Some people have a private well that they need to monitor themselves, but the vast majority of us rely on a local water authority. Many of those offices will mail a consumer confidence report directly to you, or you can find it through the Environmental Protection Agency database. This shows how close household water is to the goals set by policy-makers. They’ll also report on secondary standards, water-quality factors that affect taste, color and hardness. If you’re going to be diligent about replacing filters, the ZeroWater system is better at letting you know what’s going on.
Deionized water, as you get with a ZeroWater filter pitcher, is one option. These filters remove nearly everything from water for as long as the expensive ion-exchange media is still working. If you’ve got more than 400 ppm of dissolved solids in your water, ZeroWater cartridges might need replacing after just 10 gallons. At about $10 per filter, a water softener and reverse-osmosis system start looking more reasonable if you’re filtering more than a gallon per day of something like mineral-rich well water.
The ProOne® Water Filter Pitcher is made from BPA and BPS free food grade materials and includes a removable fruit/vegetable infusion tube. Water softeners don’t target contaminants or particulates that lead to odors or taste. “Softeners are specific kinds of water brita filter pitcher treatment devices that are designed to lower the water’s calcium and magnesium content,” said Dr. Roy. This decreases the amount of limescale build-up in pipes, fixtures, and appliances. Unfortunately, the PUR pitcher I tested had the slowest filtering rate by far.
The original Longlast received frequent complaints of clogging due to the sediment present in some tap water, and Brita said the Longlast+ was vulnerable to the problem as well. In our testing, the Longlast+ slowed down long before reaching its 120-gallon capacity, and many, many owners complain of this problem, too. That’s the main reason the Longlast+ isn’t our top pick among pitcher filters, even though it has the best ANSI/NSF certifications. brita water dispenser In 2016, we conducted several of our own tests on multiple filters (including the predecessor of the Pur Pitcher Filter and the Brita Standard), to compare our results against ANSI/NSF certifications and manufacturer claims. In his lab, John Holecek measured each filter’s removal of chlorine (which has a big impact on water’s taste and smell) and ability to remove total dissolved solids (basically, mineral salts and organic matter).
We’ve run the tests and settled on these four models as the best water filter pitchers. In eight years of researching and testing pitcher-type water filters, we’ve found that Pur’s are the simplest to use. And they have some of the best certifications for filtering contaminants. Our Good Housekeeping Institute experts scoured the market for the best water filter pitchers, then narrowed down testing to the most promising products based on our categorical expertise. Our Lab experts spent three months researching and testing these water filter pitchers and continue to test them year-round.