ZeroWater 23-Cup Water Filter

If there’s one thing that freaks me out, it’s city water. I know what they say – “Our water meets all federal guidelines…” That’s what they say, but I’m still not sure I want to be drinking something that smells like chlorine.

There have only been a few times in my life where I’ve had to drink city water, during college in Binghamton, when I lived in Atlanta, Binghamton again and finally Naples. Each of those stints only lasted a year or two, so while it seems like quite a few places, the years only add up to five or so. The rest of my life, I’ve been drinking well water.

Now, I don’t mean to sound like well water is any more healthy than city water, but I do know that it doesn’t come with chlorine attached. It may have pesticides, herbicides, septic, silt, sand and all the rest, but at least there’s little chance of pharmaceuticals and major chemicals. Thinking about it right now though, it may be possible it does, depending on where you live.

Anyway, I just try to do what I can to minimize my exposure to all the terrible things out there that may find their way in my body. I know it’s quite the chore these days with the food we eat and the air we breath, but like recycling, we do what we can.

The water in Palm Coast is supposed to be pretty good. I’ve gone over the claims on their website and from what I’ve been reading, the “parts per million” of a whole bunch of things is rather low. Over the past few days, I’ve been reading a lot and have learned that this isn’t the case among various cities in the U.S. Some people have claimed that their untreated water leaves the tap looking white and has a sort of smoke when it fills the glass. This is from the high levels of chlorine. Really? It’s no wonder some people look so weird.

I already installed an under sink water filter. It’s an activated carbon filter that traps the “smell and odor” of chlorine. I’ve wondered what that exactly means – the “smell and odor.” What about the chlorine itself? Did it get rid of that?

The water tastes better with that filter, but I want more. I’ve considered getting a whole house filter or a reverse osmosis filter for under the sink. I’m still researching those options, so in the meantime, I just ordered a ZeroWater 23-Cup Water Filter.

ZeroWater 23-Cup Water Filter

These things are supposed to be pretty good. Consumer Reports allegedly compared this one to the other top brands, including Brita and said this was the best. It even comes with a little meter where you can test the water from the tap, from other filters and water that’s been filtered with this one. A few videos that I’ve watched claim that the parts per million of contaminants is reduced to zero. The problem is, I’m sure what those contaminants are. There are all sorts of claims out there, but it what these things are filtering aren’t in your water, then the filter being the best is useless. It’s kind of like saying, “Our filter reduces the amount of hamster hair in your water by 100%.” Wow, that’s great. Water filtering is a shady business.

But still, we try. We get what we can to try to make the water we drink as clean as possible. That’s what I’m doing. I’m just doing it one step at a time.

Check out their video.