chris Padilla]

Chris

Do you know what contaminants you are trying to filter out?
Good question, Mike, and one I hadn't thought of. I'm on city water. I guess we just want something tastier/cleaner/purer like we get from the bottled water but I honestly have no clue what I want to remove.

Honestly, I'm fine with our tap water but my wife 'n kid wanted something "better."

Some limitations I'm thinking about right now are that I would really like it to fit under the sink AND not mess up we already have there (couple of slide out racks: one for the trash can and the other for cleaning supplies) too much/significantly. I think this puts most RO units out of the running.

Here is one I found that looks promising: Zuvo (http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11604706&search=zuvo&Mo=1&cm_re=1_en-_-Top_Left_Nav-_-Top_search&lang=en-US&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&Sp=S&N=5000043&whse=BC&Dx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntk=Text_Search&Dr=P_CatalogName:BC&Ne=4000000&D=zuvo&Ntt=zuvo&No=1&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Nty=1&topnav=&s=1) and the price Costco has is VERY attractive and my wife likes the butler faucet. In fact, our sink already has a hole all ready for it (she's been itching to put something other than the ugly hole cover in its place! :) ) The reviews it has are positive (all 3) but they only go back to November so they don't mean much yet.

[Dan Friedrichs]

Lowe's (and others) sells really nice drinking water faucets (quite an upgrade from those cheap ones with the little black plastic handle), and you could fit those to any type of filter system - no need to select a filter based on the faucet...

The Zuvo one appears to be just a UV and O3 generator? That might help if your water is bacteriologically unsafe, but I can't imagine how that would improve taste (by, say, removing chloramines). Shining UV on clean water does nothing, of course...

[glenn bradley]

+1 on Britta = happy. Your satisfaction will be directly proportional to what you are trying to achieve. Flavor? Perchlorates? Frogs? Finding the system that gets you to your goal sometimes selects the best system for you along the way.

[Chris Padilla]

We will visit our local Lowes and see what they have. The folks there might actually have some idea about our local water (maybe) and so I might glean some useful info from them.

[Ben Franz]

We have an ISE insta-hot/cold water filter under the kitchen sink. It has a hot/cold dispenser head mounted on the sink. I put in an air switch for the disposer that toggles the AC between the insta-hot heater (normal position) and disposer; this lets the disposer circuit feed the heater as well - useful in a retrofit where running the required individual circuits is difficult. My wife wants hot water available for tea 24/7 so it's either this or a standing hot water kettle out on the counter. For some (as yet unexplained) reason, we still buy water by the case. I've decided to ignore that in the interest of domestic tranquility. Maturity sucks!

[Chris Padilla]

http://www.sjwater.com/quality/faqs.jsp

Some info on our local water. I'm thinking I'm going to try and convince the family that our tap is fine AS IS. :)

Wish me luck.

[Mark Bolton]

http://www.sjwater.com/quality/faqs.jsp

Some info on our local water. I'm thinking I'm going to try and convince the family that our tap is fine AS IS. :)

Wish me luck.

If they just dont like the taste the britta option may work out though it may be hard to get them over the ease of grabbing a bottle.

Mark

[Robert Boyd]

Three years ago when I replaced the main plumbing line I decided to put in a water filter right after the meter. Therefore all the water is filtered in the house. It was a simple GE filter and we change it out about 4x a year. About ten dollars for two pack of filters.

http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1vZ1xhw/R-202073874/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

BOB

[Jeffrey Makiel]

The Brita options works well. The only catch is that the water in the pitcher can sometimes pickup the odors in the refrigerator if that's where you store the pitcher. I believe the Brita instructions tells you to always have the water in contact with the cartridge. I use it at my Mom's house.

At my home, I have a filter in my refrigerator that works quite well. I get about 8 months out of it (even though the sensor light says otherwise) and use it for all cooking and drinking.

I also have an under-sink filter from HomeDepot or Lowes that filters the water to my instant hot water spout. It works well too. If they sold instant hot makers with a cold water bypass, I'd probably never use the refrigerator water as the refrigerator filters are indeed pricey.

Jeff :)

[Jim Koepke]

Chris,

I was wondering which water system you are connected to in the bay area. When we lived there, we were connected to EBMUD. That was a pretty good system most of the year. During other parts of the year the blended with the West County Water service that got their water from the delta. Some of the areas have well water that I would not drink.

Save your plastic water bottles. We put a little water in ours and toss them in the freezer. Then when we take a road trip, we just add water. Depending on what is going on, some will have just a little water and for longer trips, some are filled all the way. Do not tighten the cap when putting them in the freezer and leave some room for expansion. A few of these in the ice chest can stay frozen for a day or two.

We have well water that is pretty good, but it does have a bit of iron that my wife doesn't like. So we also have a large Britta filter in the refrigerator. Ours holds about a gallon in the top and two in the bottom. The filters last us a few months and we just bought a bunch at Costco pretty cheap.

Once the water in a bottle freezes, you can lay them on their side as a power outage detector. If you are away for awhile and come back to see the ice is no longer in the same configuration, you know the power was off long enough to be a problem. This is not as likely in the bay area, but I do recall a time we lost power for a few days down there.

jtk

[Brian Elfert]

I have a water filter in my fridge at home and it seems to work just fine. Then again, I don't find the tap water to be undrinkable either.

I do use bottled water on trips though. When we are out in the desert it is important to drink enough water. I found that if one had to go inside the RV and get a cup of cold water that we were not drinking enough water to stay hydrated. We tend to drink more water when we put a cooler of bottled water outside. I hate the waste, but better than sickness from the heat.

[Art Mulder]

I'm thinking I'm going to try and convince the family that our tap is fine AS IS. :)


+1 on this.

From what I've read, most municipalities in Canada have perfectly safe drinking water.
I'd be surprised if it was any different in the US.

I just drink it straight from the tap.

[Joe Pelonio]

San Jose has perfectly good water. I'd suggest anodized (Outside) aluminum water bottles, one color for each person, that you can fill from the tap and maybe keep in the fridge if they want it cold and you don't have the fridge dispenser. Most bottled water comes from the tap anyway despite the fancy, clean and tasty sounding names.

[Brian Elfert]

Sure, most bottled comes from municipal water systems, but it is also heavily filtered and monitored for taste and bacteria. Grape juice and wine both come from grapes, but there is a huge difference between the two.

Now, I'm not advocating consumption of bottled water. Just because it comes from the tap doesn't mean they aren't adding value besides sticking it in a bottle.

I know many people complain about Americans spending money on bottled water, but how many people spend even more money on pop/soda? I can get bottled water for less money than pop/soda most of the time.

[Chris Padilla]

We're going with Brita for a few months and see how it goes: $22 for the pitcher + 2 filters (Costco, 10 filters for $35 as well) should have us set for about 4 months so we'll see what the wife thinks. BTW, me and the kid are cool with tap water...wife is the sensitive one. :)

Keep the responses coming...we may need to revisit this in the Spring. :D

[Bryan Morgan]

I have a 6 stage RO/DI system from Filters Direct. I have a saltwater aquarium so I need the pure water. Stage 4 or 5 has a tap that goes up to a sink spout. The system is great quality but was cheap, like $150 a few years ago. Still works great. Just have to change filters once a year and the RO membrane. Still way cheaper than buying filtered water.

[Darius Ferlas]

+1 on this.

From what I've read, most municipalities in Canada have perfectly safe drinking water.
I'd be surprised if it was any different in the US.

I just drink it straight from the tap.

It all depends on the locality. Where I live now the water tastes worse than it did when I lived in NYC.

Still, I saw water tests of St. Catharines water and some of the more popular bottled water brands. The municipal water won every time. I hear TO municipal water is of very good quality.

We have been using a large Brita container/filter for the last 15 years or so. We use that water also for all cooking.

[Mike Cutler]

Chris

From what you posted a simple charcoal/sediment filter would probably do it. However, I suspect that your water supplier is not being 100% truthful.

Chlorine off gases in the distribution system and loses it's effectiveness quickly. It is sometimes bound to an ammonia molecule, thus becoming chloamine, to keep it in solution. To remove the chlorine, you have to first strip it from the ammonia, then get rid of both the ammonia and the chlorine.

Look up Chloramine filtering.

I am personally more wary of bottled water than tap water.