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) (example) and a carbon filter element (example), 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) 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=&hvqm t=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9016156&hv targid=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-...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-C...395103789&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