Is A Water Filter worth it?

Roxy07

Considering how cheap you can get Filtered water (Asda's smartprice is 17P) is it worth getting a Water Filter? I live in a area where the tap water is horrible. I use alot of water for squad and high juices, it's all I drink after quitting my Pepsi Max addiction recently.

C_Mababejive

A Brita jug or similar is a good bet. For a start,bottled water often contains high levels of minerals which isnt good for you long term. Filtering mains water which is of a very high standard anyway removes the chlorine and trace metals etc. Also your not contributing to landfill/wasteage/production of plastic bottles.

JAG

I read that supermarket water was just tap water filtered and bottled.

I use a Brita filter jug and it makes a big difference to the taste of the tap water, especially if you live in a hard water area.

LittleMissAspie

I can't tell the difference in the taste between tap or filtered water but I always use filtered water in the kettle because the limescale builds up much more slowly and I don't get that revolting scum in my tea.

I've only got an ordinary cheap supermarket filter rather than a Brita and it seems to do the job.

SnowBelle_2

We have a Brita and use the cheap supermarket 'universal' filters.
I just find that it does encourage us to drink more water as we have a water meter and its' cheaper than running the tap for ages to get the water cold enough to drink.
And my cats love Brita water.....:)

Edwardia

Our tap water is spring water with added chlorine and incredibly hard. Presumably it has lots of minerals in it as well as calcium. I add washing soda to the wash to try to prevent washing machine clogging up. Kettle has a removable filter for limescale.

I use the tap water for cooking but drink Evian and water my plants with the leftover water and cold from kettle and boiled eggs.

We've got an electronic water softener but the hot water still comes out looking like milk :eek:

My mother always used an electronic water filter jug when we were kids and it was incredible how much grunge there was in water. I'd say use whichever is most cost effective for you.

Enterprise_1701C

Have you looked at electronic water conditioners? We have one and we live in a very hard water area. It has transformed the flavour of our water from undrinkable to drinkable. We have not had to descale our shower for a long time. Our kettle does not scale up with the solid scale, just with the soft scale that the sieve thing at the spout catches. I know a lot of people say they don't work, but they do.

geordie_joe

JAG wrote: »

I read that supermarket water was just tap water filtered and bottled.

A few years ago pepsi, or was it coke, tried to introduce bottled tap water in this country, without mentioning it was tap water. They made a big fuss about the launch, but the press got wind of it being tap water and tore them to shreds. It was withdrawn from sale very quickly.

A few weeks ago someone on the BBC said that after that Tesco started producing their own bottled tap water. They didn't make a fuss about it, just quietly slipped it onto the shelves and people started buying it.

Helix

geordie_joe wrote: »

A few years ago pepsi, or was it coke, tried to introduce bottled tap water in this country, without mentioning it was tap water. They made a big fuss about the launch, but the press got wind of it being tap water and tore them to shreds. It was withdrawn from sale very quickly.

That wasn't the reason it got withdrawn. A batch of the water contained higher than legal levels of bromate, so had to be recalled. At that point they realised it was a complete disaster so didn't bother reinstating it.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/mar/19/foodanddrink

Fire_Fox

Pour a decent amount of tapwater in advance and let the chlorine evaporate off, keep the beneficial minerals.

joeyboy

How much does it cost for a brita filter to filter each litre of water? (as in price of new filters and how often they require replacing). Tesco claimed their 17p water, which is tap water filtered akin to what a brita type thing would do, was cheaper than using a filter. I doubt that personally...