Drinking water filters come in all shapes and sizes. There are currently dozens of brands on the market, as demand for the products has increased over the years. Having lots of products to choose from can be a good thing, but it can also be confusing. Let me try to dispel any confusion on the subject.
Shop for Quality, Not for Price
All of us have budgets, but some of those inexpensive filters come with hidden costs that can cost a family more in the long run. Experts advise looking at the “cost of use”. Here’s an example.
Brita pitchers are fairly inexpensive. They are sold in department stores and on the internet for around $32 retail. The replacement filtration cartridges costs about $8.00 each and have a maximum capacity of 40 gallons. That means the cost of use is 20 cents per gallon.
The better cartridges for the faucet mount systems have a maximum capacity of 500 gallons and a cost of use of only 10 cents. The faucet mount systems will cost more initially, but they are more convenient than the pitchers and you will save money in the long run.
Look at Certified Contaminants Removed, Not the Advertisements
The Brita drinking water filter removes only 7 contaminants. PUR, another leading brand, removes only 16. The better brands, like Aquasana, remove 52 or more.
Advertising claims can be misleading. There are no legal definitions of how clean and pure the result must be in order for a company to start selling a filtration system.
Certified Product Performance Data provides information the consumer can trust, but not all companies make the data freely available. One way to easily narrow down the selection is to look for companies that do.
Look for Package Deals
Some companies offer a discount when you buy a drinking water filter and a shower head system at the same time. It’s a great package deal. Quality matters when choosing a shower head system too. Most of them do not remove THMs, the cancer-causing chemicals.
Drinking water filters are not the only things you might be interested in. Dr Oz recently advised his viewers with children to invest in a shower head filter too. In case you didn’t see the show, here’s why he made that recommendation:
Chemicals can pass through the skin and enter the bloodstream. While they may not be immediately toxic, they do damage to the cells of our bodies. Children are particularly susceptible to the damage. Many of the chemicals are known carcinogens and the more a child is exposed to them, the greater the child’s future risk of cancer.
Look at the Warranty
The popular brands break easily. I know from personal experience, and there is no warranty. A company should warranty their products for at least a year. Not the filtration units, of course, but the tubes and parts that hook up to your faucet or shower head.
That’s my advice about a drinking water filter. Everybody needs one. Everybody should have access to a good one.
One brand that is an award winner is Aquasana.