Greatest Water Filter Pitcher for 2025 Leave a comment

As talked about earlier on this article, there are fairly a wide range of contaminants price eradicating out of your faucet water. The crew right here at our lab settled on three main checks to benchmark the efficacy of those filters: TDS, pH and chlorine. Earlier than we started the precise testing course of, every pitcher was faraway from the packaging, cleaned after which ready per the producer’s directions. This is essential, as most of those filters make the most of activated carbon filtration, which is able to deposit sediment into the primary batches of water that you simply filter if not cleaned correctly prematurely.

Testing for TDS

TDS stands for complete dissolved solids and encompasses many alternative impurities current in water. Examples of the most typical TDS embrace “calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, bicarbonate, sulfate, chloride, nitrate and silica,” based on the US Geological Survey. In apply, calcium and magnesium deposits in your faucet water lead to so-called “laborious water” that tastes dangerous and might be actively detrimental to your well being at larger concentrations. (Learn extra about TDS from the EPA and USGS.) 

We started TDS testing by mixing an 8-gallon bucket of faucet water, measured at 220 ppm TDS, with desk salt till we reached a TDS measurement of 300. Typically talking, 50-150 TDS is taken into account a really perfect vary for ingesting water. We used an Orapxi water high quality tester to take these measurements and for the reason that ZeroWater filter features a TDS tester as properly, all TDS readings had been verified on each units. As soon as we had established our management supply, we measured 1 liter of the 300 TDS water into every of the water filter pitchers and allowed the complete amount to cross via the filter.

As soon as completed, we measured the TDS once more and famous the share change. This course of was repeated for larger and decrease TDS concentrations, and our findings point out that every of the items we examined may be very constant at eradicating the identical share of total TDS from any water passing via it.

Testing for chlorine

Chlorine in your ingesting water could sound unusual, however it’s really a quite common apply for water therapy amenities so as to add chlorine to the water provide as a disinfectant. That is extraordinarily efficient at eliminating different, nastier contaminants within the water, however the World Well being Group estimates {that a} focus of ~0.2-4 ppm is customary for faucet water, indicating that no less than some is left over after disinfection.

For our testing, we determined to ramp issues up a notch and check water ready at a focus much like that of a swimming pool — 10 ppm chlorine. This gave us a transparent indication of the modifications after filtration. As soon as once more, every filter was examined with 1 liter of resolution and in comparison with outcomes from the water prefiltration and as soon as once more, filters such because the ZeroWater considerably outperformed the others.

Testing pH modifications

Lastly, throughout TDS testing, we additionally measured the change in pH. pH stands for “potential of hydrogen” and is used to quantify the acidity of a substance. A pH of zero is extraordinarily acidic, seven is taken into account neither acidic nor primary, and 14 represents a particularly primary substance. Because the minerals that comprise the TDS in faucet water enhance the alkalinity, we anticipated the filtration course of to lower the pH of the water. Certainly this did grow to be the case, and you may see a desk of the pH modifications under. 

Here is a desk of our most up-to-date TDS removing check outcomes. The info represents a mean of three check runs for every filter pitcher.