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Is your water safe to drink? Learn the reasons to filter your drinking water and which water filtration system to use!
I grew up oblivious to the idea of filtered drinking water until we moved to a different city in California and the water actually tasted bad.
My parents then started to purchase water from a filtered water store. It is still quite amusing (and sad) to me that there is even such a thing as a store for water.
Fast forward to me as an adult. I no longer live in California and but my water still isn’t great (it can be very high in chlorine during the summer among other things).
When I started on my natural living journey, I learned about all the contaminants and issues with our drinking water. Anyone’s drinking water for that matter.
And with that, I’ve already alluded to the greatest of the reasons to filter your drinking water! Oops! I just broke all the marketing rules by giving away the reason before making you scroll through a wall of text.
Reasons To Filter Your Drinking Water
Your Drinking Water is Dirty
Yes, most cities pass with “acceptable” levels of contaminants but “acceptable” does not necessarily equal safe.
In fact, even those “acceptable” legal levels have apparently not been reevaluated for almost 20 years!
It varies from city to city but you aren’t likely to find a single city that has good drinking water.
If you want to know what is lurking in your tap water check out this great water quality search!
My favorite water filtration system filters 15 out of 20 contaminants that my city tap water contains. 8 of which exceed the EWG’s more strict contaminant guidelines. Yikes!
Just to give an example, one such contaminant in my tap water is chloroform which has been linked to increased cancer.
The federal guideline states that there should be no more than 15.1 ppb for chloroform and somehow my city’s water is at a whopping 31.4 ppb!
What does the EWG suggest? 0.4 ppb!!! So not only is my tap water not meeting the EWG guideline, it’s not even meeting the federal guideline!
Filtered Water Can Save You Money
Yes, you do have to pay for a water filtration system but you actually will still save money!
For some people, they will save water because they no longer need to buy packs of water bottles (they’ll also be producing less waste at the same time)
Others (like myself), might already have a smaller more affordable filtration system (like Brita or Pur) but switching to a higher quality filtration system like a Berkey actually costs less over the years!
Of course, there’s also the potential to save money on doctor bills as the less contaminants you drink, the healthier you are.
It’s Good For the Environment
Again, think of all the water bottles, people could avoid wasting if they switch to a water filtration system! Not to mention you’ll avoid all those trips to the store to buy said water bottles.
Filtered Water Tastes Better
Have you noticed how different and bad tap water can taste? My apparently privileged kids were shocked by this fact when we were on vacation and they had to drink tap water for once in their life. Filtered water tastes like water and ONLY water!
Water That Is Filtered Smells Better
I mentioned that my city seems to like to up the chlorine in our tap water during the summer months… I hadn’t mentioned that it’s so much that sometimes our bathroom can smell like a swimming pool sometimes! Yuck!
Filtering water helps remove smells from water so you can actually enjoy drinking your glass of water.
Water makes up much of our body and it’s a key factor in helping our bodies run properly. In fact, here are 10 reasons to drink up!
Water keeps us healthy…. but less so if it’s not filtered water.
What Type of Water Filtration Should You Get?
There are three types of water filtration systems:
Water Pitchers are probably the most common due to their initial affordable price and the fact that you can buy them at almost any store. This would be like the Pur water pitcher that my family used to use.
Water pitcher filters are ok but often cost more as they years go by since you must replace the filters so often. They also typically filter out the least contaminants compared to other types of filters.
Under-the-Counter Filters are the least common option and one that many haven’t even heard of. These filtration systems are nice since they are out of sight but do tend to cost more and require installation.
Countertop Filters are just what they sound like; water filtration systems that sit on your countertop. They do not take up much space and are often stylish enough that you won’t feel like you have an eyesore in the kitchen.
Countertop filters filter out more contaminants than water pitchers and actually cost less (once you get past the initial cost).
Plus if you go with a Berkey like I have, you only need to replace your filters every 6000 gallons which is about every 3-5 years!!!! I can’t tell you how happy I am to not need to replace filters every 2 months like I used to with my water pitcher!
Reasons to Buy a Berkey
If you’ve read this far then you already have guessed that I prefer Berkey water filters. But I want to give you a few more reasons why getting a Berkey is worth it.
A Berkey is Affordable
I’ll admit, I’ve put off buying a Berkey for years because of the initial price but guess how many dollars I’ve washed down the drain with all my water pitcher filters?!
You can check out how the cost compares with this chart but the short version is that after 5 years a Pur water pitcher would cost me $400 MORE than a Berkey!
You Don’t Have to Refill As Often
I have a family of 7 so needless to say, we can go through a lot of water. I know it’s not a huge trek from fridge to faucet but I do not enjoy refilling that 7 cup water pitcher!
Berkeys on the other hand can hold a LOT of water; 2-6 gallons depending on which size you have!
Each Berkey has a recommended number of people which makes it easy to know which one you should buy. We have an Imperial Berkey which is good for 6-10+ people and holds a whopping 4.5 gallons!
Berkeys Filter More!
As mentioned above, water pitchers are better than nothing but they don’t filter out many lurking contaminants. Berkeys filter 99.99% of contaminants
It can even filter out pond water if you so desired! In fact a fun test that you get to do with a Berkey is the red dye test. Can your water filter remove red dye? A Berkey can!
One thing that a Berkey can filter that other filters do not is fluoride and arsenic. You do have to purchase the PF-2 filters in order to do this (they do not come with it) but it’s definitely worth it!
FTC DISCLOSURE: The Pistachio Project, may receive monetary compensation for my endorsement, recommendation, reviews and/or link to any products or services from this article. However, I only recommend products or services I feel are up to my standards.
