The Best Water Filters Reviewed

This is where the water meets the road. What is the best water filter for you?

Let’s compare three of the top, most recognized, and most easily available brands. All of these brands have great capabilities.

There are a large number of water filter measures, so we’ll focus on those that are most important: Cost, Lead Reduction,

Chemical Reduction, and Cyst Reduction. Cost is a tricky one, if you are familiar with computer printers.

With some, a month’s ink ends up costing more than that “cheap” printer. Thus, we will combine retail cost and filter-replacement cost to arrive at actual cost.

We will compare on the most common chemical contaminants: MTBE, TCE, Benzene, Atrazine, Alachlor, Lindane, VOCs, and THMs.

Lead reduction is also a good indicator of other heavy-metal reduction. We are comparing faucet- filters, not pitcher or whole-house, but the results are similar. All three filters are close in chlorine reduction, so we have left this out of our comparison.

Brita™

As water filters go, Brita™ is one of the best. Here are the stats:

Cost per Thousand Gallons: $214.95

Chemical Reduction: Does not remove THMs, VOCs, or MTBE

Lead Reduction: 99%

Cyst Reduction: Over 99%

Pur™

This is another top brand in our stable of best water filters:

Cost per Thousand Gallons: $229.95

Chemical Reduction: Does not remove THMs, VOCs, Alachlor, Benzene, TCE, or MTBE

Lead Reduction: 96%

Cyst Reduction: Over 99%

Aquasana™

Finally, comes Aquasana™, which is another of the best water filters on the market:

Cost per Thousand Gallons: $147.99

Chemical Reduction: Removes all common chemicals. MTBE, TCE, Benzene, Atrazine, Alachlor, Lindane, VOCs,  and THMs

Lead Reduction: Over 99%

Cyst Reduction: Over 99.99%

All of these systems are good. Some may not be in your local store, but if you value water quality, you should probably search for the best one, in terms of value, chemical reduction, cyst reduction, and lead reduction.

All of them are carbon-based, and this is acknowledged to be the best method for removing chemical pollutants. Considering the diseases that can be caused by contaminated water, any filter is better than none.

However, Aquasana™ seems to lead the pack in cost, is equivalent or better in lead and cyst reduction, and removes the most chemicals.

It is, by these measures, the best water filter. Their faucet-mount system is not as compact as Brita™ or Pur™, but that is probably due to the increased efficiency of contaminant-reduction.