From replacement filters to overall filter life, I gained a better understanding of how these faucet mount water filters have changed these people’s lives. The overall design of the PUR PLUS leaves a little to be desired. Compared to other tap water filters, this unit is built sideways, which can be an issue if you don’t have a dishwasher.
Pur and Brita are two of the most popular, consistent, and well-respected water filter brands around—which is why their products take the top awards in both our pitcher filter and faucet water filter reviews. Low and behold, people wanted to talk about their thoughts on who has the best faucet water filters. After my friends had forgiven me for calling them so late, and I went back to sleep for a few hours, I took my list of 30 different faucet water filters and headed over to the local library to access the internet. A couple of things are holding the REGENERATE back from climbing my list of the best faucet filters.
Tim Heffernan is a senior staff writer at Wirecutter and a former writer-editor for The Atlantic, Esquire, and others. He has anchored our unequaled coverage brita water dispenser of air purifiers and water filters since 2015. In 2018, he established Wirecutter’s ongoing collaboration with The New York Times’s Smarter Living.
Over their nearly 30 years of business, Pur has grown into a top-tier filter brand, rivaling the top player for product quality and filtering power. The fact that Pur often offers similar—and sometimes superior—contaminant removal for an attractive price, means that their products consistently rank among the most well-reviewed online. The Pur Ultimate 11-Cup won our Top Pick in our review of the Best Water Filter Pitchers of 2020, and their faucet model also took the Best Overall brita water filter faucet spot in our review of the best faucet filters. They cannot be installed on faucets with integral pull-out sprayers—only on traditional one-piece faucets. Their water-delivery rate is not great (usually around half a gallon a minute), so it takes a while to fill a pot or a large drinking bottle. Most filter installations include a way to toggle between using the filter and using the regular tap, but if you accidentally run hot tap water through the filter, it can be damaged.
Brita filters can feature in faucets or certain water pitchers or bottles. People may use these filters to remove components of water that can affect its taste, smell, or safety. That said, we’d probably shift our recommendation to the Pur Ultimate 11-Cup if we were considering a pitcher filter for non-average tap water. If you have specific filtering needs, especially for removing cysts, then go with Pur, even though it may cost you slightly more in the long term. But, if we had to choose one, we’d go with Brita LongLast 10-Cup.