TYPES OF WATER FILTERS: Water Bottles

If drinking clean, pure water is important to you, then stop buying disposable water bottles and invest in a filtering water bottle. So effective and convenient, it might just be the last bottle you ever buy. Featuring the power to filter out unsafe contaminants like a home filtration system, but with the convenience and portability of a water bottle, stay hydrated with clean, pure water no matter where you are. While other bottles offer convenience, filtering water bottles offer unmatched performance with the power to remove harmful impurities like lead and giardia.

BENEFITS OF FILTERS

Easy to use

For safe on-the-go hydration, a water bottle with a built-in filtration system simply cannot be beat. No longer worry about whether you'll find a safe source for refilling, or buy and pack enough bottles for your time away from home. Perfect for bringing to the gym, office, or the park, every drinking fountain or faucet is now a source of perfectly filtered water free from harmful contaminants. And no more metallic flavors or rotten-egg smells from questionable water sources - the filter will ensure very sip tastes great while keeping you healthy.

Healthy

Beyond avoiding dehydration and exposure to harmful water impurities, filtering water bottles made with BPA-free materials offer an additional level of prevention against harmful chemicals. Some studies have linked BPA to breast and prostate cancer, obesity, hyperactivity, diabetes, and miscarriages. Why take the risk? Instead of potentially putting yourself at risk by using plastic bottles that contain BPA, drink from a reusable filtered bottle made of BPA-free materials.

Economical

In the U.S., 60 million water bottles are used every day, costing about $21.7 billion a year. Broken down, if you buy one bottle for $1.50 once every week for a year, that's $78 in bottled water. The one-time purchase of a filtering water bottle means never paying for-often-overpriced-single-use bottled water again. What will you do with all the money you save?

Environmentally friendly

Did you know 43 billion plastic water bottles end up in a landfill each year? Or that one plastic water bottle can take up to 700 years to decompose? When you drink water from a reusable purifying water bottle instead of a disposable plastic one, you're significantly reducing the amount of plastic that ends up in the landfill.

STYLE AND DESIGN

Size

Filtering water bottles are comparable to the size of a disposable water bottle. Though some hold as much as 24 ounces, they're still small and light enough to carry along with you everywhere you go. And since dozens of gallons worth of water can be purified with just one filtering bottle, they're small but mighty.

Color

The days of white being the only pitcher color available are long gone. From bold reds and oranges to cool shades of blue, filter systems are now offered in a rainbow of colors. Pick one that matches your kitchen's decor or simply fits your personal preference.

Shape

At a glance, most filtering water bottles look just like the standard ones available everywhere. From pull-top sport caps to tumblers with straws, filtering bottles are hard to spot. Look a little closer and you'll notice the small filtration bag or tube, but they're so well designed, the bottles still look as good as they perform.

FILTER MEDIA

While all filter systems clean out "bad stuff" from your tap water, the way they do the filtering can vary. There are two common types of media that are used in water bottles:

Activated Carbon Block

A very common filter media, activated carbon is different than "regular" carbon because it has been treated to open millions of tiny pores, increasing the surface area of the carbon and helping it to react quickly with chemicals. When in a tight, solid form, activated carbon makes water taste better by removing chlorine, but it doesn't remove other contaminants. When the pores are full, they are no longer able to filter water, and it's time to replace the filter.

Granular Activated Carbon

Activated carbon in granular form removes chlorine taste and odor, but thanks to its shape and size, it treats a great deal more than a block of carbon. Its great amount of surface area makes it possible to quickly remove contaminants - about 100 different ones, as rated by the EPA. Its pores will also fill over time, needing to be replaced.

WHAT'S REMOVED

Water bottles generally use a carbon filter to trap contaminants from getting into your drinking water. Depending on the type of filter and size of the reservoir, it can take seconds or minutes for water to pass through the filter and into the bottle. Slow filtration is not a sign of a faulty system; it simply means that water is moving through layers of filter media, cleaning water.

Water bottle filters can reduce the presence of these contaminants:

  • Aluminum
  • Arsenic
  • Bacteria
  • Cadmium
  • Carbon Tetrachloride
  • Chemicals
  • Chloride
  • Chlorine Taste and Odor
  • Chlorobenzene/ Monochlorobenzene
  • Chloroform
  • Chromium
  • Copper
  • Cryptosporidium
  • Cysts
  • Dichlorobenzene/O-Dichlorobenzene (ODCB)
  • Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT)
  • Ethylbenzene
  • Fluoride
  • Giardia
  • Heavy Metals
  • Klebsiella Terrigena
  • Lead
  • Limescale
  • Mercury
  • Nitrates/Nitrites
  • Particulates
  • Polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs)
  • Sand
  • Sediment
  • Styrene
  • Toluene
  • Total Dissolved Solids (TDS)
  • Total Trihalomethanes (TTHM)
  • Trichloroethylene
  • Viruses
  • Xylene

CHOOSING A FILTER SYSTEM

When shopping for a filtering water bottle, there is just one question to ask yourself: What do I want to filter out? If your goal is simply better tasting water, pretty much any filter system will fit your needs because reducing chlorine flavor and smell is a standard. But some water bottles can do so much more, making them a perfect choice for taking hiking, camping and on other outdoor adventures. If you want to be sure your water is free of harmful contaminants like lead, cryptosporidium, and giardia, just read the label carefully.

Once you decide what you want the bottle to do for you, choosing from the variety of options comes down to personal preference. Find the color, size, shape and size that you like best, for an aesthetically pleasing safe-water solution.

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GET ADVICE

For answers to filter-related questions, recommendations on the filtering water bottle, or general water filtration questions, contact us.