Undersink water filter

[Lykele]

I'd appreciate any input in a future purchase of an undersink water filter. All of them seem similar and have similar claims so sorting out the differences and value are hard for a novice.

There is just my wife and myself and the filter would come into play just for drinking water.

Any advice would be welcome.

Thanks.
Jim

[geniescience]

We want to buy some kind of filter.
The simplest filter.
We live in a big city where the drinking water is great.
No complaints.

We'd like to be filtering our tap water for big drinks.
It's to make us feel good about not buying water in stores.
Resisting the purchase.

It may be possible to justify it for other reasons too, but I'm not looking for that.

Any advice will be appreciated.

[jadnashua]

What are you trying to accomplish? Get rid of chlorine? Any bad tastes, purify the water (shouldn't be necessary on a municipal system) or specific issue? Are you going to install a dedicated faucet for the filter? It will get used up a lot faster if it filters all of the water.

[Lykele]

Looking for filter to improve taste. Also looking for filter that is simply dedicated to drinking water and not purifying all water coming from tap. Similar to Culligan. Just not sure how to "rate" or evaluate all the similar brands.

Thanks.
Jim

[jimbo]

Most of the undersink filters you find at hardware stores ARE just for drinking water...they come with a small tap you mount to the side of the main faucet. They do that because they are not sized to filter the full flow through the faucet, and the "total gallons" number is low so that you would have to change it weekly.

You can get different grades of filtration....ranging from a single cartridge, taste/odor/chlorine, to dual cart. models which will pick up lead and VOC's, if you have any concerns about those items.

I believe that for most people, and RO is complete overkill.

[hj]

YOU have to decide what you want the filter to do to the water. The cannister for the filter is "generic" in most cases, and you insert the filter cartridge that performs the purpose you want. The filter inserts are NOT universal as far as what they remove from the water, which is why some of the better ones use multiple cannisters and different filter cartridges.

[MACPLUMB 777]

The very best under counter water filter is multi-pure they also make the ones for

some well known brands under their labels IMO

[Gary Slusser]

Carbon is used to improve taste/odor problems.

Carbon comes in different forms and many types. What form/type you use depends on how much of what you want to remove form the water.

If just general taste/odor, usually from chlorine, use GAC (granulated activated carbon) of any generic carbon cartridge. You'll spend much less money and get the same water quality as by buying the most expensive famous brand name same type carbon cartridge.

If you want VOC etc. removal, you have to go with a carbon block cartridge. And again, generic no name brands will do the same job as the most expensive national brand names.

[Hairyhosebib]

Make sure the filter is .5 micron. The big problem in choosing a filter is they don't always state how small a particle they will remove. I suggest a .5, that is something that is one half of a micron. There is some microbial bug that is a little bigger than this that can exist in water. What it is called escapes me. Typically what is sold in stores is 5 micron. These two numbers tell the story. You can get a .5 micron carbon filter. Below is a link to a company I buy my filters from. The bug is some kind of Cyst, whatever that is

http://www.spectrapure.com/

When I lived in Indiana, I found this company and used the .5 filter and the .5 carbon filter. It made my softener work even better too. I moved to Glendale and put a set in my garage. They work great, no reduction in pressure either. After a year here the city sent out a water quality notice, it said they had gone to membrain filtration. To me, that is reverse osmosis water That's a pretty expensive system for a city. I guess they RO it and then add stuff back in and send it out.

[Lykele]

Very useful information. Thanks for the input.

Regards,

Jim