Bottled Water vs Cheaper Filters

Is it clear that bottled water is "better" than cheaper filters like Brita and PUR?

Bottled water contains very little fluoride, which PUR and Brita do not filter, and bottled water contains no chlorine.

I've been using a PUR pitcher filter for the past few months after being lead to believe tap is "the same" as bottled, but I think I'll switch back to bottled water. Ozarka even claims no detectable fluoride. Who knows what their idea of "detectable" is though.

Is it really worth it investing in a home filtering system, or even buying a nicer filter such as a Berkey?

reply to post by lakitu


Find a fresh source...

Use this.

Avoid the cost of bottled water, the junk that's in our tap water, and actually "do" something to better your own standing. If you drink from the source after it's been filtered through ones of these, you will never go back.

bottled water is no better than any water you drink out of the kitchen faucet. It is one of the biggest scam jobs ever pulled on the public, if you do any research at all.. you will find that bottle water is no cleaner. Its just a really good marketing idea that took off.. and they are making millions and millions on it..

reply to post by lakitu


I've been checking this out for quite some time.

I'd been using a faucet mount for a while, then went to an under the counter dual filter

which were good steps in the right direction

but there was still missing info I wasn't aware of.

let me back up a bit.

all of us are guilty of taking water for granted.

some of us have slowly become aware over time, but mostly due to advertising or vague references on the news

20 years ago I seen an advertisement , a whole page, for this guys machine, no pricing of course

and I just ignored it [ what the ad had to say ] for the most part. [ I'll get back to this ]



I recently became aware of ionized water. there are a cpl pretty good videos on it

www.youtube.com...

www.youtube.com...

www.youtube.com...

www.youtube.com...

but after realizing the ionized was a few steps better than the filtered, because it hydrated the body much better, better circulation and skin color, I then decided to revisit that ad, which is still running, that I ignored 20 years ago.

this one is the best of the bunch, but is priced out of reach for most folks, who upon seeing the sticker price, would immediately think they were nuts! lol

but this machine does what no one elses does, it removes the bio-markers [ disease makers ] from the water.

I assumed that's what the water department did, but they don't. none of the filters out there can do that

this is the site, there is a ton to read and absorb;

www.johnellis.com...



My dream machine[s] setup for water, would be as follows;

from the source [ city water ] to a dual filter, [ carbon block and .5 micron spun fiber media ], into the living water machine [ john ellis ] , then into an ionizer as needed

[ I could probably forego the ionizer, but I like the option of raising the ph as well as like using a higher ph water for cooking ] just a personal preference.

most can't afford a living water machine, so for them, I'd say, get a dual under the counter filter setup to pretreat the water for an ionizer.

a decent dual filter setup is about 160.00 and a cheap ionizer is about 400.00 -500.00

what is your health worth?



because there is something that, the ionizer and the living water machine do to the water, that filters alone just can't do

if u can afford it, i would highly recommend this.

schrodingers dog

that machine does not take out the bio-markers [ disease markers ]


altho it does energize the water

reply to post by toasted


what do you want from me? i'm just an over the hill, fat, bald dj holding on to the last remnants of my dignity.
now you've exposed me and my unhelpful links, congratulations, you've made sdog cry.




insert guilt here

In my house we have 2 5-gallon jugs we fill at the store with 1/2 distilled and 1/2 reverse osmosis water for 35 cents a gallon. I actually miss the fluoride after years of drinking this water so to replace it I drink about 5+ cups of green tea a day. Fluoride is really important for your teeth...

Bottled water is a scam and has many negative impacts. Check out this book Bottle Mania

reply to post by DeadFlagBlues


I use the Katadyn Back Country but only for backpacking.

[edit on 3-7-2008 by Animal]

[edit on 3-7-2008 by Animal]

the carbon tap filters work just fine. Carbon works just about as well as anything without getting an expensive reverse osmosis system.

I am a well water tester for a living, and I have tested people who work for bottle water companies. They told me personally most is a scam and they drink their well water.

Also, bottled water uses a lot of energy, petroleum, and has a lot of oil miles on it. It is an environmental hazard.

75% of water bottles don't get recycled.

The tap filter is just a much better all around choice.

reply to post by nixie_nox


Good points thanks for sharing. Glad to hear people talking about the energy spent in production and shipping and then the waste generated.

The impacts to the planet and the future cost to society is not worth letting Coke, Pepsi, and Nestle make a fortune today.

Part of being human IMHO is having the ability to understand our place on the planet and to live accordingly. Unnecessarily bottling water in the name of profit and ease is an obvious misstep.

Also your avatar rocks

Beware of faucet filters like Brita. There filter last 1-2 days then they start dumping all the crud back into the water, but now it is twice as dirty.

Stay away from city water! Only 10% of city treated water actually reaches the home, and only 1/2% of that is used for drinking. The EPA actually says that it is OK to have chlorine levels in city water that is 33% higher than a normal swimming pool.

Believe it or not Wal-Mart Water and Sam's Club water is free of impurities, they use reverse osmosis. The worst water I have tested is Nestle's and FIJI.

So if it comes down to bottled water, or cheap filters or city water. Bottled Water is the healthiest way to go.

reply to post by RRconservative


Healthiest in what way?

I buy water by the gallon at 35 cents a gallon, I use my own ceramic water cooler thing-a-ma-giggy and stainless steel water bottles that I fill at home.

It must be easily comparable in therms of 'health' for me.

In terms of ecological health as well as I am using highly filtered city water, not using petroleum based, high energy inputs, one use plastic bottles.

I am also spending a LOT less money so it is more economically healthy for me as well.

So I guess my point is that bottled water is NOT the healthiest.

My method could probably be improved as well, but it is a step above buying bottles of water everyday.

I live in the high desert. At about 7,500 feet in the J-P forests and grasslands at the foot of the Sangre De Cristo Mountains. It is HOT and SUNNY here. So I have to drink a lot of water, probably around a gallon a a day. I pay 35 cents for that, and happily.

We use the Pur water filtration system. We have well water and I think it's great.

The box says it reduces asbestos, atrazine, benzene, cysts, lead, lindane, mercury, methoxyclor, toxaphene, turbidity, 2,4-d and silvex. I don't even know what most of that is.

Removes 99.99% of microbial cysts, cryptosporidium and giardia.

It does say that it "leaves beneficial flouride in the water".

But the 2 stage filter is less than $20 and the replacement filters are $15 or so.

Worth the money to me.

I have well water and we have the reverse osmosis system. Our water has a very high iron content.

Something I've recently discovered---my kids and I like the taste of dasani water. Some love it, some hate it. Anyhow, I did an experiment on the two waters. If you fill a dasani bottle with my r/o water, it tastes exactly like dasani. I've figured out that it's the smell of the plastic bottle that gives the water it's taste. Well, it doesn't give it the taste, but it gives it the smell, which makes it taste like dasani. Even after washing the dasani bottles with soapy water and a tad bit of bleach, if we fill them with our r/o water, we still get the dasani taste.

Some might say it's all in our mind, but I swear it's true. We use the bottles over and over again so we don't have to keep buying more.

Originally posted by Blueracer
We use the Pur water filtration system. We have well water and I think it's great.......

It does say that it "leaves beneficial flouride in the water".

Beneficial to whom?

And in what way? It does not say.

It most certainly is NOT beneficial for anyones teeth.



Dentist Warns About Fluoride Added to Water
www.youtube.com...

Doctor Exposes Fluoride as Poison
www.youtube.com...

Reply to Animal:

Bottled water or Gallon water either way, just avoid city water, and the cheap filters.

The debate is not about the container the water you purchase comes in.

It is the difference between drinking city water, or bottled water (bottles or gallons) and even cheap filtered water. The healthiest water (in most cases) would be the bottled water.

(avoid Nestle's and FIJI)

reply to post by toasted


I think there is a good change that there is a difference between natural 'beneficial' fluoride and that they put on our water. I started having tooth problems after about 10 years of drinking mostly reverse osmosis water and was told to drink green tea for the natural fluoride as it would be beneficial to my teeth. Something to consider.

reply to post by toasted


That's all it says on the box. I didn't write it.

reply to post by RRconservative


Cool I see we are trying to say mostly the same thing with different words. I would like to clarify that I do not buy 1 gallon jugs of water, I have 2 5-gallon jugs that I have been using for about 4 or 5 years, because like I said we drink lots of water here.

So the debate IS about the container the water it comes in, because buying small containers of water is incredibly wasteful. It creates tons of pollution, uses energy to produce, and it one more string aspect of our petroleum addiction.

Originally posted by RRconservative
Reply to Animal:

............. The healthiest water (in most cases) would be the bottled water.

sorry, but you are wrong;

www.youtube.com...


the ph of the water is very very important, and under most peoples radar.