My family drinks through bottled water like crazy and even though we recycle, it seems so wasteful to go through all those bottles. Plus, I'm not too crazy about the plastic the water's sitting in. I've started looking at those water filters that you snap onto your faucet (as opposed to a pitcher) but there's so much information out there. Do you have a water filter that you love? How much was it and what's the upkeep like?
Thanks!!
We have tons of Britta pitchers. I think about 5, we got them as wedding gifts and then again as house warming gifts so we have a great collection.
The 'Vintage' model is by far my favorite. It typically gets filled up in the morning and again while cooking dinner and that is all. The Pacifica and The Grand are also great models!
We live in Texas and at different times of the year, the water tastes like pond scum. So my husband installed a reverse osmosis filter under our sink. I love it. :)
We also have filter on our showers: http://www.aquasana.com/product_detail.php?product_id=2
That takes away the smell and seems to have helped with our skin too.
Tap water is generally safe to drink without filtering. I drank it all my life growing up and into adulthood and never suffered any ill effects from it.
My ex, however, had a thing about "toxins" everywhere, so he bought a GE Smart Water filter pitcher, and a Pur filter that attached to the faucet. Both were, IMO, a waste of money, because the replacement filter cartridges cost almost as much as a whole new unit.
I recently bought the Nikken water filter and I LOVE IT!!! the water tastes great and since I was able to find an older model (Aqua Pour) that uses a water cooler (I didn't have the counter space for the new model), I always have Ice cold water or hot water for my teas. My kids love it and even when their friends come over, they can't get enough; it has helped me a lot on getting them to drink more water and less juice.
The only down side is that its expensive, its about $300 but the replacement filters are only bought like once a year but IMO it was worth it since I now have alkaline water all the time and it really tastes awesome.
Good luck to you!!!
Do you have city water or well water?
What you need depends on what you want to filter out and that can vary greatly depending on where you are and where your water comes from.
GE Reverse Osmosis. Its about $280 at Home Depot. Worth every penny!
We use a Brita Pitcher also.
Do you have a water dispenser on your fridge door?
We love ours, it's filtered and we drink SO much more water now and buy a LOT less water in plastic bottles.
We use a brita pitcher. It cost about $20 and came with two filters. You can now buy generic replacement filters at 4/$15 v. 4/$20-29 for the Brita filters.
The filters last us about 3 months. We use the filtered water for tea and coffee, for water, and for cooking. We are a family of three, and both of us work outside of the home.
If you get two gallon sized pitchers, you will do fine and it will cost you about $40 a year for all your water needs (including filling reusables for lunch, the car, and on the go).
Best,
F. B.
We don't have a faucet filter, but we have this in the fridge:
https://www.brita.com/products/water-dispensers/ultramax/
I got it when my kids were little. The dispenser made it easy for them to pour their own. It holds over a gallon of water.
We love our culligan reverse osmisis system. It takes the least amount of water for filtering and tastes great.
Buy distilled and use refillable bottles. If you keep the water in the fridge and shake it up before you pour it into the cup it tastes great.
Water that is not distilled has minerals in it. They can pile up in your kidneys and stick together making kidney stones so we got in the habit of drinking distilled all the time.
Our Urologist told us to do that so hubby wouldn't have kidney stones anymore. Since we started doing distilled only he hasn't had one at all.
I like Zero Water filter pitcher. It filters out a lot more then the Brita's.
I don't like anything attached to my faucet, they are annoying and just get in the way.
We have a PUR filter that attaches to the faucet. We had a Brita pitcher for years and when it broke a few months ago, we replaced it with the faucet filter. I really like this so much better. It's fast, and it's great to be able to filter not only our drinking water, but also the water we use in the tea kettle, or boil food in, etc. I also like that it gives us more room in the fridge.
At first I thought it would be in the way but when I don't need it, I just swivel it backwards under faucet and it's out of the way.
Regarding distilled water that another responder mentioned...not a healthy choice for regular drinking water. It might be good for someone with a specific health issue but for the rest of us, the minerals that are in water are good for us and the lack of them leeches those minerals from our bodies, which can lead to all kinds of other health issues.
