It was between Veeky Forums and /g/... but since you guys are far more autist than /g/ I'll ask here

That is to say, the 5 - 7 stage filtration systems use ultraviolet and reverse osmosis and unicorn piss and rainbow filtration to change the pH and whatnot. You can look it up for real facts.
For some reason my tap water is extremely hard and I don't trust drinking it. It comes from a lake that has motor vehicles shitting it up as well as flora and fauna. And I don't trust our processing plant to do anything but toss flouride into it.

Yea

Gross water source.

Nothing wrong with that bit of a hassle is all. For that level of filtration its worth it though

Truly.
Veritably.
I don't drive so it's kind of an event getting them filled. 3 last about a month.
Think of how much a liter of bottled water costs. It's pretty crazy.

For me, it's Puratap, the best water filter

Don't know it they have anything like it outside Australia though

Reverse osmosis

AFAIK a carbon filter won't do that much unless your water is total shit. It won't remove chloride, won't remove or lessen minerals. I'm not that informed on water filters, besides knowing that there are a few more types besides tap and pitcher. RO units and the rest are rarely seen at homes IMO, they are however very common at any lab.

Is this an American thing? I just have a little metal mesh.

The best kind of faucet filter is not to get one.
For water for your stock pot or pasta pot, you should have an undersink tank doing reverse osmosis. A bulky one on your sink just holds bacteria all around the mechanisms inside because you use that sink for cleanup and such. It is a renter-only kind of solution.

For drinking water, it is even better to have a refrigerated pitcher you filter and decant a day before serving. This gives your water time to use up and lose the chloridated taste. This will be what you want to use in your coffee pot, iced tea, etc.

I drink Rain water

the ones Alex Jones tells me to buy

>It was between Veeky Forums and /g/... but since you guys are far more autist than /g
That's a pretty high bar we've cleared OP...

>What's the best brand of faucet water filter?
First things first is to go to your local utility and request a Consumer Confidence Report (CCR) which is an annual mandated water test quality required be made available to you that lists every legal contaminant and what in levels they are measured at the source.
ofmpub.epa.gov/apex/safewater/f?p=136:102::::::

It will NOT discern your water quality at the tap which includes the mainline distribution pipes and building plumbing. For that, you need a digital Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) Meter which measures turbidity of a given solution via electrical conductivity in parts per million (PPM). They are available online for 10-20$ and usually at water pool supply & aquatic pet stores. Just make sure the model has automatic temperature compensation for accurate readings. Here's a good example:
amazon.com/Professional-Combines-Accuracy-Hydroponics-Aquarium/dp/B01FPG89CE/

Typical results range:
0-50 PPM - Distilled or RO Filtered
50-140 PPM - Carbon Filtered/Bottled
140-400 PPM - Plain Tap
170+ PPM - Hard water
500 PPM - EPA's maximum contamination level.
waterfiltersonline.com/tds-sources.asp
See this video for major branded bottled waters & tap comparisons:
youtube.com/watch?v=_OH7WL400aY

Continued
All carbon and faucet-mounted filtered are shit performance and reliability-wise, and total wastes of money. If you are serious about water quality there are only 2 methods that filter EVERYTHING out (Chlorine, Minerals, Heavy Metals like Lead/Cadmium, Bacteria/Viruses, Volatile Chemicals, etc) which are either Distillation or Reverse Osmosis (RO).

Distilled water can be had from a counter-top pitcher model (or bought at the store in jugs), but it's slow to produce and lacks reservoir capacity. A RO system is a multi-stage set of pressure-forced tanks of increasingly finer membranes that install under your sink cabinet.
ro-systemreviews.com/definition-and-guide-to-choose-the-best-reverse-osmosis-system/
ro-system.org/#Buying_Guide
They are easy to install these days, super-affordable, and widely available on Amazon for $150-250. These are the models I'd look into:
amazon.com/Express-Water-RODI10D-Deionization-Residential/dp/B010RD13NM/
amazon.com/iSpring-RCC7-Certified-5-Stage-Drinking/dp/B003XELTTG/
amazon.com/APEC-5-Stage-Reverse-Drinking-Water/dp/B00I0ZGOZM/

tl;dr
is correct.

RO water is bland though. You need some minerals in water, which is why most proper spring water is delicious. Water minerality also makes a difference when preparing drinks.

>RO water is bland though.
It's not juice or soda. Pure water should be bland and literally tasteless. However I can see where you are coming from, which is why there are also RO-systems that have have an extra tank which re-adds choice minerals to the filtered water in the final stage for "flavor", so there's no need to compromise. Example ($190):
amazon.com/Express-Water-ROALK5D-Antioxidant-Remineralization/dp/B00MU20LN2/

Yeah I saw that in one of the Q&A in the amazon link. That would be my personal preference. Too bad I'm poor, don't live in the US and don't own a house.

I use this thing. I don't know much about filters but it's said to be one of the most efficient in the world. The water tastes amazing too.

What about water distillers?

Isn't that unhealthy in the long term?

only nu-males use water filters

No it's not.
It just removes heavy particles from your water.
There is a lot of crap like dirt and chalk in ANY water source. The water plants and refineries use chemicals to dissolve said particles.
They are still there, but you can't see them. If you have clean drinkable water in your tap, try boiling a cup of water in some clear glassware. Totally evaporate the water, and the particles that you previously could not see, are now clearly visible and are very abundant. Try it, and you will want to buy a distiller.

Same here. I made pur send a new one every time it cracked telling them to make it out of metal.

Distilled water is a powerful solvent. Long term drinking can pull the minerals out of your bones. There is a reason why mineral water is associated with health, because hard water is best for drinking.

the only way it could pull minerals out of your bones, is if it's really hard for the body to process and break it down. And it need said minerals to do so. How is harder for the body process cleaner water than regular mineral water? I hope you have an answer for that, because it makes no sense to me.

yikes... *How is it harder for the body to process cleaner water than regular mineral water*

I used to use brita but dealing with their filters was a hassle. I switched over to one of these that use a standard filter size and haven't looked back. I don't really care about TDS, just removal of that nasty chlorine taste.

No. The only really dangerous ultra pure water that shouldn't be consumed is dionized water and that's because of the fact that the resins used during the DI process can sometimes leach hydrochloric acid or sodium hydroxide into the finished product.

why the fuck would you want to filter out minerals

all you need are 2 or 3 stage nsf certified carbon filters rated to remove VOCs

RO filters and distillation are retarded if you want to actually hydrate yourself with your tap water

Hard water makes the best beer (and bread).

Not harder to process, it's just the pure form is more chemically active, so it desolves everything inside you until it reaches homeostasis. It's OK if you do it for a month following chelation therapy say to remove lead from your body, it will help clean you out. But long term drinking will strip your body of essentials faster than the average diet could replace them.

Moderation...

It's a one month timer.
Filters are good for X litres, usually consumed in a month by a family of Y persons. If you're not Y and/or don't consume filtered water like the average person, just find a way to calculate how much you consume and/or calculate when to change it, and set up an alarm on your phone.

The instructions in mine said to keep the filter submerged.

I have 5L mineral water at less than 1€. (Your water is 0.67€ for 5L). It's pretty much the local equivalent of a unicorn filtered water filling station.

I've seen them in Europe too, but we usually have better tap water.