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Comment by ac29 | Hacker News Reader

Charcoal based filters, like brita, or the ones built into higher end refrigerators are cheap and effective. I've used them for years, though the effect on taste might be a placebo, and the water in our area certainly isnt unsafe.

Of course, it depends what "issues" your local water has.

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> I've used them for years, though the effect on taste might be a placebo

Personal anecdote that it may not be placebo:

I find the tap water where I live (Northern part of NL) pretty delicious. In fact I can hardly distinguish it from most non-carbonated bottled water, it's just clean with no particular flavour I would recognize (though maybe I'm used to it). When I visited the US (NY and New England area) I found the chlorine taste quite noticeable, also a slight dusty/earthy flavour (I didn't complain, and it was a hot summer).

However, one of the people we were staying with brought one of those plastic jug/caraffes with a built-in filter (probably charcoal), which she filled with tap water. I really didn't expect it to make much of a difference, because how was a tiny filter going to take chlorine molecules (not ions, right?) and that dusty flavour out of the water, that quickly, just by pouring through? (apparently I have no idea how these filters actually work, and a little voice in the back of my head dismissed it as some weird health fad thing)

Well, I was taught :-) I was pleasantly surprised when I found that the filtered water tasted "clean", pretty much just like it tastes back home. But since I really didn't expect it to taste much different than straight out of the tap, actually half-expecting the filter might make it a bit more "stale" (assuming it would mostly take out some of the CO2 and O2 gases), I doubt that could be placebo, wouldn't you agree?

On the other hand, placebo effect can be really weird, in your head, even if you really believe it's not affecting you, so I'm not going to presume there was no placebo going on. I also didn't think to try a double-blind test or something, instead happily enjoying the refreshing filtered water during a hot summer :-)

I used to use Brita filters for a long time but one day I looked closely and noticed tiny dark flakes in the water from what I assume was charcoal from the filter. Using new filters still left the flakes in the water so I just stopped using them altogether. Now I've been drinking straight tap water for ages. The taste was noticeably different at first but the tap water is perfectly safe where I live and it saves money.

I still wonder if it's normal for those charcoal flakes to pass through the filter and into the drinking water, and do they pose any concern?

I still wonder if it's normal for those charcoal flakes to pass through the filter and into the drinking water, and do they pose any concern?

Yes, no, and if you soak the filters beforehand as the instructions say, there are less flakes.

Well, there are always traces from some heavy metals and excess of chlorine for example. I was thinking about a gravity or a reverse osmosis filter. Surprisingly some studies I've seen came up with very good figures in case of rather simple gravity filters.

According to Brita they remove chlorine and cadmium (a heavy metal), amount other things. [1]

As near as I can tell, "gravity filters" work on the same priciple as Brita filters [2].

[1] https://www.brita.com/why-brita/what-we-filter/ [2] http://www.phoenixwaterfilter.com.au/images/stories/phoenix/...

P.S. I have never worked for Brita and havent used their products in years, so please dont take my comments as shilling.

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