apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

i have a replaceable filter built into my fridge water. i fill re-used water bottles and put them in the fridge. refrigeration is a must. ice is a hassle and room-temp water makes me gag, ha.

If you need to filter your tap water, you should contact your city authorities.

I use a faucet-mounted Brita filter - I used to use a PUR one, but I found Brita to taste much better.

I think I'm going to look into japanese charcoal. Just putting the pieces of charcoal into containers of tapwater.

That should negate the off tasting chemicals and odors without filtering out the minerals.

I know the charcoal can also be re-activated in a 500 degree oven after awhile as well.

We have a whole-house water filter (since we've got a well), but I keep a jug of the tap water in the fridge to keep it nice & frosty.

I recently bought a Better Water Drinking Water Filter bottle from the health market that I keep on my desk at work. I am so pleased with it because it keeps me drinking water at work, but not buying bottled water. The bottle is made from corn-based resin and is compostable (though it looks like clear plastic) and it has a filter built into the sport cap for the chlorine. It can be reused 90 times. It was a little pricey, but once it gets too nasty (as reusable bottles always do) I can just throw it in the compost at home. I love it!

I've always been a strong proponent of drinking tap water. But now I live in a region with high sodium levels in the tap water, typically greater than 200 ppm. This makes the water extremely soft and off-tasting. I tried and tried, but cannot get used to drinking it. Brita filters don't remove the sodium, so I find myself in the somewhat hypocritical position of buying 5 gallons of drinking water at a time, in returnable bottles.

On the bright side, cleaning the kitchen and bathroom is really easy.

Kuri - contact the DC water people for all us DCites. No one drinks the water here.

Oddly enough I double filter, using a faucet-mounted pur and a brita container.

my parents use an under-the-sink filter as well, which is usually in the neighborhood of $300 or more but we do like the water coming out of it.

To quercus, invest in an under counter reverse osmosis filter, it will remove the salts and all, leaving nothing but pure water.

To art, a brita or similar filter doesn't remove minerals from the water, its sedimentation and chlorine that is removed, firstly chlorine is removed with carbon and then sedimentation via filtration wool.

I use a brita jug soly for chlorine removal, sedimentation or "bacteria" I couldn't give a damn about coming from normal tap water

Faucet-mounted Brita

Filter on the fridge. Stupid Kenmore makes it impossible to find replacement filters, however.

good to know Ben.

I've been round and round in circles trying to decide which route to go.

The filter industry is a little misleading. We're led to believe the most expensive filtration down to the nth micron is the best way to go. But after thinking about it and reading around, what you end up with is an almost sterile drinking water. Add to the that the theories about Americans being too sterilized (think antibiotics and weaker immune systems) and the idea that drinking water devoid of minerals can potentially rob the human body of minerals.

So a Brita or charcoal type filter looks like the direction I'll be going in.

I second Pixie. After they found that there was a widespread lead-in-the-water problem here in DC I've never thought twice about using my Brita filter. Ahh... the joys of life in the Capitol City...

I use a Brita filter for cold drinking water in my fridge. For cooking I couldn't care less if it's filtered or not. It has more to do with taste in the water from going through old piping in both the city and the building than anything else.

Brita pitcher, only because unfiltered tap water here has a distinctive muddy taste. And the chlorine is bad for my pet rats. Plus chilled water is nice.

Aquasana under-counter water filter. That seemed best for NYC water when I researched it about 4 years ago.

I usually leave a jug of tap water out and one in the fridge. (I like it room temp, my partner prefers chilled). Leaving it out for an extended time helps with the chlorine taste. (overnight at least). It's cheap (the cost of two jugs) and tastes far better than straight from the tap.

I have a cheapie whole house filter that removes sediment and recently started using a Brita pitcher so that I can stand the taste of my tap water. It works great and I love not having to lug bottled water home from the store anymore.

Filtered and dispensed by my Frigidaire fridge.