I’ve been asked many times if we drink filtered water and the answer is yes! Although we live in an area where water is supposed to be clean enough to drink without using a filter I don’t want to take my chances. Our bodies are basically made up of water, we are water and water is so important for our well being and for optimal body functioning. I grew up drinking a lot of water and I still do. I actually carry a stainless steel water bottle everywhere we go and drink water all day.
I’ve always used water filtration systems but after I had my first child I started looking more into this and found out that all water filters are not created equally and most of them don’t remove all the contaminants in water.
According to the Environmental Working Group there are “over 300 pollutants in US tap water“. Even scarier is what’s stated on that link:
More than half of the chemicals detected are not subject to health or safety regulations and can legally be present in any amount. The federal government does have health guidelines for others, but 49 of these contaminants have been found in one place or another at levels above those guidelines, polluting the tap water for 53.6 million Americans. The government has not set a single new drinking water standard since 2001.
Water utilities spend 19 times more on water treatment chemicals every year than the federal government invests in protecting lakes and rivers from pollution in the first place.
On top of this, fluoride is added to our tap water. Fluoride is a controversial topic, some stating it’s ok to have in our water while others state it should not. My dentist doesn’t recommend fluoride in our water, in fact she’s worried about my kids having access to this and insists I have to do what I can to keep them from drinking that water.
You can find a neutral source of fluoride in water here and more information on why fluoride in our water is toxic. Our family has decided to stay away from fluoride so when I started looking into water filters I wanted one that would filter the fluoride from our tap water and that narrowed my options down to almost nothing.
In summary you want to find a filter that removes Volatile Organic Chemicals (VOCs) like pesticides, heavy metals, endocrine disruptors and fluoride. When doing my research I found several ways to filter water:
Pitcher water filters or faucet mount filters: These are the most popular option, however, they mostly just remove chlorine. They don’t remove Volatile Organic Chemicals (VOCs), heavy metals, endocrine disruptors or fluoride.
Distilled water: It reduces heavy metals but also important minerals in your water. It doesn’t remove VOCs or endocrine disruptors.
Reverse Osmosis: This option reduces a lot of the contaminants but also removes the minerals in water so if you’re using this you should be adding those minerals back into your water. This system does remove fluoride but in the process a lot of water is wasted. It doesn’t reduce VOCs or endocrine disruptors.
Solid Block Carbon Filters: This, in my opinion, is the best water filter out there. It removes VOCs, heavy metals, bacteria, fluoride (with a special attachment) without removing the minerals in the water and it produces great tasting water. Also, these filters can last your for years so while the investment up front might be high, you won’t be spending much more money after that. These filters can also be used to filter rain or river water however using them this way will clog the filter faster. One of the biggest plus for me is that they don’t require electricity to work, it filters using gravity.
{This post contains referral links}
After doing my research I knew I wanted a solid block carbon filter along with a system that would filter fluoride and I found the Berkey water filter (you can also find it on Amazon). I chose Berkey because it filters all the contaminants I was worried about and even fluoride (when you get the fluoride filter).
The Berkey filtration system has been around for a while and “has been tested by several EPA-accredited laboratories including the Department of Toxicology and Environmental Science at Louisiana University, Spectrum Labs, and the University of Phoenix. This extensive testing confirmed that the Black Berkey Purification Elements far exceed EPA and ANSI/NSF (Std. 53) protocol with excellent results.” (Source)
These filters remove:Viruses, Pathogenic Bacteria Surrogate, Micro-Organisms, Pharmaceuticals, Trihalomethanes, Inorganic Minerals,, VOCs, Heavy Metals and Arsenic, MBAS, Nitrites, Selenium, Thallium, as well as rust, silt, sediment, turbidity, foul taste and odors. You can find their test results here.
A good thing about these filters is that they will last you for years and years. The speed at which the filters produce water might slow down after 6-12 months, meaning you need to clean the filters and once cleaned they should be back to filtering fast. If you use them for many years and at some point they don’t go back to filtering fast you could replace them but keep in mind it’s going to take many years for this to happen. Read more about this in their FAQs.
Berkey offers several their product in several sizes: Travel, Big, Royal, Imperial, Crown and Light (you can also get them on Amazon: Travel, Big, Royal, Imperial, Crown and Light).
The Travel and light one are made for easy transportation, they’re smaller and lighter. The travel one is stainless steel and the light one is made out of BPA-free, food safe, co-polyester container, which means you can see right through it.
The Big, Royal, Imperial and Crown are all made out of stainless steel and bigger. Stainless steel is my #1 choice because it doesn’t leach chemicals in the water. The difference between each model is just the size.
Berkey also makes a sports bottle (on amazon) and a shower filter (on amazon) so you don’t have to shower with unfiltered water. This is especially useful when you shower with hot water because you can inhale all these chemicals when they evaporate.
We have the Berkey Big water filter and it’s the perfect size for us. We’ve had it for well over a year and we fill it up once a day, usually at night and always have water ready to drink. There are times when I have forgotten to put water but it filters pretty quickly.
I have admit, one downside is that I cannot drink faucet water anymore. There have been times when we’re out all day and I run out of water and had to drink faucet water and it tastes horrible. I’m not even exaggerating. It’s amazing the difference in taste once you start drinking filtered water and what’s even better is knowing that you’re not putting into your body unnecessarily toxins.
Do you drink filtered water? What filter/system do you use?
We’ve been using a Berkey water filter for quite a few years and have been very happy with it. We just don’t have a whole lot of confidence in the municipal water system. Plus we wanted to filter out the fluoride. And I’m with you – once you start drinking really pure water, there’s no going back to tap water. Ugh!
I’m so happy to hear you’ve had a good experience too!! I really like the taste of our water and I don’t think I could live without this filter. 🙂
Does the Berkey filter endocrine disrupting chemicals? I didn’t see that mentioned in your list of chemicals that it filters.
Yes, if you click on the test results links you will find all it removes.
The endocrine disruptors are not listed as one category but there’s a break down of each specific endocrine disruptors it filters.
I haven’t found anything else that filters as much as the Berkey does.