Water Filter Review -Water filters beat buying bottled water

Concern about possible contaminants in drinking water — reinforced by the aging of most municipal water systems — has led to a sharp rise in sales of bottled drinking water. However, Good Housekeeping magazine estimates that filtering water at home can save about $200 a year compared with buying bottled water, even taking into account the cost of replacement filters. Both Brita and PUR, two of the leading water-filter brands, say their water-filter pitchers contain no bisphenol A (BPA) — a chemical that’s still in some plastic water bottles. Water filters are also much better for the environment than disposable plastic bottles, and now Brita is starting to recycle the disposable filters from its popular pitchers.

Reviews of water filters cover three basic factors: filtering effectiveness, water taste and ease of use. Comparison tests at Consumer Reports and Good Housekeeping cover all three factors, but with different emphases. Consumer Reports tests more types and models, but relies on lab tests for lead and chloroform to indicate overall filtering effectiveness. Overall ratings there emphasize flow rate and ease of use more than at Good Housekeeping, whose editors say filtering out the most contaminants is more important than cost or convenience. Good Housekeeping tests for 13 contaminants, but only covers faucet-mount and pitcher water filters. A detailed lab study published at Water Technology Online tests water filters for one of the most difficult contaminants to filter out, perfluorochemicals (PFCs), the chemicals used to make Teflon and Gore-Tex.

Experts recommend relying on lab tests by the National Sanitation Foundation (NSF), which certifies specific water filters and tells exactly which contaminants they reduce, and by how much. An excellent review on National Geographic‘s Green Guide website summarizes the NSF ratings for some of the most popular water filters, but you can check the NSF database before buying any water filter. The key, say experts, is to have your tap water tested before you buy a filter, so you’ll be choosing a water filter that fits your exact needs. You may find out that you don’t need a water filter at all — unless you just don’t like the taste of your tap water.

Many people don’t like the taste of chlorine, and shower water filters — which filter chlorine out — are also becoming popular since chlorine can affect skin and hair. We found quite a few articles pointing out that you can absorb water contaminants through the skin just as you can from drinking. We found some informal comparisons and owner-written reviews of shower water filters, but no official agency tests, rates or regulates them.

Reviews note that while the best pitcher, dispenser and faucet-mount water filters can handle the most common water contaminants in tap water, the sediment found in some water can clog them so quickly that they’re virtually unusable. Whole-house water filters are better for filtering out sediment and rust, but not for lead, bad tastes or many other contaminants, so you may still need a point-of-use water filter for those.

Home Water Purification Secrets To Keep You Safe and Healthy

If you are looking to get a water purification device then it pays to learn which type to look for and which to avoid. With so many available, the choice can seem bewildering, but with a little knowledge the task becomes quite simple.

Unfortunately, home water purification has become almost a necessity today with all the contaminants and outbreaks of disease related to water pollution, and with many municipals introducing chloramines to clean the supplies instead of chlorine, the situation is deteriorating further.

Chloramine is a mixture of chlorine and ammonia and as it stays in the supplies for longer it leaches out toxic lead from the pipes, including the ones in your home. Therefore any water purifier you get needs to be able to take out lead effectively for starters as over 1 in 5 Americans now have their water treated this way.

The secret to pure, healthy water is to select a multi-step carbon block system with ion exchange and sub micron filtering as these are proven to remove 99% of all the bad stuff yet still leave in the essential trace minerals like calcium which are good for us.

The bad stuff includes an ever growing list of pesticides, herbicides, chlorine, lead, prescription drugs and PCB’s and it’s estimated that you have a 93% higher chance of getting cancer if you use chlorinated water, without some form of home water purification.

If you don’t get a whole house system to clean all your water, then it’s worth looking at getting a shower filter in addition to the regular countertop type as you can absorb more toxins, especially chloroform, in a 10 minute shower than by drinking over two liters of unfiltered water!

If you want the peace of mind that comes from having the most effective home water purification available to keep your family safe, then follow these guidelines and you can soon start enjoying great tasting healthy water as it should be, free from any harmful chemicals.

What Are Experts Saying About Chloramine Water And Cancer?

While there are lots of chlorine filters on the market, there aren’t many effective chloramine water filters to choose from.  Only recently have facilities started switching from chlorine to chloramines for disinfection purposes.

Crystal Clear Water Systems

They made the switch because chlorine tends to dissipate, as it makes its way through the pipelines.  Chloramines, on the other hand, remain active.

In terms of killing bacteria and other germs in the pipelines, that’s a good thing.  But, there are some drawbacks.  Public healthcare organizations consider the drawbacks minor, because controlling waterborne illnesses is much more important to them.  To the individual, the drawbacks are scary.

Researchers have shown that cancer-causing byproducts are created when chloramines react with organic material.  In Canada, it has been estimated that every year, there are 700 new cases of cancer caused by exposure to those byproducts.

This is not exposure that occurs when handling the chemicals, as one would in a facility, although that is a health risk.  It is exposure that occurs when we drink, cook with and shower in unfiltered water on a daily basis.  Since the chloramines remain active, they react with bacteria on our skin to form those cancer-causing byproducts.

If we make an effort to reduce our exposure to these chemicals, whenever possible, we reduce our risk of cancer, which is currently the number one cause of death in the United States.  Installing an effective chloramine water filter that also traps the disinfection byproducts is an easy and inexpensive step to take towards better long-term health.  Systems are available for the kitchen, the showerhead and even the whole house.

An effective filter will include multiple steps.  Granular activated carbon reduces cancer-causing chemicals.  A carbon and multi-media block further reduces them to a point that they are practically non-existent.

The best systems also include an ion exchange step, because that removes lead and other metallic particles.  It balances the mineral content and improves the pH level.

Chloramine water filters are always recommended for home aquariums, because the chemical is toxic to fish and plants.  Filters for aquariums actually cost more than those that can be mounted on a kitchen tap.

Treating cancer is expensive, which is why socialist countries like Canada are interested in the number of annual cases associated with exposure to disinfection byproducts.  They want to know how much it is costing them. 

Perhaps the best thing that they could do is supply all homes with an effective chloramine water filter.  It would probably save them money, in the long run.

Why is bottled water waste a concern? Here are just a few reasons…

Americans used 50 billion water bottles in 2006 and sent 38 billion water bottles to landfills, the equivalent of 912 million gallons of oil.1, 2, 3, 4 If laid end to end, that’s enough bottles to travel from the Earth to the Moon and back 10 times.5 If placed in a landfill or littered, those bottles could take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade.2

• The energy we waste using bottled water would be enough to power 190,000 homes.6
• In 2006, the average American used 167 disposable water bottles, but only recycled 38.1
• Americans used about 50 billion plastic water bottles in 2006. However, the U.S.’s recycling rate for plastic is only 23 percent, which means 38 billion water bottles — more than $1 billion worth of plastic — are wasted each year.1