I drink water and a lot of it. Its rare to see me without one of my water bottles near by (reusable of course). I drink a lot of water not only for my health but also to help me feel good. When I am dehydrated I feel “blah” and I can’t function right. I also have a weird little lump in one of my salivary glands that swells up if I get dehydrated and it’s rather bothersome. To make sure I don’t have to deal with it I make sure to drink ample amount of water per day.
On average I’d say I drink about a gallon of water per day. Sometimes more, sometimes less.
When I was growing up we had well water. I loved how it tasted. It was also VERY cold straight from the tap. You never needed ice cubes to chill your water. It was freezing cold the moment you fill up your glass. I loved it!
I miss those days. Where we live now we have town water. Blah! I don’t like it one bit. Maybe I’m just spoiled from the well water. Our current tap water has an odd taste to it. I will drink it if I need to swallow an aspirin or something quick like that. Other then that I use the Brita water pitcher we keep in the fridge.
For the past several weeks I have traded in our Brita with a Zero Water filtration system. Its a large pitcher with a filter that is suppose to remove 100% of detectable dissolved solids and is suppose to provide more complete filtration than conventional carbon water filters.
I always worry about what is lurking in the water that we drink. That is why I will only drink filtered or bottled water. I wouldn’t want to put my family at risk having them drink something unhealthy.
When I was learning more about the Zero Water filtration system I was curious to know what “dissolvable solids” were. In a nutshell it simply means things present in water OTHER then water. These are things that can be organic in nature (leaves, plankton, silt) to man-made things such as fertilizer, rock salts, and even sewage. Ewww! Gross!
There is a way to test water to see if there are things OTHER then water found inside. One way is is the test the “Total Dissolved Solids” using a TDS monitor. The amount expressed is in units of mg per unit volume of water (mg/L), which is also referred to as parts per million (ppm). The TDS is directly related to the purity and quality of the water. Another words the lower the number the better the water is for you to drink.
Zero Water is the only one on the market that says its TDS readings are zero, meaning that the filter captures everything “non-water” and keeps it from ending up in your drinking glass. I found this to be really intriguing and I wanted to learn more about it.
Zero Water sent me a filtration system consisting of a pitcher and filter. They also sent along a TDS monitor so I can test out Zero Water and compare it to other waters.
I can’t tell you how I excited I was to set up my own little laboratory and test the Zero Water pitcher with other water options my family might use.
I compared Zero Water to the Brita, bottled water and tap water.
First up was a glass of water from the Zero Water pitcher. I inserted the monitor to get the reading and it came to .20. I was surprised it wasn’t at zero. Interesting…
Next I tried tap water. Eww! Our tap water had a reading of 392! Oh my goodness! That is HORRIBLE!
I used a regular store bought bottle of water (generic brand) and the monitor gave me a reading of .23. That is not bad at all.
Lastly I tired a glass of water from our Brita. The Brita gave me a reading higher then the bottle water at 268. WOW! How can that be? I was shocked to learn that the Brita was almost as high as the tap water. However I did find out why. As per my husband we should have replaced the Brita filter a month ago. No wonder it is not working right. We have been using the Zero water pitcher that I totally forgot to replace the Brita filter.
I thought I would give the Zero Water another chance so I pour a fresh glass of water from the Zero Water pitcher and got a reading of .22 the second time around.
I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t see a zero, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like the Zero Water system. I like the sleek design of the pitcher. It doesn’t take up much space in the fridge. The water also tastes good to me and my family with no weird after taste or anything nasty like that.
The Zero Water system is around the same price as similar filter systems. The replacement filters are roughly $15 each were as we were paying around $9 for the Brita.
To be honest getting monitor numbers above zero on the Zero Water pitcher doesn’t bother me and it wouldn’t deter me from recommending it to others. It’s A LOT better then tap water.
The only downside so the Zero Water is that the pitcher doesn’t seem to hold as much water. It seems like we’re constantly filling it up. But that is a fair enough trade off to know that the water we are drinking is free of harmful things. It’s also a good sign that my kids are drinking enough water.
To learn more about Zero Water please visit www.ZeroWater.com. The brand is also on social media. You can find their links on the bottom of their website.
Zero Water carries a variety of products in different sizes and styles. You can find Zero Water products on their website as well as at many retail locations across the country.
Kimberly
*I received a free product sample in order to do this review. There was no other compensation. The opinions expressed are my own.