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EXPLOSION!
Things have been busy here. I was away and offline on Friday and Saturday; lots to tell about that, but it will be in another post.
For some reason I didn't feel like writing on Sunday. So now I have to catch up.
We've been using a Pur faucet-mounted water filter for a couple of years now. In the past I've ranted about the HUGE increase in the cost of filters; the price has more than doubled since 2002, for no reason that I can see (other than greed, of course). And for a while we were having real problems with the filters, because they only worked for a week or two before clogging up (although our tap water isn't particularly hard or dirty).
Anyway, on Thursday I was relaxing in the living room. Teri was in the kitchen. Suddenly there was an enormous hissing sound from the kitchen; it sounded like an explosion. But unlike an explosion it went on, and on, and on. I got there just as it ended: Teri shut off the water.
The housing of the Pur water filter had cracked open, blasting a high-pressure spray into Teri's face, as well as across the kitchen onto our ceiling and far wall. Everything was soaked. Fortunately Teri was okay, if a little shaken up. But it was obvious that the unit was completely wrecked.
This was not good. Money was tight (as it so often is these days), and another expense was NOT welcome. There wasn't any alternative, however, since bottled water is prohibitively expensive as well as being a complete pain to deal with. So I got online and did a little research.
I struck gold quickly (I do seem to have a gift for online research): an independent page comparing the top water filters on the market. Lots and lots of good, clear data - an outstanding set of information. It was quickly clear that we'd been using a pretty bad filter. Pur didn't handle half of the contaminants on the list. It was more expensive to use than other, more effective options - more than double the cost! Out of all of the listed models (which included every water filter I'd ever heard of, and quite a few I hadn't), Aquasana came out on top. It filtered every category of contaminant, and was either the most or second-most effective in every category. The cost per gallon came to under 10 cents, compared to 20 cents for Pur (due mostly to their high filter price).
The drawback, though, was that no stores in the area sold Aquasana; I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. I checked out their web site and found a really interesting offer (a combination deal on a sink water filter and shower filter), but we just couldn't wait - and didn't have that much money on hand, anyway.
So on Sunday we went over to Sears and picked up a cheap Culligan faucet unit. I crunched the numbers and the costs are still much lower than Pur; under 13 cents per gallon.
The unit itself is a bit more utilitarian than the Pur model, but actually easier to use: pull a little metal knob to switch to filter mode, and the knob automatically snaps back to non-filtered mode when the water is turned off. That's a very nice feature which is accomplished mechanically by water pressure - clean and simple, the kind of engineering I really admire.
The filter itself is quite effective, with a flow that's appreciably faster than the Pur filter - but not so fast as to make me doubt that the filter is working at all. The water is definitely better-tasting than unfiltered water, which is good. Even Teri noticed the difference in flavor.
Hmm...that sounds as if I'm denigrating Teri. I should explain that I'm one of those people with an unusually sensitive sense of smell and taste - the so-called "supertasters". Sort of like the Princess and the Pea. So I have to rely on Teri to know if a smell or taste is relatively intense.
Here's a quick online test that can indicate whether you're a supertaster, although a definitive test requires blue food coloring and a magnifying glass. About 1/4 of all people are supertasters, by the way, so it's not like I'm claiming some sort of exotic mutant ability.
For some reason I didn't feel like writing on Sunday. So now I have to catch up.
We've been using a Pur faucet-mounted water filter for a couple of years now. In the past I've ranted about the HUGE increase in the cost of filters; the price has more than doubled since 2002, for no reason that I can see (other than greed, of course). And for a while we were having real problems with the filters, because they only worked for a week or two before clogging up (although our tap water isn't particularly hard or dirty).
Anyway, on Thursday I was relaxing in the living room. Teri was in the kitchen. Suddenly there was an enormous hissing sound from the kitchen; it sounded like an explosion. But unlike an explosion it went on, and on, and on. I got there just as it ended: Teri shut off the water.
The housing of the Pur water filter had cracked open, blasting a high-pressure spray into Teri's face, as well as across the kitchen onto our ceiling and far wall. Everything was soaked. Fortunately Teri was okay, if a little shaken up. But it was obvious that the unit was completely wrecked.
This was not good. Money was tight (as it so often is these days), and another expense was NOT welcome. There wasn't any alternative, however, since bottled water is prohibitively expensive as well as being a complete pain to deal with. So I got online and did a little research.
I struck gold quickly (I do seem to have a gift for online research): an independent page comparing the top water filters on the market. Lots and lots of good, clear data - an outstanding set of information. It was quickly clear that we'd been using a pretty bad filter. Pur didn't handle half of the contaminants on the list. It was more expensive to use than other, more effective options - more than double the cost! Out of all of the listed models (which included every water filter I'd ever heard of, and quite a few I hadn't), Aquasana came out on top. It filtered every category of contaminant, and was either the most or second-most effective in every category. The cost per gallon came to under 10 cents, compared to 20 cents for Pur (due mostly to their high filter price).
The drawback, though, was that no stores in the area sold Aquasana; I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. I checked out their web site and found a really interesting offer (a combination deal on a sink water filter and shower filter), but we just couldn't wait - and didn't have that much money on hand, anyway.
So on Sunday we went over to Sears and picked up a cheap Culligan faucet unit. I crunched the numbers and the costs are still much lower than Pur; under 13 cents per gallon.
The unit itself is a bit more utilitarian than the Pur model, but actually easier to use: pull a little metal knob to switch to filter mode, and the knob automatically snaps back to non-filtered mode when the water is turned off. That's a very nice feature which is accomplished mechanically by water pressure - clean and simple, the kind of engineering I really admire.
The filter itself is quite effective, with a flow that's appreciably faster than the Pur filter - but not so fast as to make me doubt that the filter is working at all. The water is definitely better-tasting than unfiltered water, which is good. Even Teri noticed the difference in flavor.
Hmm...that sounds as if I'm denigrating Teri. I should explain that I'm one of those people with an unusually sensitive sense of smell and taste - the so-called "supertasters". Sort of like the Princess and the Pea. So I have to rely on Teri to know if a smell or taste is relatively intense.
Here's a quick online test that can indicate whether you're a supertaster, although a definitive test requires blue food coloring and a magnifying glass. About 1/4 of all people are supertasters, by the way, so it's not like I'm claiming some sort of exotic mutant ability.
no subject
I, too, am a supertaster. I did the blue test, and counted 52.
no subject