Water Filters

[willhub]

I'm looking into getting some sort of water filter system, because drinking tap water isn't nice, it doesn't taste nice and not sure if it's really heaalthy, and also kind of like the thought if instant hot water as well.

I've seen things like Virgin Pure but they have to be plumbed in and are subscription based.

I did notice there is a site called milkyplan that sells something for £300 called the watery, which you plug in, it's manual fill but does hot water and all that.

Does something like that seem worth it? Any alternatives? Do they really filter the water and are needed?

Any thoughts?

Cheers.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

Had a Pozzani water filter attached to a drinking water spigot on the kitchen sink which made a huge different to the taste of North London tap water.

We had a subscription for a new filter every 6 months that was only a few quid more than buying a job lot of filters from Amazon and setting a reminder to swap them out myself which suited my lazy self.

Plumbing was a piece of cake, as cold water feed was a clamp you put onto the nearest cold pipe and just tightened up, causing the clamp to pierce the copper pipe and form a “T” piece that feed cold water into the narrow plastic pipe that went to the filter cartridge.

 

[ttaskmaster]

Does something like that seem worth it? Any alternatives? Do they really filter the water and are needed?

UK tap water ranks in the highest EPI scores in the world.
Filters do eliminate some of the particulates in hard water areas, but with the exception of any local problems, there isn't anything harmful to remove.

I plumbed one in for my wife, as she was stupidly fussy about tap water taste - Easy enough to just undo the kitchen cold feed stick the cartridge on and run a flex to the tap. Order a replacement when you feel it's needed, water off and swap out within seconds - she'd still use that tap a fill separate Britta-style filter jug as well, though. I've done blind taste tests on her since, and she can't actually tell any difference between twice-filtered and direct tap waters. So while the kettle maybe takes a few days longer before it gets scaled up, it does nothing to alter the taste.

Worth it? Not IMO.
Alternatives? Not really, most are similar style.
Do they filter? A little bit, yes, but not to any discernible degree.
Needed? Not at all.

If you still don't like the local water taste, buy some squash.
As for the instant hot water thing, that sounds like it just uses more electricity.

 

[willhub]

What would you say to virgin's marketing blurb?

"
Our world-leading filtration removes:

• 99.9% of chlorine
• Industrial Waste such as Lead, Mercury, TCPP, TCEP, Nonylphenol, Asbestos, Bisphenol A
• Medical and Biological Waste such as Ibuprofen, Hormones, Deet
• 99% of microplastics
• Herbicides and Pesticides such as Atrazine, Linuron

Step 3:​

Kills microbiology

The water is treated with UV, preventing the growth of Microbiological contaminates. This becomes particularly vital once chlorine has been removed. Its why other filters become breeding grounds for bacteria and other parasites.

Unique UV protections eliminates:

• Bacteria
• Parasites

"

 

[ttaskmaster]

What would you say to virgin's marketing blurb?

I'd say it sounds like it's geared for American water systems, as it mentions substances that have long been banned in the UK. It might be fine if you live in Michigan and get your water from the Flint River, but we here don't have a decades-long abundance of motor industry waste effluent being pumped directly into our reservoirs...

I'd also add that filtering out beneficial things like calcium, fluoride and magnesium can lead to mineral deficiency problems (especially in kids and pregnant women), so in addition to buying filter carts make sure you invest in a supplement regime too.