A few days ago a Twitter Follower took a statement from my writings about Reverse Osmosis  not being totally water efficient and expanded it into a claim something to the effect of “RO wastes water,  use the BRITA, it’s the best”. Now, if you have read any of my posts you know that I continually warn people about seeking for and making blanket statements about water. So I assure you, BRITA is NOT the best at anything. They may be the best at marketing their products, but performance wise, I am not impressed.

Attached at the end of this post is a very well-done study on water contaminant removal using various filtration technologies. Access to this information was made possible by the Army Corp Of Engineers.

Organic contaminants are among the most dangerous found in our drinking water. Organic contaminants are chemicals containing carbon, and include plastics, pharmaceuticals, pesticides and aromatics including certain phenols and naphtyl-amines. For years Granulated Activated Carbon (GAC) has been the staple for removing these items, and it is effective. The problem however is that carbon is a very slow adsorptive media and science has been continually searching for more efficient technologies.

Enter the BRITA line of products. The company claims removal of of many,if not all of the type of contaminants we are speaking of. From what I can tell, those claims are 100% true. So, why don’t I like the BRITA filter?

Well, this is where the average consumer is gullible and needs some help. You see, the critical part of this equation is not just which contaminants are removed, but also how fast are they removed. It is also important to know what the capacity of the filter is to remove all the various contaminants.

In the study I am sharing the BRITA filter fared very poorly compared to conventional GAC, and even worse to more modern technologies. The takeaway? Again, if you strive for better drinking water, I support you and will help you find it. However, there is a lot of study to understanding water, and this business of picking out a product to brag about is bad business.

BRITA TEST