Is a Brita worth it?

S

Seraphim

Veteran-5
I was thinking of getting a Brita water filter, and mentioned it to a friend of mine. He asked what they actually did. And you know, i couldn't fucking answer that.

Review of the Brita Filtration Pitcher, is it Worth It? - Associated Content

Ok so everyone has seen the commercials and tasted the water, but is there really a difference? Brita Filtration pitchers are designed to reduce free radicals in water such as chlorine and other minerals. In particular the reduction of lead. But is all this really needed and is the Brita


pitcher the best option?

The science behind the water follows as such. When water is treated at your local water supply plant small amounts of chlorine are added to kill off bacteria, which could be harmful to humans. Chlorine itself is also harmful but small amounts do not prove to have any serious consequences. So the water travels from the plant free of bacteria and contaminants down through the pipes and into your home. The problem occurs with the pipes. How old are they? Are they copper with lead solder? Are they leaching trace amounts of metal into your water supply? If so then do not fear an array of Brita filtration systems are here to save the day. The Brita pitcher removes about 99% of any lead in your tap water. Simply pour tap water into the pitcher and allow it to flow through the filter (gravity grants us this little pleasure) and viola! Lead free water.

Fantastic right?

Mostly.

The problem comes in the filter, as the lead and mercury and copper are being stopped so is the chlorine, the chlorine that is vital to keeping bacteria at bay. You see bacteria have a thin shell of protective fluid around them, which chlorine breaks down in about 15 seconds then the oxygen from water leeches, into the bacteria oxidizing it and rendering it dead and harmless. However when your pitcher removes the chlorine from the water and you sit the pitcher full of water on the counter top it all of the sudden becomes a breeding ground for bacteria.

Major problem?

Not so

You see the pros vastly outweigh the cons. If by chance you do have minerals leeching into your water, which should not be there, and lead is in your water supply then a Brita pitcher will eradicate any risk associated with such contaminates. The bacteria on the other hand will be mostly


harmless and as long as you don't leave your pitcher stagnant for extended periods of time then you should have no risk of infection anyways. Lastly worried about consumption of chlorine? Well don't be even if you have a filter installed chlorine is easily absorbed through the skin so when you take your daily shower you will be exposed to it regardless of whether or not you are drinking out of a filtered pitcher. In the long run you can purchase a Brita pitcher and keep lead free water on hand year round for about $20 annually, which is not bad considering the possible side effects to lead contamination. However the need for such water may not always be there depending on the age of your home and the surrounding pipe system. Regardless it is better to be safe then contaminated and as most customers contend, "the water just tastes better" so it is my recommendation that you stop on in and pick up a Brita filtration pitcher that is right for you.

Personally I love the small version, which retails for $11.99 and carries about 48 ounces of water. But for large families Brita offers gallon sized pitchers and even faucet filters, which purify all water passing through the faucet of your kitchen sink. Brita water pitchers can be found at most major retails and at their online store (Brita International)
Click to expand...

The more you know i suppose.
 
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is what i use. no bs.. just change the bottle every once and a while. always cold. always pure.. inexpensive.
 
We have a Pur filter. I don't notice any difference in the taste and I think the empirical data is equivocal at best. My wife disagrees. The filter stays.
 
I've had several, but I don't use it much since my fridge has a filter on the water feed in the door. Same deal, charcoal filter.

I tend to use the Brita more in summer when I drink a lot more water.
 
I have and like my brita. I grew up on well water and city/town water always has a funny smell/taste to me... the brita eliminates that for me.
 
I also have a Pur and there is a noticeable difference between tap and filtered, specifically because the chlorine levels tend to be high around here. I mean, you can smell it in the water coming from the tap if you're not using the filter.
 
funny, you mention taste...


There was a video from "bullshit"(?) that basically had a bunch of bottles of water with various names on them "Spring water", "Aspen Glacial water", tap water, etc... which they then filled all the bottles with water from a garden hose and then taste-tested to various customers who were convinced that one bottle tasted better then the next...

Edit:
for a fact

flavors of food is a combination of both smell and taste, when you have a sinus infection food tastes worse


for an example I hate Horseradish sauce, cant stand the flavor, but when I close my nose (ie. pinch the nostrils shut) I can bare it and get it down the hatch...
 
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I don't have the smell issue, but I can accurately tell when the Brita container hasn't been filled properly because there's a noticeable difference.
 
The city water where i live has a weird taste to it, even when used for cooking. I usually brita all my drinking water at least. I could care less if it removes anything, i know it just tastes better
 
I have a Pur thing on my kitchen faucet. I don't really care if it's doing something. The straight tap water takes like metal and it doesn't out of the Pur. So :shrug:
 
starwolf_nexus said:
funny, you mention taste...


There was a video from "bullshit"(?) that basically had a bunch of bottles of water with various names on them "Spring water", "Aspen Glacial water", tap water, etc... which they then filled all the bottles with water from a garden hose and then taste-tested to various customers who were convinced that one bottle tasted better then the next...

Edit:
for a fact

flavors of food is a combination of both smell and taste, when you have a sinus infection food tastes worse


for an example I hate Horseradish sauce, cant stand the flavor, but when I close my nose (ie. pinch the nostrils shut) I can bare it and get it down the hatch...
Click to expand...


The BS eps was rigged because the water was very obviously ice cold, meaning it would be more difficult to detect any taste or flavor. It also was not a taste test since they never gave them fresh water to compare it to.

You also have to be pretty naive to believe there no difference in taste between tap and bottled. There is a huge difference, that gets larger depending on where you live. I think it might be most of NM, but their water is the aftermath of two other states, so they have the worst tasting water in the US.

My tap isn't so bad, but I still buy 2 gal jugs of arrowhead because that's how I roll.
 
The Brita works but it's a PITA to keep filling it up, and the filters are expensive.

Better to buy a fridge with ice/water through the door.
 
Put water in a juice jug and let it sit in the fridge, let it get cold, drink it, refill and there you have Brita.
 
Brita filters are nearly useless. The carbon does little but make the water taste a bit better. Chlorine will evaporate from water on it's own without any outside intervention.

What you CAN go buy is a reverse osmosis filter. A common measurement for water quality is total dissolved sediments (which are any metals, phosphates, other organics, etc). A common number for TDS is anywhere from 80-500. A Reverse osmosis (RO) unit will remove 9-99% of these.

The filters are cheap, only about $75 for a 25 Gallons-per-day unit.
 
if you guys can't tell the difference between city water and filtered water you should consider yourselves lucky
 
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