This is my overview of simple (no-plumbing) water filtration systems currently on the market. As with many of my posts, I’m writing this up to make sure I understand the topic. I doubt anyone will read the detail.
To cut to the chase, after 20 years, we’re abandoning our standard Brita water filter in favor of the upgraded version, the Brita Elite. The new Brita filter fits the old pitchers, but appears to do a much better job at filtration.
This, while I continue to look over our options for a more sophisticated filtration system.
In brief:
Near as I can tell, your options for simple water filtration at home boil down to:
- Reverse osmosis countertop units.
- Pour-through pitcher filters
- Activated carbon (Brita standard)
- Activated carbon and ion-exchange resin (Zerowater).
- Activated carbon and other media (Brita Elite).
- Powered (pump-driven) activated carbon filter (Aquasana)
- Micro-pore plus activated carbon filters (Lifestraw).
There are probably some others. There are water distillers,but those use a lot of energy. There are no-name versions of activated carbon filters. The Berkey water filters appear to be mostly activated carbon. Otherwise, it boils down to reverse osmosis (which will always include a carbon filter anyway), or some form of activated carbon filter, plus or minus other filter media included with the carbon.
To me, the big surprise was the operating cost of the Zerowater pour-through filters. Those filters appear to do an excellent job at removing stuff from your water. But each large filter element costs $15, and they only last about a month in normal use. That’s money well spent if you have the sort of problem those filters can handle (e.g., high sodium or heavy metal load in your water). If not, $180 a year is quite a bit to pay for filtered water.
A second surprise was the Lifestraw filter. Lifestraw is known for its outdoor products, to be used to (e.g.) filter raw water when camping, or in emergencies. They’ve now put that same micro-pore membrane technology in a pour-through pitcher for the home, adding a big block of activated carbon. The claim here is that not only would this filter out bacteria, but also microplastic, and most organic and many heavy-metal contaminants.
A third surprise was the Aquasana filter, which takes activated-carbon filtration to a higher level buy pumping water through a carbon-block filter under pressure. This allows them to have a stand-alone (non-plumbed) countertop unit with what appears to be an excellent level of filtration.
At the end of the day, I decided to keep it simple. My main complaint is the taste of chlorine, which all of these filters will handle. Otherwise, I just have some nagging worries about stray organic compounds in the water, because a non-negligible portion of what I drink probably came out of a sewage treatment plant somewhere upstream of me.
Accordingly, I decided to stick with activated carbon filtration, and just up the quality a bit. And that means switching to the modestly-better Brita Elite filter, from the standard Brita filter. YMMV. Depending on what your worries are, regarding your municipal water, you might rationally choose something else.
Tedious details follow.
Background
Let me begin by saying that I am not a nut. I am completely aware that the water provided by the Town of Vienna, VA is pretty clean, as these things are reckoned. I know that because I bother to read the annual water quality report that the Town must provide to the citizens (available at this link). Nothing in the water exceeds any limits, and most of the stuff if vastly below allowable levels for drinking water.
And yet, we’ve filtered our drinking water through a Brita pitcher filter for several decades now. (You know what I mean — we do change the filter regularly.) Mainly, that was to remove the taste of the chloramine used to treat the water in our municipality. The standard Brita filter works well for that purpose.
We’re now rethinking our long-standing attachment to Brita after purchasing a Zerowater filter as a wedding gift. The newlyweds in question live right at the edge of the Chesapeake Bay. That means great views and lousy drinking water. It’s also a good guess that their water will have a fairly high sodium (salt) content. Zerowater is (I think) the only simple pour-through filter that will take a modest amount of dissolved salt out of the water. At least, that’s the promise — the zero in Zerowater is for zero dissolved solids after filtration.
The performance of the Zerowater filter is impressive, but it’s not like there’s any particular reason to seek zero-dissolved-solids as a goal. For example, in Town of Vienna water, overwhelmingly the largest component of dissolved solids is salt. We’ve got about 40 parts per million sodium. That’s roughly the concentration you’d get from one teaspoon of salt in 13 gallons of water. It’s negligible.
In any case, this change isn’t prompted by any specific new concerns about the water we’re drinking. It’s more like an increasing level of unease about tap water in general. As we stuff more and more people into the same area of land, increase our use of exotic chemicals, vastly expand the number of prescription medications being taken, and so on … I do have to wonder whether the water filter we picked twenty years ago is still up to the task.
A particularly fun fact is that about 7 million people live in the Potomac River watershed (source), and a whole lot of them live upstream of me. With everything that implies for what’s in my water, which is a mix of water from the Potomac River and Occoquan Creek (reference).
I couldn’t find any exact figures for the fraction of Potomac River flow that consists of discharges from sewage treatment plants. But, roughly speaking, average Potomac river flow is about 7 billion gallons a day, and the average person uses about 100 gallons of water a day. When I do the math, that says that by the time it reaches the Chesapeake, something like 10% of Potomac River flow has, at some point, been discharged by a sewage treatment plant. That’s imprecise, owing to (e.g.) septic systems and such. But it’s enough to tell you that if something passes through those sewage treatment plants, there’s a good chance I’m going to find it in my drinking water, to some degree.
Quick rundown of water filtration options available on Amazon.
Part 1: What am I trying to filter out?
Before I go down this path, I need to ask myself what I’m trying to filter out. First and foremost, chlorine and chloramine. Second, any sort of organic molecules such as residues from chlorination, plus pharmaceuticals, pesticides, herbicides, and the like. In my case, I can look at my town’s water quality report and see that herbicides and pesticides aren’t much of an issue. Finally, I guess, microplastic.
The microplastic piece is more along the lines of trendy paranoia than any actual facts. On the one hand, I don’t know whether it’s a problem with my drinking water. On the other hand, I can’t know, because nobody tests it. Plus, that term is so broad as to be useless in this context. As I understand it, with regard to drinking water, microplastic is almost entirely fragments of polyester fiber. Even if present, I’m not sure what the proven harm is. That said, the idea of drinking polyester fiber is unappealing.
I’m not particularly concerned about heavy metals or dissolved minerals, or bacteria or other pests. My town tests the water every year or so, and those never seem high enough to be a significant concern.
Part 2: What’s available on Amazon?
Reverse osmosis.
- Under-counter (connected-to-your-plumbing) units $170 or so, $70/year replacement filter costs (for this unit).
- Countertop (not-connected-to-your-plumbing) units from $350 or so, $120/year in replacement filter costs (for this countertop unit).
These systems pre-filter the water, then squeeze it through a membrane with extremely small pores. Properly run, a reverse-osmosis system (with included activated-carbon or carbon-block filter) will remove more-or-less anything larger than a water molecule. These typically require annual replacement of the filters.
Back in the day, opting for a reverse-osmosis system was something of a commitment. All such units for the home had to be plumbed into place, and they typically wasted five gallons of water for every gallon of purified water produced.
These days, you can buy “countertop” units that replace your home water pressure with an electric pump. You still need to keep them near a sink, as you have to have a place for the un-filtered water to drain out. Otherwise, at the cost of a little electricity and some wasted water, you can now have a reverse-osmosis system that doesn’t have to be attached to your home plumbing.
When all is said and done, I think that these are a little too complex for my needs. The idea of monkeying with the plumbing and countertops is unappealing. By contrast, the stand-alone (countertop) units, with their electronic controls and motors, seem like just another appliance destined to end up in the landfill. (Plus, they depend on filters from a specific manufacturer who may or may not be around a decade from now.) Finally, most of the filtering action I’m looking for comes from the activated-charcoal or carbon-block filters, not from the reverse osmosis filter itself.
Traditional Brita filter.
Pitcher filter $30, annual filter replacements around $20, using generic filters.
This is your classic pour-through water filter using an activated charcoal filter. Some types of chemicals “adsorb” onto the ultra-porous activated charcoal. Brita advertises these mainly as a way to eliminate chlorine taste (and they do that well). Lately they’ve added claims about reductions in some mercury, cadmium, and copper. They don’t make any claims about organic compounds, but my understanding is that activated charcoal ought to do something. Does nothing for dissolved minerals.
This is what I use now. I’m looking for an upgrade.
Brita Elite filter.
Pitcher filter $30, annual filter replacements around $36.
This is a new, higher-quality filter cartridge that will fit into existing Brita filters. Basically, they took their crude activated-charcoal filter and upped its game. In addition to filtering out chlorine, this one also filters lead (99%), some other heavy metals, and to an un-quantified degree, microplastic.
Basically, where the original filter was just a plastic can filled with pellets of the filtering material, this new one actually has an internal structure to it. It remains primarily an activated-carbon filter, with a few bells and whistles.
Zerowater
Pitcher filter for about $35, annual filter replacement cost of maybe $180?
This is the new kid on the block for pour-through filters. Using a much larger, more complex, and much slower filter than the Brita, this claims to filter out 99% of all dissolved solids: ” … organic and inorganic materials such as pesticides, metals including lead and mercury, minerals, salts, and ions.”
This is what I bought as a wedding present specifically because it filters out salt. I’m pretty sure that’s the only simple pitcher filter that will do that.
That all sounds great, until you realize that the filters are only good for about 30 gallons (depending on what’s in your water) and they cost $15 each. Near as i can tell, there are no generic filters available. Doing the math, at a gallon a day, that’s $180 a year in large, plastic, disposable filters.
Lifestraw
Pitcher filter $40, annual filter replacement cost $50.
This is a combination of a membrane-type filter with pores small enough to filter out bacteria and (claimed) microplastics, followed by a large filter that appears to be primarily an activated-charcoal filter. Because of that large second filter, which probably also contains some sort of ion-exchange medium to pick up heavy metals, it also claims to result in substantial reductions in “… lead, mercury, and chemicals including PFAS (“forever chemicals”), chlorine, herbicides, pesticides …”
Arguably the oddest aspect of this water filter is that could could feed it raw (untreated) water and it would generate safe drinking water. (Just like the original Lifestraw products.) The only other filter that is capable of doing that is reverse osmosis, and those are definitely not made to be fed raw, untreated water.
Aquasana countertop water filter
Unit is $200, annual filter replacement cost is $60 per year.
This is an interesting take on a carbon or activated-charcoal filter. Rather than letting water trickle through a fairly loosely-packed filter, this one pumps pressurized water through something more like a dense carbon-block filter. That, and a couple of additional filter steps,allow it to remove chlorine, lead, most organics (pesticides, herbicides, pharmacueticals), and microplastic.
In short, this is a powered, high-density carbon filtration system. Best guess, it’s probably quite a bit better than the un-powered (drip-through) systems.
Conclusion
The question is, how much filtration do I need? As stated at the outset, my municipal water is pretty clean.
And, more-or-less everything that I’m trying to filter out of my water will be caught by the new Brita Elite filter. Chloramine, plus any stray organic compounds that made it through various sewage treatment plants upstream of me. Plus, maybe, microplastic, if that exists in my water, and if that’s a problem I need to worry about.
I’m sure that some of the other systems will do a better overall job than this improved Brita filter. And I may look into that, at some point. But for now, I’d say it’s a no-brainer to move up to this new, higher-quality Brita filter. And maybe reconsider my options once I’ve learned a little more about this topic.
