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WAter filter~ Brita

  • Thread starter Halt
  • Start date
Nope, Brita filters remove very little in the way of TDS.

Jason
 
RO water is best for CPs ! I use rain water to watering my plants without any RO system !
 
you sure jason ?

It barly rains here in CA. its been a drought for 3 years.

my parents don't want to buy any more water from the machines.. :(
 
you sure jason ?

It barly rains here in CA. its been a drought for 3 years.

my parents don't want to buy any more water from the machines.. :(

Yup. Reverse osmosis is a complex process, Brita is not RO. If it was, people wouldn't be spending so much money buying distilled water or RO systems. You could always try building a solar still.

Jason
 
Actually, while we have always said that brita is not sufficient... I've taken a moment to look at this system and I think it may work for our application. It says it filters by activated charcoal (which we all know does no good for minerals) but it also has Ion Exchange Resin which I'm pretty sure is deionization..... This is generally the final step of a good RO system to get the TDS from 11ppm or whatever your system may finalize at, down to zero. Without having something do an initial drop of TDS, this filter will fail quickly- which is proven by the literature given with that product.... 40 gallons to a filter, of course that will vary depending on your TDS levels to start, the higher they are the faster the filter will fail. So you would definitely need to constantly test your water with a TDS tester so you know when it is time to replace that filter. That given- I don't know the cost of those filters and if this would make it unreasonable to use in our application. but on a "can I use it" scale... I give it a "I'm pretty sure you could" :jester: lol
Andrew
 
I tried a new brita filter on our tap water a few months back. TDS on tap was 490 ish, after brita was 450.
 
Most of the brita filters are just the activated charcoal filters... which is why we've always said they won't work for our plants. But this particular one says it uses Ion Exchange Resin... Which is exactly what that other one that Jason found uses ;) "the ZeroWater system uses a five-stage ion-exchange filtration system" So on this particular brita filter.... I think I'm sticking too "I'm pretty sure you could".

2 stage brita faucet filter: stage 1: A non-woven screen around the filter to trap sediment. Then the water flows through stage 2: A compressed block of carbon and zeolite, reducing chlorine (taste and odor) and lead. **no good**

brita pitcher filter: The Brita® Pitcher Filter contains activated carbon and an ion-exchange resin. **probably good**

From my understanding there are diffrent ion exchange resins that exchange for different products in the water, but since this is made for water purification I would have to say it's the same kinda at the end of a RO/DI system (plus I think water purification is the most common use of ion exchange)

Andrew
 
  • #10
From my research (especially with reef tanks), this is one of those subjects where the more you pay, the better the product is going to be.
 
  • #11
hi,
i think we can make a simple system with active carbon and other can find in local shop ! we can save a lot of money ! well I water my plants without any system like RO !
 
  • #12
Sorry to say I use these filters for my drinking water. Testing with a TDS meter it cuts the TDS by about half:

Plain Tap water: 275 ppm
After filter: 156 ppm

This is probably ok for Nepenthes and Mexican Pinguicula but I wouldn't use it for other Genera.

So it depends on what your TDS of straight tap water is. It also depends on what those dissolved solids are too - these filters do not filter out some. Be aware also that in Southern California your municipal water supply may come from many sources and the TDS will vary depending on the source at the time of testing.

Filters run about $8.00 each. Capacity is around 40 gallons. So think around $0.20 per gallon.
 
  • #13
Thanks NAN- always good to see first hand :) Ever tried running water through a couple times? More contact with resin should yield more pure (less tds) water. Still seems like too much work though LOL
 
  • #14
If too much work is to be done to save money, I'd rather do it than annoy my parents almost every couple days. "Mommmmyy, can we go buy water now?:("

So my parents bought the filter to stop that... :p
 
  • #15
brita is all i have ever used. although ive always wondered if either RO would give me better results, or if my tap water is fine.
 
  • #16
The only way to tell is to have your water tested.

I haven't tried refiltering the water to see what effect it has but then you'll be lowering the capacity of the filter too so think $0.40 per gallon.
 
  • #17
Okay, I remeasured the filtered stuff at room temperature (it was out of the fridge before at about 36F). It measures at 236 ppm which is what about the drop that Nightsky reported.

I wouldn't use it on my plants.
 
  • #18
I use mainly pitcher water that has a water filter. it has proved no problem to any of my cps in the 3+years using it.
 
  • #19
So what does that prove? Your local water may be perfectly fine to use straight out of the tap as it is. Try using Nightsky's water for 3+ years and see how your plants do. If you don't have any TDS readings for us to relate to all bets are off the table.
 
  • #20
hmm...very interesteing. How would one go about getting there water tested?
 
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