Drinking Water Filter Guide

So you're interested in buying a water filter and want to know which is the ideal water filters for you? We tested over 40 available drinking water filters before we started TAPP Water and here's a water filter guide based on what we came up with.

Why do you need a water filter?

Before anything else, you need to answer this question. Our initial focus was Europe and North America, where about 98% of the population has access to drinkable clean tap water today. This means that the main reasons for needing a water filter generally are:

1. Improve taste of the water by removing chlorine, reducing limescale and other elements that contribute to poor taste and odor.
2. Protect from possible contaminants in the pipes, chlorine by-products (THMs - trihalomethanes) and microplastics.

There are other water issues limited to a small proportion of households such as arsenic, nitrate, uranium, fluoride and heavy metals such as lead but those are the exceptions. In most cases these don't pose a risk to your health and if they do, then your local water company is obliged to inform you about it.

What kind of water filter?

Once you've concluded what you want the filter for, it is time to decide the type of filter you need. For 95% of households a point of use filter such as a carafe or faucet filter is sufficient. These are much more affordable than whole house filtration systems. They usually use granular activated carbon or carbon blocks, sometimes combined with other filtering technologies.

Water Filter guide to Carafe filters

Brita is the undisputed leader in carafe filters. These carafe filters and their competitors use activated carbon. Through surveys of over 500 users and testing this was our conclusion: Pros:

• Provide reliable filtering of tap water
• Improve taste
• Affordable
• No installation required

Cons:

• Water still tastes chlorinated
• Take up a lot of space in the kitchen or fridge
• Slow to filter water
• Filtered water gets warm unless you put it in the fridge
• Ugly design
• Easy to forget to replace filters

Read more about how Brita compares to TAPP.

Water filter guide to Faucet filters

Culligan and PUR have been producing faucet water filters for the past 10 years. Similarly to carafes, these generally use activated carbon which is effective in removing chlorine and most common contaminants of drinkable water. The difference however is that they can handle a faster flow of water which means that you can fill up a glass of water almost instantly. What we found however was that most existing faucet filters either had problems with leakage, didn't fit, didn’t last very long or where perceived as ugly. This is why we created TAPP 2 . Although some of the pros and cons are similar to other water filters in the market this is what customers say they like and dislike about TAPP: Pros:

• Fresh tasty water directly from the tap with the touch of a switch
• Last 3 months with normal usage (1200 l)
• Easy and fast to install
• Retains the healthy minerals
• Reminder when they need to be replaced
• Better design and minimum issues with leakage
• Great for small kitchens
• Affordable (5€ per month)

Cons:

• Doesn't fit all faucet (5% of faucets are non-compatible due to design)
• Taste is vastly improved but doesn't meet everyone's requirements

Read more about how PUR, Culligan and other faucet water filters compare to TAPP.

Guide to water filters - Other

If the tap water in your area is not safe to drink, then carafe and faucet water filters may not be the right solution . You may want to consider a combination of other technologies such as Ion Exchange, Reverse Osmosis and UV Light. Usually these are provided as under the sink filters or whole house filters and require a professional plumber to install them and do the maintenance. Our research showed that most users of these filters didn't really need them and found them expensive to install and maintain. In addition to this, reverse osmosis in particular wastes a lot of water and energy in the filtration process.

Water Filter Guide - Conclusion

Don't take our word for it, see what our customers say. TAPP 2 has the highest average reviews and customer satisfaction across Facebook, Google and other channels. We are so confident that you will also be satisfied that we offer a 30 day money back guarantee. Also learn more about how to find the best water filter.