What is the best home filter for fluoride removal?

[peainthepod]

DH and I have been drinking bottled spring water for years, but I hate the waste and the fact that the water sits in plastic for who knows how long before we drink it. However, we're not willing to drink fluoridated city water unless we can first remove the fluoride and other contaminants like lead, arsenic, and the pharmaceutical dregs that are apparently in most city water supplies.

I've read that there are only three real ways to de-fluoridate water: activated alumina filters, which use chemical means, and reverse osmosis and distillation filters, which both use mechanical means. I understand that you have to be careful when buying activated alumina filters because some systems don't have second filter to remove the alumina from your water, so you're only replacing one toxin for another! :

Anyway, we live in an apartment but do have access to our own water tank if necessary. Would prefer an under-sink setup but are willing to invest in something else if it's better or requires less frequent filter changing/purchases.

Does anyone here have any suggestions for a brand and where to buy? I've been online looking all morning but most home systems I've found are only for sale in Australia, and the ones for sale in the States either don't mention HOW they remove the fluoride, or don't mention whether they remove the alumina from the water. Any advice would be hugely appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[Denvergirlie]

It's not under the sink, but counter top and we have a berkey water filter.

Black filters will removed almost everything, but also have the white filters which take out the floride.

Here is the techical stuff about what these filters remove:
http://www.berkeyfilters.com/berkeytech.htm

The filters are washable to a point, we've used ours over a year and have cleaned the filters twice but not yet replaced.

We even took ours camping and hauled water from the creek to filter and drink, great stuff.

[peainthepod]

Interesting, thanks Denvergirlie! Did you wash the filters by hand with just hot water, or what?

P.S. I heart Ron Paul.

[syd'smom]

Subbing for ideas - I'd love to get rid of the fluoride and chlorine in our city water. It's my understanding that RO would work, but wastes a ton of water. I've been looking into installing a charcoal filter where our water comes in (I don't like steaming myself in chlorine water in my hot baths ). I think that the charcoal filters come in different grades (removing ppms) of different "things" in our water. I'll update as I find out info too!

[Denvergirlie]

Originally Posted by peainthepod

Interesting, thanks Denvergirlie! Did you wash the filters by hand with just hot water, or what?

P.S. I heart Ron Paul.

Filters.... when you get the unit their will be directions for how you wash them and will more than likely they will include a scotch scrubbie pad or a brush. Basically, you run the filters under water and scrub the heck out of the black filter (charcoal based).

The only way you'll know they are getting dirty is the water filteration rate will slow down, although they do send literature along with the unit. The white filters are not cleanable, and would need to be replaced, but we haven't really looked at how many gallons we need to replace after.

The black filters take out like everything.... you would only then need the white filters to remove the flouride. Those that are on well water, would not need to invest in the white filters.

Yes, it was a bit pricey to get set up, but still way better water quality than using a Brita filter or something of the like. Plus I like the fact that this is portable, when we move (we are renters) we can just take it with us and don't have to worry about fiddling with pumbling and landlord approval, etc.

Happy investigating!

[Denvergirlie]

Originally Posted by syd'smom

Subbing for ideas - I'd love to get rid of the fluoride and chlorine in our city water. It's my understanding that RO would work, but wastes a ton of water. I've been looking into installing a charcoal filter where our water comes in (I don't like steaming myself in chlorine water in my hot baths ). I think that the charcoal filters come in different grades (removing ppms) of different "things" in our water. I'll update as I find out info too!

Just watch out, we looked into getting a filter for our shower, but our city doesn't use chlorine, instead it uses chloraime... which is a combination of Chlorine and amonia... joy. Anyways, all the filters we looked at on the market said they would only take out the chlorine but not the chloramine. Some manfuactures said there units would take out the chloramine, but they were the "same" as the other items on the market that said they wouldn't, so we have not invested in that yet. Basically, all my research pointed to the fact that we would need to go with full house system, to get that out. Since we are renters, we can't do that.

I would recommend contacting you local water board and see what it really is that they put in the water for treatment.

[KBinSATX]

We have an under the sink RO system by WATTS and love it. We used to buy so much bottled by the gallon water. This is so much better.

[lnitti]

Originally Posted by Denvergirlie

It's not under the sink, but counter top and we have a berkey water filter.

Black filters will removed almost everything, but also have the white filters which take out the floride.

Here is the techical stuff about what these filters remove:
http://www.berkeyfilters.com/berkeytech.htm

The filters are washable to a point, we've used ours over a year and have cleaned the filters twice but not yet replaced.

We even took ours camping and hauled water from the creek to filter and drink, great stuff.

Berkey uses activated alumina, but claims that there is no need for any further filtering for aluminum. That there is no aluminum that is in the water caused by the activated alumina filter for the flouride.

any one know about this?

[sunnysandiegan]

We purchased a Reverse Osmosis system shortly after buying this place. I was pregnant and working two jobs; DH was working INSANE hours. Neither of us wanted to lug water from the store and our tap water tastes disgusting in San Diego. It will be 9 years in August and it has worked beautifully this whole time. We got it at Home Depot and I believe it is GE. They were a lot more expensive back then, but were probably better made, too. I am currently researching quite a few appliances and it seems all of them were better made a decade or more ago...

I can smell a big difference between water I get from the RO spigot and the water that comes from the regular faucet on certain days. Someone upthread said an RO system wastes water. Hmmm... I am curious how. It certainly takes up valuable SPACE with its tank and filters, but people waste water, IMO.

[nathansmum]

SunnySD - the RO system wastes water due to the filtering process. It tosses out some and delivers some to your tap (I think it's something like 50/50). In saying that, we have a RO system and if I'd known about the water wastage I might have thought twice about getting it installed.

[sunnysandiegan]

Originally Posted by nathansmum

SunnySD - the RO system wastes water due to the filtering process. It tosses out some and delivers some to your tap (I think it's something like 50/50). In saying that, we have a RO system and if I'd known about the water wastage I might have thought twice about getting it installed.

Really??? Wow. How'd you figure that one out? I hear the tank filling up each morning after everyone has filled their bottles for the day (school & work), but I didn't realize it was sending water anywhere else. Hmmm... I have workers coming to the house today for other repairs and assessments and that cabinet is involved. Now I am curious to learn more about it. Thanks!

[julieanne]

Another option if your primary concern with bottled water is plastics and waste, is to use the filtered water machines at the grocery store. Almost ever grocery store has one here. It's city water that goes through regular filtering, then reverse osmosis. You can reuse the jugs and the water is only in plastic as long as it takes to get it home and drink it. Or, you could use glass if you *really* want to avoid plastic completely.

[nathansmum]

Originally Posted by sunnysandiegan

Really??? Wow. How'd you figure that one out? I hear the tank filling up each morning after everyone has filled their bottles for the day (school & work), but I didn't realize it was sending water anywhere else. Hmmm... I have workers coming to the house today for other repairs and assessments and that cabinet is involved. Now I am curious to learn more about it. Thanks!

A bit of googling talks of the process of how the system works. I can't find my original link to it, but somewhere else (which was not referenced) said that out of every litre filtered, 4 litres are wasted. That's even more than I thought!