Amazon Basics Water Purifier and Filters

It's time for another Saturday morning product review. I like to go to Amazon to look for interesting items I see on commercials. A month ago, I became interested in a Brita water filter pitcher after seeing a commercial for that, because our tap water gags me. When I got to Amazon, I was surprised to discover that they are relatively inexpensive. But the Amazon Basics filter pitcher was less expensive than the Brita and had more reviews with a 4.6 star rating. So, being the frugal person that I am, I bought the Amazon Basics filter pitcher - and 3 extra Amazon Basics filters that also have great reviews. The filters should be changed every 2 months unless you start tasting the impurities sooner because of hard water.

My husband has a water quality checker. Before purifying, the impurities measured over 300. After purification, the impurities measured 165. I'm not sure what the tester is checking for, but whatever it is, the impurities are lower. Our older son also has a water quality checker and bought the Zero Water pitcher. He says he gets a zero impurities reading with a new filter, and he uses a filter for a couple of years from which he still gets a low impurities reading after all that time. I'm still trying to decide if I want to get a Zero Water filter pitcher, but I'm afraid it will also strip away the fluoride from the tap water I run through it. At this point, we have only a $35 investment with the Amazon Basics filter system that comes with 1 filter and the 3 additional filters we purchased.

So, for now I do like the Amazon Basics water purifying filters. I've been using the same filter for this entire month. My filtered tap water does not taste disgusting any more. And that was the result I was going for, because I drink a lot of water. The pitcher reservoir filters 10 cups at a time. After each 10 cups I filter, I actually pour the water into a 2-quart pitcher, which holds 20 cups of water. This way, my filtering pitcher is free when I need to filter water to make ice cubes and tea. 

Some reviewers said the water at the bottom tastes weird. But I think people are leaving their water steeping in the filter inside the pitcher, because I don't notice any strange taste when I get to the water at the bottom of my separate pitcher. The bottom water tastes as clean as the top water does. 

Be aware that with 4 filtering layers, this really just drips through the filter; it doesn't gush out from the reservoir. The drip is relatively fast. But if you notice that the dripping slows down, then shake out the excess water from the filter and pounce it on a towel to kind of dry it out a bit. I've noticed that gets it back to the faster dripping quite well.

One lady in the reviews said that the water stopped coming out after a short period of time. If this happens to you, I imagine you either have very hard water that will require you to change filters more frequently, or excess water is clogging the filter. You can fix that by doing what I mention in the paragraph preceding this one. 

I do think the Amazon Basics water purifier is a good purchase. If you already own a Brita pitcher, the Amazon Basics filters are supposed to fit its reservoir. I don't know if they filter more or fewer of the impurities, however. 

Image courtesy of Amazon.com

Have a wonderfully blessed day,

Patricia