I have one of those pitchers that I mainly use to get rid of the chlorine taste in the tap water, but are the actual health claims about drinking filtered water actually true? There are claims that these dinky little passive filters can get rid of things like lead and PFAS which I honestly don’t believe. Especially if you’re using it with tap water which I’d assume would always have some kind of active filtration before it gets to your home, so the idea that whatever got past the industrial grade filter at the water treatment plant can be caught by a little plastic one sounds more than a little fishy to me. Anyone have knowledge about this.
I just use those filters to get rid of the hardness in the water due to drinking tea.
Britta filters can reduce water hardness to a little margin but I wouldn’t bet on those to reduce water hardness…
Better have specific filters under the sink to reduce those carbonates or if you have some money to spare (~1000$) a specific machine directly connected to your water income in the basement !
The ones we use, lasts for about 2-3 months.
Usage is 1L every two days with moderate hard water.
You definitely see the reduction from the tea I have at home vs work.
If I leave the tea at home to cool on the desk, it still hasnt developed the thin film of (I believe) tannins in comparison to the tea at work which looks like I could walk on it.
Where I live the water is very hard, poor quality (but inside of the allowed limits), and also the pipes in my flat’s building are fucking old, so yes, I only drink from bottled or filtered water.
It might not pose a real risk, but I prefer err on the safe side. Additionally the Brita filter removes the nasty taste that the tap water has here and the kettle doesn’t have lime stains.
If you have decent quality tap water you aren’t going to see any health benefits from filtering. You’re right to be skeptical. If you think the taste is better after filtering, then that is a good enough reason to filter. Personally, I shifted over to unfiltered tap water decades ago and am fine with it.
Flint residents making sad noises
Not sure if a generic tap water filter will do you any good.
They’re not really made to filter any dangerous contaminants.They aren’t a substitute for proper water supply, but activated charcoal filters connect with contaminents including lead. I still would not drink it though. And you’d probably need a new filter every day LOL
Lucky me, I live in iowa and the farmers are dumping so much shit that the nitrates have been building up in our water supplies. Iowa is second ranked for cancer rates and only state where they are going up.
But don’t you worry about Monsanto and company, the state passed laws to make it difficult to sue those companies and they are cutting down in water testing, so I’m sure it’s going to get so much better. FREEDOM!
You and I are lucky to have quality tap water. I live in the Bay Area and our water is awesome. Go down to LA and it’s poison.
Live in LA. Water is good
Not true - I live in LA county and the water where I am is excellent - pretty much no benefit from filtering.
I guess things changed since two decades ago? What happened to give you guys safe water? In 2002, my friends in LA bought jugs of bottled water at the store because by the time it was piped down, all kinds of nasty shit had leached into it.
Maybe it depends on where? I’ve lived here all my life and the water quality has always been excellent. But my understanding is that, because the county is so huge, different parts get their water from different sources. So maybe I’m just fortunate to live in an area that’s good.
Aha, I see. My friends lived in North Hollywood at the time. I really don’t know the layout or anything beyond that. But the county being huge sounds familiar and would make sense if this varies a lot.
I use mine mostly to store cold water in the fridge.
I started using one of those fizzy-water-makers and I swear the water tastes better.
(I do not filter the tap water.)
Seltzer water is mildly acidic compared to tap water, which would affect how you perceive the taste
TIL!
Same. I drink about a gallon a day now. It’s so good. I’m on well water, and it does have a strong mineral taste, but when fizzy and cold it’s not noticeable at all.
Project farm did a cool unbiased comparison of the different water filters. Tldw: zero water wins.
Do you want to have 0 total dissolved solids? A lot of minerals in your drinking supply can be a good thing.
Very cool link though, thanks!
Yeah I thought about that, too. Depends on what you want I guess!
Activated carbon does absorb lead because it has a variety of binding sites that will bind to lead ions. The problem is, those binding sites are limited and will get quickly used up if you’re having to actually deal with any significant amount of lead and if you have other metal ions (like copper) trying to compete for binding sites the whole profile looks worse. This means if you’ve got hard water with a ton of competing ions, the filter will likely do dick for lead. So the Brita filters do do something, but if there’s an actual utility to what they do in regards to heavy metals depends on the water.
Filters like britta make your coffee or tea taste nicer and you barely have to decalcify your machine or kettle.
But healthier? Never seen any study that proves it (it would be nearly impossible to really make any claim stick, because tap water varies quite a lot across regions and countries)
This has been exactly my experience as well. I’ve actually read that coffee is supposed to taste better when it’s brewed with the unfiltered minerals in it, but I definitely think it tastes better with filters water. And I live somewhere with really good tap water.
Depends on the minerals. It absolutely matters, in a way apparent to most folks’ palates when drinking a quality cup. At the high end, or for finicky industrial testing, or for things like comparative tastings in different locations, there is even engineered coffee brewing water with controlled chemistry for peak performance.
Ah yes, standard water.
I think the going thing is don’t use distilled water in coffee
You’re correct, unsure why this got a downvote. Think of how distilled water feels weirdly slick in the mouth, almost a bit like glycerin. Soluble minerals are chemically grippy on the grounds and between the tastebuds. Their absence leads to underextracted coffee.
Depends on the filters. Brita have two types of filter, one of which filters lead out of water. I would argue that makes the water healthier.
Pour Mountain Dew through a fresh Brita filter and watch what happens.
Love seeing this in the comments:
Sorry, my original comment was deleted.
Please think about leaving Reddit, as they don’t respect moderators or third-party developers which made the platform great. I’ve joined Lemmy as an alternative: https://join-lemmy.org/
Recently while troubleshooting I’ve found a lot of deleted comments with dozens of people saying thanks, often for years afterwards. Reddit annoyed their most valuable posters and we’re all paying for it.
The most valuable posters to them now are the sheep that will accept all the changes to r*ddit, no questions asked. Bonus points for boot licking behavior.
consider r/redditseppuku
I have a Britta jug in my fridge that hasn’t had a filter in it for years. It keeps my unfiltered tap water cold. I love it.
I can’t say anything definitively about any health claims, but as someone who lives (and occasionally struggles) with very hard water, activated carbon filters absolutely do make a difference in regards to calcification at and around every tap/faucet.
I should probably set a timer or alarm of some sort, but it’s easy to visually see when it’s time to replace my filters.
They are irrelevant, except for a few compounds that affect taste, if your local water treatment plant is doing its job properly. I’ve had the misfortune of renting in an area that did a half-ass job with water treatment, so I used those attachments as a precaution. The water did taste better, but hard water deposits were still about as bad as without it. Didn’t run any tests beyond that though.
The issue really comes in with the lifespan of the filters. If you’re intent on staying hydrated, you’ll burn through cartridges (and $$$) like nobody’s business and it’s tempting to put off changing out filters for weeks at a time. And after several months, the attachment itself will leak quite profusely from the filter/passthrough toggle.
If you actually do need to treat your water, such as in the case of well water, and have access to your plumbing, it’s much more economical to install an inline or whole-home filtration system.
I think you need a zero water filter I think they’re supposed to be the best.
They work for getting rid of that ‘hard’ water taste.
It might reduce lead and PFAS in some small way (leaving them trapped in the filter and slowly leeching into every glass you pour until you replace it), but it’s not really doing much for that. It’s not going to fix Flint Michigan’s water.
If you’re in a place with bad drinking water, first you should use one of those water purification tablets, then put the water through a Brita filter to get rid of the tablet’s taste.
I feel most people prob use the filter longer than they should and cause more risk that any benefit they will gain.
Brita filters are just carbon filters. They make water taste less like the minerals in your water. There are some filter pitchers that filter out more things, such as lead,
Honestly that fits what I use it for then. I’ve got into debates with my family about not changing the filter when the pitcher tells us to and doing it only when we taste the chlorine in the tap water (since the only reason I didn’t want it in there was because I didn’t like the taste). I always just saw it as a way to make the water taste better but they think there’s a health benefit and that it filters out more than just chlorine.
they think there’s a health benefit and that it filters out more than just chlorine.
Depending on where you are they’re not wrong. It’s a carbon filter, and carbon filters remove plenty more than just the chlorine taste, but what they’ll remove from your water depends what’s in your water. Like I wouldn’t ever bother with a filter when I’m in Edinburgh, but in America I’d probably want all my water filtered.
