Water filter

[Mark Gibney]

My wife wants to get a Berkey water filter, one that will stand on the kitchen counter.
I read up on them and they are not independently certified.
Does anyone here use them and how do you like them?
Is there another method you use and like?

There is just me and my wife in our home, and our water is from the Los Angeles municipal system.

Thanks!

[Alan Rutherford]

I have no experience with filters which live on the counter and that would be a non-starter in our house. However, I've installed several under the sink to filter all the cold water. If it's worth filtering what you drink, it's also worth filtering what you cook with and it's cheaper and easier to accomplish. Get a generic filter housing (example (https://www.amazon.com/Geekpure-10-Inch-Standard-Pressure-Bracket-Clear/dp/B07LCKBKCT/ref=sr_1_8)) (example (https://www.amazon.com/Hydronix-HF3-10CLBK34-Clear-Housing-Black/dp/B01CFOGE3K/ref=sr_1_5)) and a carbon filter element (example (https://www.amazon.com/EcoPure-EPW2C-Carbon-Replacement-Filter/dp/B00BA1DVMW/ref=sr_1_5)), hook it up and you're done if you're trying to improve the taste. If there's sediment in the water you can use 2 filters in series with a sediment filter (example (https://www.amazon.com/Replacement-Cartridge-Universal-Aqua-Pure-WFPFC4002/dp/B084GN9351/ref=sxin_16_pa_sp_search_thematic_sspa)) in the first one.

I you do 2, I would mount them on one piece of plywood. Then mount the assembly under the sink - easier than mounting 2 filters individually. If you later realize you don't need both filters, leave one empty. Remember to change the filter elements periodically. If you're not going to change the element, remove it - don''t leave one indefinitely.

[Brian Runau]

We put one under the sink to filter the cold water. Brian


https://www.amazon.com/Woder-Under-Counter-Water-Filter/dp/B0C1H6PMJ6/ref=asc_df_B0C1H6PMJ6/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=652399698633&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15700295044163983229&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9016156&hvtargid=pla-2187395103789&th=1


(https://www.amazon.com/Woder-Under-Counter-Water-Filter/dp/B0C1H6PMJ6/ref=asc_df_B0C1H6PMJ6/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=652399698633&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15700295044163983229&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9016156&hvtargid=pla-2187395103789&th=1)

[Larry Frank]

We had filters but now use an reverse osmosis unit. It gives great water.

[Paul F Franklin]

Pretty sure the larger units cannot be sold in CA because they haven't been independently certified to meet the no-lead law there. Maybe the countertop unit is exempt, but I would be asking why the company won't do the required third part testing. If you search for Berkey water filter test results, you will find some claims that third party testing shows they don't work as well as advertised.

If I were going to spend that kind of money on filtration, I would want to see independent lab test results proving effectiveness.

[Lawrence Duckworth]

I've been buying one-gallon jugs of drinking water for a long time. The price of a gallon of FDA-approved drinking water was $0.88 a year ago, now it's $1.34 a gallon, that's more than a50% increase in less than a year. Soooo, I've started looking into home water filters too. The one thing I can't do is crawl under the cabinet to change a filter…. It’ll be interesting, hope you get some good feedback.

[Mel Fulks]

Yeah, those filters are usually close to floor , but I you might be able to have it installed
at a comfortable height , I bet there are no rules about that. And it’s no uglier than blender
just left on the counter, pretty sure there are no rules about that.

[Jim Koepke]

We have well water with a lot of iron in it. For the last 15 years we have been using a Brita filter set up. It sits on a shelf in the refrigerator. It holds a few gallons of water. We use a gallon jug from Arizona Tea to fill the holding section of the unit as needed. To fit the jug under our faucet the top was trimmed a bit. A 3/8" hole was also drilled at the top of the handle to let air in when the water is being poured. A milk jug will also work.

There may be better systems for what you may need to filter out. My recollection is the taste of Los Angeles water is caused by a high mineral content. You may be able to get information on what all is in the water and look for a filtration system to remove those elements.

jtk

[Michael Schuch]

My house came with a reverse osmosis system installed under the kitchen sink. It has a sediment cartridge, a heavy metal cartridge and a charcoal cartridge integrated in front of the reverse osmosis membrane. Only a trickle of water comes through the reverse osmosis membrane so there is a couple gallon pressure tank under the sink that fills up so you can get a couple gallons of purified water instantly. Reverse osmosis systems are rated in GPD (how gallons per day they will filter).

Personally I prefer our excellent well water. I guess the previous owners already owned the unit when they bought the place which is why they had it installed. I only run our refrigerator through the reverse osmosis system so we get a few years out of the filter set. After we moved in the original salesman came to our door and offered to do the "annual maintenance" on the unit for something like $300+ (20 years ago). It cost me about $60 the last time I changed all the filters and the membrane myself.

If you are handy and can add a splitter to the shut off valve under the sink it will be easy to install a reverse osmosis system yourself for a couple hundred dollars. I would reccomend a unit something like this which uses the universal 2.5" x 10" cartridges. Beware of countertop units or under-sink units that take proprietary cartridges... they will soak you on the cost of the replacement cartridges!
https://www.amazon.com/APEC-5-Stage-Reverse-Drinking-Water/dp/B00I0ZGOZM/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=reverse%2Bosmosis%2Bsystem&s=hi&sr=1-4&th=1

I would also reccomend staying away from any system that has electronics. Reverse osmosis systems work on the water supply water pressure so there is no use for anything electronic. The electronics are just something else to break and serve no purpose other than a sales gimmick.

P.S. The 2.5" x 10" standard filters are a bit of a chore to change and not something you would want to do yourself if crawling under the sink isn't an option. The proprietary cartridges are supposed to be much quicker and easier to change... like the water filter cartridges for refrigerators. Just unscrew the old ones and screw in the new ones, no turning off the water required.

P.P.S. My daughter takes gallon jugs of our well water back to her dorm with her so her roommate and her don't have to put up with city water. Her roommate grew up on a farm and couldn't stomach city water.

[Larry Frank]

My water is awful and changes at times. It has high hardness, iron , sulfur, Manganese and others. We have had an air induction filter inline before the softener. It gets rid of the iron and sulfur by oxidizing them and the filtering the oxidized solids out. There is really no maintenance and uses no consumables. After it we have a softener and end up with great water. The reverse osmosis is in the kitchen and used for coffee makers and wife's drinking water

I have the salt for the softener delivered and it has gone up in price significantly.

[Alan Lightstone]

Having had, at times, extremely large (1000gal) marine fish tanks in the house, I was painfully aware of the labor and cost to have multiple RO units in the house (and 3 RO/DI units for the fish tank).

It's a pain to change the filter cartridges (and you really do need to keep up with changing the prefilters to protect the RO membrane, along with installing two little valves to periodically rinse the membrane, and changing the carbon filter), wrenches and all, going under the kitchen sink, etc... The RO cartridges used to last about 2 years, the other filter cartridges about every 6 months. It is helpful to have one of those cheap particle meters to know when it's time to replace the cartridges / RO membrane.

That being said, they did produce very pure water.

When we moved to our new house, we had a whole house filter installed, along with the water softener. No effort on our part. Is the water as good? No. But a Brita filter pitcher in the fridge and the built-in coffee filters on the Espresso machine (expensive), certainly do the trick for us now. And no fish tank. Whew!!!

[Brian Runau]

I've been buying one-gallon jugs of drinking water for a long time. The price of a gallon of FDA-approved drinking water was $0.88 a year ago, now it's $1.34 a gallon, that's more than a50% increase in less than a year. Soooo, I've started looking into home water filters too. The one thing I can't do is crawl under the cabinet to change a filter…. It’ll be interesting, hope you get some good feedback.

Our filter is just inside the left door, easy to get to in order to change. Brian

https://www.amazon.com/Woder-Under-Counter-Water-Filter/dp/B0C1H6PMJ6/ref=asc_df_B0C1H6PMJ6/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=652399698633&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15700295044163983229&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9016156&hvtargid=pla-2187395103789&th=1

[Bill Howatt]

I've been buying one-gallon jugs of drinking water for a long time. The price of a gallon of FDA-approved drinking water was $0.88 a year ago, now it's $1.34 a gallon, that's more than a50% increase in less than a year. Soooo, I've started looking into home water filters too. The one thing I can't do is crawl under the cabinet to change a filter…. It’ll be interesting, hope you get some good feedback.

FWIW, Where I am in Canada they sell so-called spring water or steam-distilled water. Steam distilled is about as pure as you can get and people do drink it for "health reasons", real or imagined, and the price in our grocery store is now about $1.50 Cdn per 4 liters just over 1 US gallon. Interestingly, it is sold in the general foodstuffs area and is also sold in the baby care area for the same price - found this out when I went to get some distilled for my CPAP machine and clerk said it was in the baby area for same price but a different label. This would work out to about $1.00 US per gallon.

[glenn bradley]

I'll just add this to the mix. The wife and I have used Brita pitchers for nearly 20 years. Now with just the two of us one pitcher handles all our coffee and cooking needs with ease.

[Mark Gibney]

Thank you all so much for this feedback, it's just what I was looking for.
Mark

[Barry McFadden]

I have been using one of these for years...works well.. has a carbon and a creamic filter https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/rainfresh-ucs2-drinking-water-system-2-0621001p.0621001.html?&&&&ds_rl=1283573&ds_rl=1283573&gclid=Cj0KCQjwqP2pBhDMARIsAJQ0CzqwLjFiqh109wq8mTsZ w692zdl8GcLRBkGyIVOahJ9DWqOjNH17XlQaAge5EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds#store=6

[Jim Becker]

I have the salt for the softener delivered and it has gone up in price significantly.
Least expensive I've found for this is Costco...just a little more than half the price as the local place I had been buying from. The Morton salt from Costco seems to last longer, too. That said, I'm considering moving away from the salt based softener to the Neuvo citrus based system. The salt is harming our houseplants big-time and the citrus based system seems to be better about counteracting the effects of minerals.

[Ron Selzer]

Least expensive I've found for this is Costco...just a little more than half the price as the local place I had been buying from. The Morton salt from Costco seems to last longer, too. That said, I'm considering moving away from the salt based softener to the Neuvo citrus based system. The salt is harming our houseplants big-time and the citrus based system seems to be better about counteracting the effects of minerals.


at approximately 6 months into the Neuvo large system. No dead or dying house plants, cut flowers, roses mostly, are lasting as long or longer. City water that has a mineral buildup, white deposits everywhere, that ruin water heaters that don't get flushed out. No longer see the white deposits or what few are seen are broken into very small particles. Went to this system after SWMBO bought 2 black sinks and fixtures for bathroom remodel. Basement shower doesn't appear to have the white buildup on shower curtain and chrome escutcheon plate. Bought from Home Depot with 3 three filters to get 12 months same as cash, paid off in 4 months. Have not changed filter yet, water tastes good to me, don't have the minerals floating around in the bottom the glasses left sitting for over a day. Refrigerator filter seems to be filtering water for drinking and ice cubes better.
Ron

[Jim Becker]

I was hoping to hear from you, Ron, as I remembered you got the Neuvo system. 'Glad things are positive so far. I wanted to get to it this past month, but life intervened...I'm shooting for early next year at this point, after my upcoming right wrist surgery is healed and I'm done PT for that. HD remains having the best price for sure...direct with discounts is still quite a bit more expensive.

[Lawrence Duckworth]

FWIW, Where I am in Canada they sell so-called spring water or steam-distilled water. Steam distilled is about as pure as you can get and people do drink it for "health reasons", real or imagined, and the price in our grocery store is now about $1.50 Cdn per 4 liters just over 1 US gallon. Interestingly, it is sold in the general foodstuffs area and is also sold in the baby care area for the same price - found this out when I went to get some distilled for my CPAP machine and clerk said it was in the baby area for same price but a different label. This would work out to about $1.00 US per gallon.




We have the same arrangement at Walmart with the relabelled baby water, which is the same price as spring/drinking water. I bought 15 gallons this morning. I won't go into why we go through so much. :rolleyes:

The Brita might be a solution worth trying, as well as some of the undercounter filters with the flex supply lines. maybe they could be mounted on a pullout slide to make servicing easier.

.....I do have some doubts about the advertised performance and purity claims though.

[Jim Becker]

Lawrence, I've used pitcher-based Brita in the past for drinking water and for making tea back when it was either "city" water which had a bad taste or prior to adding better filtration at our previous property on the well. The system works well, is not expensive and fills a need. I do not believe Brita and similar can take the place of serious filtering where the water supply needs significant help to either be safe or be palatable in taste. There are just some places that need more help which means either buying drinking water or installing a really good filtering system that's up to the task, either whole house or at the tap.

[Brian Elfert]

I use a Kinetico K5 reverse osmosis system for clean water at my house. It has a somewhat higher gallons per day than the cheap RO systems. One thing I like is it is officially supported to be remote mounted in my basement. Most of the cheap RO systems really need to be in the kitchen because they can't push the water very far. I read a lot about the cheap RO systems leaking after a few years. My Kinetico is nine years old and still chugging along. The membrane is supposed to be replaced at ten year intervals.

I have never seen a bad review about the Kinetco RO system as far as the system itself. All of the bad reviews are about the cost which was close to $1,800 installed in 2014.

[Stan Calow]

.....I do have some doubts about the advertised performance and purity claims though.

Well, the implication of seeing a bunch of numbers like that is that you have all that stuff in your tap water, when the likelihood is you don't. And note it's a one time test, so it doesn't show performance over a period of time. All that stuff that is removed has to go somewhere, so it's all about the maintenance.

Distilled water doesn't taste very good. And then it doesn't have all the minerals that other people pay extra to have in their bottled water, for health reasons.

l

[George Yetka]

The downfall of RO is that it lacks minerals and therefore is acidic after it comes out due to the waters need to attract something. I added a remineralizer to mine with a bypass so that I can balance how much minerals are in the water. Has been really good. The whole house system I have gets me there anyway but the RO is just added insurance.