Water Filters: Clear2-0 CWS100A Carafe

[frigilux]

I've had a Brita water carafe water filter for about five years, but have never been too happy with it, nor have I been impressed with its limited filtering ability. In the meantime, I've become quite fond of buying cases of Nestle bottled water for $3.89 at Sam's Club.

In an effort to stop producing so much plastic trash, I decided to get a better filtering system. I figured I'd have to get an under-sink reverse osmosis system or something.

Consumer Reports just happened to rate water filters in their May issue and the Clear 2-0 CWS100A carafe scored very high. The highest scoring unit was an $1,800 reverse osmosis system (score of 99). Next highest was a Tersano Lotus LWT100 carafe with a score of 95 and a price of $150.

The Clear 2-0 carafe was third, with a score of 93 and a price of $30. So I ordered one from Amazon.com. It arrived today and I'm amazed at the quality of the water it produces.

All you do is put their aerator/adapter on your kitchen faucet and connect the pitcher to it via the quick-connect hose, which stores in the handle of the carafe. (It won't work with pull-out sprayer faucets.)

You get a pitcherful of water in about 35-40 seconds. The water tastes (and looks) really....pure. Clean. Untainted.

Highly recommended, and you can't beat the price. It outperformed all the other countertop, undersink, faucet-mounted, and reverse-osmosis systems they tested.

Here's a photo of the just-over-half-full carafe:

 

[frigilux]

And here's a photo of it connected to the faucet. (And yes, I sanitized the sink before setting the carafe in there.)

 

[sudsmaster]

I have mixed feelings about the carafe style water filtrations system.

This is because many people stick the carafe full of filtered water in the fridge, and because it's not air-tight the water tends to acquire an off taste after a few hours. This is worse than plain tap water, IMHO.

I don't experience this problem with a sealed in-line filter for the refrigerator in-door water dispenser, unless it hasn't been used for a week or two. Better protection from off-odors in the fridge, I think.

Of course it's best to keep the fridge compartment squeaky clean so there are no odors in the first place, but...

 

[frigilux]

Carafes are also not for people who require large quantities of filtered water. I use filtered water for drinking, making coffee or tea, and in bread dough, but I use tap water when boiling 5-6 quarts in the pasta pot.

The reason for choosing this particular carafe has more to do with the wide range of contaminants it filters, both chemical and organic. I also like how quickly you can filter a pitcherful---just over 1/2 minute. There's no waiting.

 

[circlew]

I recently bought the Zero Water pitcher. I like the taste of the water, but the tank you put the water into doesn't hold much. It has to be refilled numerous times to get a pitcher full, which is a pain when needing a gallon to make my iced tea. Wish I'd known about the Clear 2-0, as it would be much more suitable.