Jim Scott
CONSUMER HEALTH INTERACTIVEBelow:
• What is a pour-through carafe?
• Who is it best for?
• What does it remove?
• What are its pros and cons?
• How much does it cost?
What is a pour-through carafe? This simple filter, which resembles a water pitcher or large jug, is a distant cousin of the filter you use to make coffee every morning. The big difference is that the pour-through carafe strains out impurities so minute that they make a single grain of your coffee grounds look like Mount Rushmore. To use it, you simply pour tap water into an opening in the lid. Gravity directs the water downward through a toothpaste-tube-size filter containing an ion-exchange resin (think of it as a magnet that attracts lead and copper) and an activated-carbon filter to strain out impurities. The filtered water spills into a waiting receptacle in the lower half of the container. Note that "two-gallon" pitchers process only one gallon of water at a time, because the tap-water reservoir at the top takes up half the space. Who is it best for? Pour-through carafes, also sometimes called water-jug filters, are best for one- or two-person households whose members are fussy about taste and smell and drink only a gallon of water or so per day. What does it remove? Most water-jug filters take out lead, copper, and chlorine, along with zinc and other sediments that make water look and taste bad. They won't remove harmful bacteria, viruses, nitrates, sulfates, or cysts. What are its pros and cons? The main advantages of this type of filter are that it's portable, wastes no water, and uses no electricity. Its big disadvantage is inconvenience: If you drink a lot of water, you have to keep filling the dang pitcher. How much does it cost? You can buy a pour-through carafe for around $20, but you'll need to install a new filter (at about $8 a pop) after every 35 gallons. The filtered water costs approximately 23 cents per gallon. You can buy pour-through carafes at most department and discount stores. Two major brands are Pur and Brita. Visit Pur's Web site , or Brita's Web site to find a store near you.
Further Resources The Water Quality Association Consumer Affairs Department P.O. Box 606 Lisle, IL 60532 Phone: 630-505-0160 http://www.wqa.org
References
Understanding Filter Technologies and Types. Regulatory World, a publication of NSF International. http://www.nsf.org/newsletters/regworld01-2/rw_page4.html
Marilyn W. Caselman. Drinking Water Treatment Devices: Filters. Department of Environmental Design, University of Missouri-Columbia. Human Environmental Sciences publication GH4864
Reviewed by Lisa Tartamella, M.S., R.D., an ambulatory nutrition specialist at the Yale-New Haven hospital in Connecticut and a contributing author to The Yale Guide to Children's Nutrition.
First published March 3, 1999
Last updated November 15, 2007
Copyright © 1999 Consumer Health Interactive
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