Water filtration

We drink a lot of water, and given the strong taste of water coming in through old pipes in our area, we filter our drinking water.

Previously, we used a Brita On Tap system, which conveniently connected to the end of the tap on the kitchen sink.

This worked reasonably well, however we also use a mobile dishwasher (standard Dishlex dishwasher on wheels) with a connector and hoses that we also plug onto the end of the tap on the kitchen sink. To connect the dishwasher, we had to remove the filter unit. This was pretty straight forward, until the Brita connector got a bit old and stopped sealing properly. This lead to difficulty putting it on correctly and having it leak everywhere. The entire unit was also pretty bulky and the filters were quite expensive.

I decided to go around to The Water Shop in Cammeray and have a look at their benchtop units.

We decided to try a Royal Doulton counter top unit, which also plugs into the end of the sink tap, but the filter unit itself sits beside the sink with a hose running to it. More room taken up beside the sink, but less on the tap itself.

Advantages of this unit include a higher outlet for the filtered water, which makes it easy to fill up 1.5 or 2 L water bottles, much easier and cleaner to use, and we can also connect the dishwasher unit directly to the bottom of the connector on the tap, which means not removing the filter connector while using the dishwasher. The filtered water selector is also pressure based: you pull the pin out while the tap is running and it diverts water to the filter unit, then when you turn off the tap, the selector automatically pops back in ready for the sink to be used as normal. This means no forgetting to turn the tap back to normal mode after finishing with the filtered water.

Apparently the filters are supposed to last 12 – 18 months with this unit, and if water flow rate decreases, you can pull it out and scrub it clean to increase the flow rate again.

Will be interesting to see how it goes over time, but so far I am quite happy with it … and the water tastes … well … tasteless ! (as it should).