There are many different kinds of water filters out now in order to combat all of the pollutants, heavy metals and chemicals found in even the most innocent looking and neutral-smelling public water supply.  But along with the differences in filtration media, there are also big differences in size and price.  Here is an easy portable water filter comparison for home units.

Cartridges

Although there are many water filtration units for the entire home or to attach to your faucet, there aren’t very many very small, portable units that can be taken from room to room or used in camping, hiking or in RVs.  Many people can only afford a pitcher-type device that uses cartridges filled with different kinds of filtering material.  This is where portable water filter comparisons concentrate.

One thing that is the same about these cartridges, no matter what type or brand you look at in a portable water filter comparison, is that they all need to eventually be changed.  Of course, in order to save money, you want to find cartridges that need to be changed as little as possible.  You also need to pay more attention to how much the cartridges cost than to what the bottle or pitcher costs.

Another thing to look at in making your portable water filter comparison is too look at what the cartridge unit is made out of. Is it made out of ceramic or durable plastic?  Although ceramic is a lot more expensive, it also lasts longer and doesn’t need to be changed as often as plastic.

Drip, Drip, Drip

When making a portable water filter comparison, you also need to know how fast it can filter the water that you need. This writer used to have a Brita water pitcher in the 1990’s.  It was a waste of money, in that the water was filtered one drop at a time to fill up a liter pitcher.  This could take anywhere from twenty minutes to an hour just to get a liter of water.  By then, I’d just give up and used the tap.

If you don’t have time to wait, but you know for a fact that your tap water is pretty bad, then you need to seriously consider dropping a portable water filter comparison and going for a point of source filter or a whole house water filtration system.  You could check with your accountant to see if this water system could be written off on your taxes somehow.

Brita portable water filters are the world’s best known brand of portable drinking water filters.  They are about the only brand that makes enough money to have television commercials.  You can find Brita products, especially the Brita water pitcher, in just any department and hardware store in North America and Europe.  But just because it’s popular doesn’t mean if Brita portable water filters are right for you.

Not A Purifier

One misconception that some people have about Brita portable water filters is that they can purify water.  This is not the case.  It can’t take the salt out of salt water, for example, but it can remove heavy metals and dangerous bacteria that can get into your tap water.  A water purifier is a lot more expensive and a lot more complex because there are just so many incredibly tiny things to remove from water.

Besides seawater, other things a Brita portable water filter can’t remove from your tap water are radiation and many types of bacteria.  However, these are problems the average North American and European homeowner won’t have much problems with in their home tap water.  But don’t take a Brita pitcher with you to a campsite and try to use it for water from the local creek.

What Is It?

Brita portable water filters are similar to strainers or colanders.  Except for letting the cooking water drain and keeping the cooked pasta ready for your plate, a water filter has very tiny mesh holes that can catch some large pieces of dirt, chlorine and heavy metals that you really don’t want in your drinking water.  All of these things not only aren’t that great for you to drink, they also make the water taste peculiar.

The water filtration media in Brita cartridges tends to be a combination of activated charcoal and an “ion exchange resin”.  This all acts like a colander with very, very tiny holes.  The industry has units called microns, which is the size of a particle that’s held back from going into your water.  The smaller the micron for your water filter, the better.

Disadvantages

Although a Brita portable water purifier is better than nothing for many homes, it’s not the most efficient water filtration system you can get.  It’s a slow drip filter and needs to have the very expensive cartridges replaced every two to three months.  You also have to throw away the first gallon or so of water because it has charcoal dust in it.