Which water filter is the best water filter?

There are a plethora of options available, and you're wondering which filter is right for you. First, you should consider what you want to filter out of your tap water. Is it just limescale, or should contaminants also be filtered out? The three most popular types of water filters are:

• Jug filters (such as those offered by Brita)
• Activated carbon filters (such as those offered by Multipure or Carbonit)
• Reverse osmosis water filters (many suppliers)

Pitcher filters only remove or reduce limescale. The cartridge needs to be changed every four weeks. This is an expensive proposition in the long run, especially if you only use the original filters and don't resort to cheap imitations. Furthermore, silver-coated activated carbon is used because of the risk of contamination. This releases small amounts of silver into the water. You don't really want that.

Activated carbon filters can remove or reduce heavy metals, polar pesticides, pharmaceutical residues, asbestos fibers, and more. Specially impregnated activated carbon can even remove extremely high amounts of heavy metals from water. However, the dissolved limescale remains in the water, just like other dissolved minerals. This is usually marketed by activated carbon manufacturers as a benefit. In reality, you don't need minerals in water for your health. Your body can't utilize them well because they aren't organically bound. Water is a solvent and transport medium and should be low in minerals.

Reverse osmosis systems were originally developed by NASA for space travel so that astronauts could recycle their urine and turn it back into drinking water. These water filters remove not only contaminants but also mineral salts. Since carbon dioxide can pass through the reverse osmosis membrane as a gas, the pH of reverse osmosis water shifts slightly toward the acidic range. However, this isn't a problem, and if it bothers you, you can even bring the pH into the alkaline range with a slight mineralization.

For the sake of completeness, water distillers should also be mentioned. These evaporate the water and collect it again, leaving the pollutants behind as salts. In addition to high electricity costs, cleaning them is very time-consuming. Such water distillers have been banned from sale in Germany for a few years now, because they can also be used to distill alcohol.

We recommend activated carbon filters from Carbonit or Alvito to our customers if limescale isn't an issue. If limescale needs to be filtered out, we recommend a direct-flow reverse osmosis system. Be sure to taste the water first. Many people are surprised at how different water can taste. Each filtration method makes the water taste different, so be sure to taste it first.

In the next article we will discuss activated carbon filters in more detail.