The TDS meters they include can't be calibrated, so you really never know if it's accurate. I have one that can be calibrated and compared my water with the one Zero Water included and the ppm didn't match, not even close. I contacted Zero Water and they eventually sent me a replacement meter, which was more accurate. These meters need to be calibrated every so often, just something to know. But yes, believe that it will show a zero TDS reading. That's because of what's inside the filter and how large it is. And yes, the filters can be recycled, Zero Water will recycle them and give you a discount for replacement filters, but you have to pay for the shipping to send yours to them. And you know, Zero Water sells smaller pitchers that would be lighter, mine is just a 6 cup pitcher. I don't notice a difference in the taste between the Brita and Zero Water, so it's interesting that you guys do. Maybe you both are more taste sensitive to the good amount of minerals, and that is what you are calling as a clean good taste. But since the Brita doesn't remove as much as the Zero Water then it would make sense why you liked the Brita water better. I think that maybe when you were using the TDS meter you might have accidentally pressed the HOLD button before putting it into the water, which is why it showed zero all the time, I've done that myself. The filter won't go from zero to over 100 overnight, it should slowly increase over weeks or days depending on how much water it's filtering, and as the filter loses its effectiveness be replaced at .006ppm. And at that ppm there isn't a bad smell or taste. So obviously you went way past the replacement point with the filter. The instructions even talk about that, always good to read the instructions. Here's something you should know about drinking from metal water bottles. Just like with plastic bottles where they've found that micro plastics are being ingested into the body, metal does the same thing. Drinking water from a metal bottle and you can taste the metal it's because you are ingesting micro metallic particles. Glass is best but unfortunately not practical. But overall, Brita vs Zero Water...the Zero Water hands down, is the better option. The Brita just doesn't filter out much, at least from my tap. And if the Zero Water taste is an issue (not the lemony or fishy taste), you could add mineral drops to it. People often do that when they distill water, remove the bad stuff and then put the good stuff back in with the drops.
Thanks for the detailed reply and a lot of very valid points. Our TDS metre rusted horribly on the inside shortly after the review, and we've retired the ZeroWater and Brita. We've now switched to LARQ which is a far superior filter for us on all counts: ruclips.net/video/dxXUzV3RAYM/видео.html
@@MyHomeFarm The meter rusted? Are you sure? I've never found a TDS meter to rust. Maybe if it was submerged in water for days it possible could. That's odd that yours rusted. I'm considering the LARQ but it's so expensive. I don't see how those filters can last very long because they are so small. And, I couldn't find any information about how many ppm it gets the water down to. When a company doesn't publish that number it makes me hesitate. Brita doesn't publish it either and I know why now.
I was a water filtration technician for a couple years. You never want water to be 0 tds, it’s actually bad for you. TDS only measures minerals not chlorine, and other stuff. Bottle waters at least here in USA measure TDS 15-40 depending on brand, but safe water can go up to TDS 150. You need minerals for taste. I’d go with brita. Also with high end reverse osmosis system the filter change, is usually 6 months to a year, with brita, because of the size it’s only makes sense the filters with last on 2 months. It’s quite reasonable.
@@MyHomeFarm to put it in perspective great water can have high TDS, while you can add nail polish remover to distilled water and it would still test at 0 TDS. Personally I use brita too haha, it taste better than bottled water.
@@TheJemstar28 disappointed that a water tech would provide such misleading information especially without context. Yes 0 total dissolved solids (tds) doesn’t mean totally clean water but the clue is the word ‘total’. It is well understood that the higher rhetoric tds, the higher the probability of other contaminants in the water and reverse is also true. Based on lab tests rhe Brita is only better at filtering chloroform than Zerowater. Zero is a superior filter by every other metric. You can always add a pinch Himalayan salt or any other as desired to the zero water if you wish to reintroduce useful dissolved salts. The fishy smell from zero water is a results from exposing the resins in the filter to high temperatures such as during periods of heatwave, you can mitigate this by leaving the pitcher filter in the fridge.
You can get the strong man to pour the water out of the jug into glass bottles!! That way you can actually build up a store of water bottles that are ready to go and easy to pour. I have a water distiller!!! I recommend that. It does use electricity but it doesn't use a lot of filters. The filters are like tea bags of charcoal that you put into the nozzle. Very minimalist filters. It does 4 litres/ 1 gallon per batch. It takes about 4 hours to do each batch. Again the water is very low dissolved solids, so can taste very bland, but you can add back in a bit of magnesium citrate powder, low salt (pottasium), and himalayan salt to make it tastier, and also keep it in the fridge!
you have to keep the zerowater-filter out of direct sunlight. Sunlight causes the filter to deteriorate. Keep it out of the sun and it will last a very long time !!! I hate it when people give reviews and they don't know ALL the ins and outs.
As an aside Michelle, we have a new weekly vlog that focuses on country living, wildlife, nature and gardening: bit.ly/3IyIf86 If you have a moment please check it out, and thank you once again for watching.
I have usex filters for over 40 years. I always thought britta were good. But not so sure since i got zero water. Britta just reduces it slightly from tap tds by 100. Zero water removes the lot even flouride and chlorine that they put in it. This is what i do now, i put tap water in the britta then transfer it to zero water. So thats double filtered. I have lots of britta filters so may aswell use them up, both new type and older ones maxtras. The advantage of zero water is there is a button on the bottom to get water out of jug. There is another method but think its more costly. That being under sink filters you get 3 filters for different things last about 2 years. But what they cost i dont know. Jugs are more simple to use and straight forward.
Thank you for your comment and feedback. We’ve now switched exclusively to LARQ. More expensive but you certainly get what you pay for. Here’s our recent review: LARQ Pitcher PureVis Review - Is it Better Than Brita and Zerowater? ruclips.net/video/dxXUzV3RAYM/видео.html
@@MyHomeFarm your welcome I purchased a 20 cup zero water after researching it. For me it tastes great and works great. Thank you for sharing your video as it was one that I watched while considering my choices.
Great review. I’m with you guys, I use Brita only because of the periodic chlorine level increases. You can actually re-use the filters, there are plenty of tutorials on YT. I don’t rely on the digital indicator to notify me when the cartridge needs changing, my taste buds tell me. BTW - the splash back tiles on your stove are exactly what I’m looking for just now, can I ask, where did you get yours from?
Thanks for the feedback Andrew. I'll definitely look into the tutorials of reusing the filters. Thanks for that. Regarding the splash back tiles, I'm afraid I don't know. The previous owners out them in. Sorry,.
Nice review guys ... I guess I'll be sticking with our Brita and BTW the countdown meter is just that on the Brita Jugs. It has nothing to do with the water quality or testing it (look closely and you'll see it has no way of actually making contact with the water inside the jug apart from you perhaps splashing water on to it whilst filling)... it just counts down over a four week period [Brita recommend swapping out the Filters every 4 weeks] so 100% is the start ... 75% is the end of week one, 50% the end of week two, 25% the end of week three and 0% with rapid flashing indicates time to change the cartridge. One thing with the Zerowater you tested, you say you kept it next to the sink (?). These types of water jugs should be kept in a chilled environment as unlike a sealed bottle of water the jugs being exposed to the air can and are affected by high room temperatures and air borne bacteria, so perhaps that did not help with your waters 'fishy bacteria laden' taste? Hope this helps....
Thanks the comments and very helpful feedback, especially about the countdown metre on the Brita filters. Greatly appreciate you taking the time to reply. We weren't aware that the Zerowater should have been stored in the fridge, and I don't recall seeing any such instructions. Given what you've described, the smell could have very easily been a product of bacteria taking hold in the filter.
It doesn’t purify water. I’ve tried it. I’ve been purify my tap water for years with a different filter so I know that purified water should taste like.
The best thing to filter the water with is activated charcoal that's what should be in them water filters the rest of those substances should not be used those substances should not be used in the first place
The TDS meters they include can't be calibrated, so you really never know if it's accurate. I have one that can be calibrated and compared my water with the one Zero Water included and the ppm didn't match, not even close. I contacted Zero Water and they eventually sent me a replacement meter, which was more accurate. These meters need to be calibrated every so often, just something to know.
But yes, believe that it will show a zero TDS reading. That's because of what's inside the filter and how large it is. And yes, the filters can be recycled, Zero Water will recycle them and give you a discount for replacement filters, but you have to pay for the shipping to send yours to them.
And you know, Zero Water sells smaller pitchers that would be lighter, mine is just a 6 cup pitcher.
I don't notice a difference in the taste between the Brita and Zero Water, so it's interesting that you guys do. Maybe you both are more taste sensitive to the good amount of minerals, and that is what you are calling as a clean good taste. But since the Brita doesn't remove as much as the Zero Water then it would make sense why you liked the Brita water better.
I think that maybe when you were using the TDS meter you might have accidentally pressed the HOLD button before putting it into the water, which is why it showed zero all the time, I've done that myself. The filter won't go from zero to over 100 overnight, it should slowly increase over weeks or days depending on how much water it's filtering, and as the filter loses its effectiveness be replaced at .006ppm. And at that ppm there isn't a bad smell or taste. So obviously you went way past the replacement point with the filter. The instructions even talk about that, always good to read the instructions.
Here's something you should know about drinking from metal water bottles. Just like with plastic bottles where they've found that micro plastics are being ingested into the body, metal does the same thing. Drinking water from a metal bottle and you can taste the metal it's because you are ingesting micro metallic particles. Glass is best but unfortunately not practical.
But overall, Brita vs Zero Water...the Zero Water hands down, is the better option. The Brita just doesn't filter out much, at least from my tap. And if the Zero Water taste is an issue (not the lemony or fishy taste), you could add mineral drops to it. People often do that when they distill water, remove the bad stuff and then put the good stuff back in with the drops.
Thanks for the detailed reply and a lot of very valid points.
Our TDS metre rusted horribly on the inside shortly after the review, and we've retired the ZeroWater and Brita. We've now switched to LARQ which is a far superior filter for us on all counts: ruclips.net/video/dxXUzV3RAYM/видео.html
@@MyHomeFarm The meter rusted? Are you sure? I've never found a TDS meter to rust. Maybe if it was submerged in water for days it possible could. That's odd that yours rusted.
I'm considering the LARQ but it's so expensive. I don't see how those filters can last very long because they are so small. And, I couldn't find any information about how many ppm it gets the water down to. When a company doesn't publish that number it makes me hesitate. Brita doesn't publish it either and I know why now.
I was a water filtration technician for a couple years. You never want water to be 0 tds, it’s actually bad for you. TDS only measures minerals not chlorine, and other stuff. Bottle waters at least here in USA measure TDS 15-40 depending on brand, but safe water can go up to TDS 150. You need minerals for taste. I’d go with brita. Also with high end reverse osmosis system the filter change, is usually 6 months to a year, with brita, because of the size it’s only makes sense the filters with last on 2 months. It’s quite reasonable.
Thanks Edgar. That’s very interesting and insightful. We are only using the Brita. Thank you for taking the time to leave the educational comment.
@@MyHomeFarm to put it in perspective great water can have high TDS, while you can add nail polish remover to distilled water and it would still test at 0 TDS. Personally I use brita too haha, it taste better than bottled water.
So Britta is pretty good ?
A water tech, huh? That's deadly... can I pick your brain?
@@TheJemstar28 disappointed that a water tech would provide such misleading information especially without context. Yes 0 total dissolved solids (tds) doesn’t mean totally clean water but the clue is the word ‘total’. It is well understood that the higher rhetoric tds, the higher the probability of other contaminants in the water and reverse is also true. Based on lab tests rhe Brita is only better at filtering chloroform than Zerowater. Zero is a superior filter by every other metric. You can always add a pinch Himalayan salt or any other as desired to the zero water if you wish to reintroduce useful dissolved salts.
The fishy smell from zero water is a results from exposing the resins in the filter to high temperatures such as during periods of heatwave, you can mitigate this by leaving the pitcher filter in the fridge.
You can get the strong man to pour the water out of the jug into glass bottles!! That way you can actually build up a store of water bottles that are ready to go and easy to pour. I have a water distiller!!! I recommend that. It does use electricity but it doesn't use a lot of filters. The filters are like tea bags of charcoal that you put into the nozzle. Very minimalist filters. It does 4 litres/ 1 gallon per batch. It takes about 4 hours to do each batch. Again the water is very low dissolved solids, so can taste very bland, but you can add back in a bit of magnesium citrate powder, low salt (pottasium), and himalayan salt to make it tastier, and also keep it in the fridge!
you have to keep the zerowater-filter out of direct sunlight. Sunlight causes the filter to deteriorate. Keep it out of the sun and it will last a very long time !!! I hate it when people give reviews and they don't know ALL the ins and outs.
Our filter wasn’t in direct sunlight. It was kept in a cool spot.
Great video! I have beeing looking for a water fliter and this video is very helpful!
Thank you, and we’re pleased it was helpful.
As an aside Michelle, we have a new weekly vlog that focuses on country living, wildlife, nature and gardening: bit.ly/3IyIf86
If you have a moment please check it out, and thank you once again for watching.
I have usex filters for over 40 years. I always thought britta were good. But not so sure since i got zero water.
Britta just reduces it slightly from tap tds by 100.
Zero water removes the lot even flouride and chlorine that they put in it.
This is what i do now, i put tap water in the britta then transfer it to zero water. So thats double filtered.
I have lots of britta filters so may aswell use them up, both new type and older ones maxtras.
The advantage of zero water is there is a button on the bottom to get water out of jug.
There is another method but think its more costly. That being under sink filters you get 3 filters for different things last about 2 years. But what they cost i dont know. Jugs are more simple to use and straight forward.
Thank you for your comment and feedback. We’ve now switched exclusively to LARQ. More expensive but you certainly get what you pay for. Here’s our recent review: LARQ Pitcher PureVis Review - Is it Better Than Brita and Zerowater?
ruclips.net/video/dxXUzV3RAYM/видео.html
They say that the filter lasts longer if you place it in the fridge as the heat causes it to go faster.
Thanks for sharing.
@@MyHomeFarm your welcome I purchased a 20 cup zero water after researching it. For me it tastes great and works great. Thank you for sharing your video as it was one that I watched while considering my choices.
Great review. I’m with you guys, I use Brita only because of the periodic chlorine level increases. You can actually re-use the filters, there are plenty of tutorials on YT. I don’t rely on the digital indicator to notify me when the cartridge needs changing, my taste buds tell me.
BTW - the splash back tiles on your stove are exactly what I’m looking for just now, can I ask, where did you get yours from?
Thanks for the feedback Andrew. I'll definitely look into the tutorials of reusing the filters. Thanks for that. Regarding the splash back tiles, I'm afraid I don't know. The previous owners out them in. Sorry,.
Nice review guys ... I guess I'll be sticking with our Brita and BTW the countdown meter is just that on the Brita Jugs.
It has nothing to do with the water quality or testing it (look closely and you'll see it has no way of actually making contact with the water inside the jug apart from you perhaps splashing water on to it whilst filling)... it just counts down over a four week period [Brita recommend swapping out the Filters every 4 weeks] so 100% is the start ... 75% is the end of week one, 50% the end of week two, 25% the end of week three and 0% with rapid flashing indicates time to change the cartridge.
One thing with the Zerowater you tested, you say you kept it next to the sink (?). These types of water jugs should be kept in a chilled environment as unlike a sealed bottle of water the jugs being exposed to the air can and are affected by high room temperatures and air borne bacteria, so perhaps that did not help with your waters 'fishy bacteria laden' taste? Hope this helps....
Thanks the comments and very helpful feedback, especially about the countdown metre on the Brita filters. Greatly appreciate you taking the time to reply.
We weren't aware that the Zerowater should have been stored in the fridge, and I don't recall seeing any such instructions. Given what you've described, the smell could have very easily been a product of bacteria taking hold in the filter.
It doesn’t purify water. I’ve tried it. I’ve been purify my tap water for years with a different filter so I know that purified water should taste like.
👍
The best thing to filter the water with is activated charcoal that's what should be in them water filters the rest of those substances should not be used those substances should not be used in the first place
I think charcoal ruins the taste of water. It just tastes like charcoal. Neither does this filter work.
Brita filters do contain activated charcoal.