I’ve always been concerned with the water that comes from the tap at my house. It’s an old house, built in the 1920's, and while we have new plumbing within its four walls, the service lines which connect the water main line to my home could very likely be made of lead. Let’s face it, New Orleans is not known for stellar tap water. In fact, in 2016, NBC News conducted a study where they tested tap water from 24 homes in New Orleans and found lead in the water of 7 of them.
So, my family stays away from the tap water and relies on the filtered water from our refrigerator. Occasionally, I buy bottled water, but not often.
When I received my Zerowater 23 cup dispenser to test and demo at home and at our Macaroni Kid Baby Brunch in February, I was excited.
The box said:
• Only Filter Pitcher Certified by NSF to Reduce both Lead and Chromium 3 and 6
• 5-Stage Filtration removes 99.6% of Dissolved Solids
• BPA Free
• One-handed “push to dispense” spout to fill any bottle or cup
• TDS meter that provides a digital reading so you know when it is time to change your filter
One Saturday afternoon, I unpacked and set up the dispenser (it was easy) and then became obsessed with testing and retesting the water. Let me explain.
I've known that in general our tap water has "stuff" in it but wasn't 100% sure what all that "stuff" was. I learned from the reading materials that came with the Zerowater filter that water from the tap contains total dissolved solids like metals (lead chromium, and mercury) chemicals (calcium, phosphates, nitrates, sodium, potassium and chloride), various dissolved solids (leaves, silt, plankton, industrial waste and sewage) and runoff (fertilizers and pesticides).
I wanted to see how my tap water compared to my refrigerator filtered water. And how both of those compared with the water filtered through the Zerowater’s 5-stagefiltration system. So I started testing with the TDS meter included with the Zerowater dispenser.
My tap water measured 226. Wow, seems high I thought, but it’s in line with the average readings from our area of the United States, which run 201 - 300.
I figured my refrigerator reading would be much lower since the water goes through a filter, but guess what? It was 219. Yikes! I just assumed since the water was being filtered it would be “cleaner” than that reading. And then came the Zerowater reading – 0! Wow. Wait…really? Yes, really. I tested again. And again. And again. Zerowater 0, my tap water 226, and my filtered refrigerator water 219.
When comparing the Zerowater filter to that of Brita and PUR, The Goodhousekeeping Research Institure found that Zerowater filters removes more pharmaceuticals and chemicals. How? Through it's exclusive 5-Stage Filter Technology. Most filters on the market are only 2 stages.
Bottom line: I can highly recommend the Zerowater 23 cup dispenser and personal portable tumbers. Other Zerowater products I did not test are the ready pour pitchers and stainless steel pitchers. So, if you are in the market for a water filter, how can you go wrong with the product that utlilizes a 5 stage filter and gives you the same quality of water you would get in purified bottled water, as required by the FDA.
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