Brita Jug vs EcoPro by TAPP Water? Which product should I buy? What is the difference and how does Brita compare to TAPP Water?
Many people are concerned about the quality of their tap water or trying to reduce the bottled water consumption. Most have heard about or tried Brita water pitchers but what are the alternatives to Brita and how do they compare?
We compared the Brita Maxtra+ pitcher with EcoPro in 7 different areas including how easy it is to setup/use, water taste, filtering efficiency, water flow, capacity, sustainability, changing of cartridges and value for money (price).
Setup/use of Brita Jug vs EcoPro
This is clearly the biggest advantage of the pitcher water filter. It works straight away in every home. So what about EcoPro? Based on 100s of installations it takes less than a minute to install and usually without tools. Simply unscrewed the aerator as per instruction and screw on the TAPP Water Filter. In case it doesn’t fit straight away there are additional adapters provided in the box and for free from the support team.
Winner: Brita Jug with EcoPro as a close second.
Water taste
This is probably the most important aspect. How good does the water taste after filtering? Rather than trusting our personal opinion we decided to find out by doing a blind water test. During an event we blind tested and compared bottled water (Evian), TAPP filtered water, Brita filtered water and tap water.
The results? Bottled water and TAPP Water filtered water tied as number one for taste, Brita jug filtered water was a distant nr 2 and tap water came last.
Winner: EcoPro was a clear winner on taste
Efficiency in filtering chemicals from tap water
This was more challenging as we have to rely on the specifications provided by each company. More importantly most of the chemicals filtered / removed is generally not found in public tap water.
EcoPro: Uses a 5-stage filter including organic carbon block made of coconut shell that filters 100+ contaminants including microplastics, chlorine, lead, limescale, pesticides and much more.
Brita pitcher Maxtra+: Uses Activated Carbon that reduces limescale build-up, metals such as lead and copper, chlorine and other substances that affect the waters taste.
Winner: EcoPro based on what it filters
Water flow
Imagine you want to prepare a pot of tea (1 litre). How long will it take to fill up the kettle?
EcoPro: Claims 4 litres / min and it took almost exactly 15 seconds
Brita pitcher Maxtra+: Took almost 2 min to filter 1 litre of water. Obviously it’s faster if you’ve already filled up the pitcher.
Winner: EcoPro with 1 liter filled up in 1/8th of the time
Filter capacity
The average household in Spain with 3 people consume about 2,200 litres of water per year for drinking and cooking. How much water will a Brita Jug provide vs EcoPro?
EcoPro: 1200 litres per cartridge so 4,800 litres per year with the yearly subscription
Brita Maxtra+: 200-300 litres per cartridge or 2400-3,600 litres per year with the yearly bundle.
Winner: EcoPro but both deliver enough clean water for a year
Sustainability
One of the reasons to use a water filter is to stop by bottled water. Clearly both EcoPro and Brita are much better options but is there any difference? We compared the waste from Brita vs EcoPro per year.
EcoPro: 4 cartridges using a minimum amount of plastic. About 3 kg CO2 / year for the average household.
Brita: 12 cartridges made of ABS plastic with other materials unspecified. Provides the option of returning the cartridges at the customers expense. About 6 kg / CO2 per year for the average household.
Winner: EcoPro wins based on CO2 footprint and the simplicity of discarding the cartridges but Brita gets thumbs up for the recycling program
Yearly price of Brita vs EcoPro
For both products the filter cartridges need to be replaced frequently or else they won’t work. For EcoPro every 3 months and Brita every month.
EcoPro: 89 euro first year and then 55 euro / year for cartridges
Brita: 29.99 eur for the pitcher + 70 euro for one years cartridges (from their website or Amazon) = 99.99 euro and then 70 euro / year.
Compared to bottled water which costs the average household 326 euro per year in Spain both options will save you money.
Winner: EcoPro by TAPP Water wins out with a lower price per year
Overall winner – Brita Jug vs EcoPro by TAPP Water?
TAPP was the clear winner on 5 of the measures, equal on one and Brita won on the initial setup.
The overall winner is EcoPro
Review by Magnus Jern
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