drinking and shower water filters

[Helen]

I'd really appreciate anyone's experience with Aquasan undersink drinking water filters -- or some of the other choices out there. I'm looking for something that cleans the water (not RO) and tastes as fresh and lively as bottled waters, which I understand have extras added to give that taste. We've used a Culligan RO for years and it provides good water but flat tasting, takes a lot of space, and I understand RO wastes a lot.

Also I'm intrigued by the claims of shower filters to de-chlorinate water that exposes us to volatile chlorine gases. Has anyone found a noticable improvement in health and skin feel with shower filter?

[Bob NH]

Activated carbon filters will remove the small amount of chlorine that is delivered with municipal water supplies.

RO water tastes flat because RO removes the dissolved solids that include the electrolytes. Those electrolytes are what takes away the "flat" taste.

RO does waste a lot of water because the water that remains after removal of the RO product water contains all of the material that was in the original water. That water is dumped to waste.

[jimbo]

The shower arm mounted chlorine filters do remove most of the chlorine. They are useful because a lot of people have a skin allergy to the chlorine.

[Bob NH]

Any shower will remove a lot of chlorine from the water because it causes aeration, and aeration strips the cholrine from the water.

I unintentionally demonstrated that for myself when taking a sample for a chlorine test from an aerated faucet. I got a very low chlorine level (about 0.2 mg/liter) and I KNEW that there was about 1.5 mg/liter of chlorine in the water.

I removed the aerator and got the chlorine reading that I expected based on measurements elsewhere in the system.