# Heads-up on Brita Filters



## vintagecigarman (Aug 10, 2009)

Just back from Tesco - they're doing 3 packs of Brita Maxtra filters for £9 - cheapest I've seen them for a while.


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## Squall (Mar 25, 2012)

Sainsbury are doing packs of 3 for £8. Neither beat argos' 2 pack for £3.99 a couple of weeks ago though!


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## Charliej (Feb 25, 2012)

And Morrisons are doing packs of 4 Maxtra filters for £10


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## Spazbarista (Dec 6, 2011)

I usually get them from eBay. The cheaper the better as after 2 weeks they are no longer effective enough. I have a plumb in filter that I haven't fitted yet. Head and unit (Brita Purity 150) came in at about £55. Brita tell me it will take hardness down from 220ppm to 85.


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## vintagecigarman (Aug 10, 2009)

I'd checked around before I bought and thought I'd done a good deal as the cheapest per unit that I'd found on ebay was around £3.40 (apart from compatible ones not manufactured by Brita).

Never thought of Argos, though! But I will from now on. I'm another one who ditches them after two, instead of 4,weeks, so I don't want to pay any more than I have to.


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## RoloD (Oct 13, 2010)

6 for £16.66 at Amazon.


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## lookseehear (Jul 16, 2010)

Does anyone know conclusively how quickly the filters degrade or is it just on taste?


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## CoffeeChris (Dec 2, 2011)

Does anyone know who else supplies the fracino piccino filters, apart from getting them direct.

http://www.fracino4u.co.uk/water-filter-for-tank-p34


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## Spazbarista (Dec 6, 2011)

lookseehear said:


> Does anyone know conclusively how quickly the filters degrade or is it just on taste?


Yes I do, but taste is irrelevant in my case. I filter the water as it is 220ppm here which will shag up the machine in no time. I have run a hardness test on the filters over the course of four weeks. What I don't know is whether the filters degrade once activated regardless of litrage throughput, but I suspect how much water you put through affects the lifetime. I also don't know whether differences in tap water hardness affect the lifespan. So effectively any answer I give will be relevant to 220ppm hardness and a weekly throughput of about 6-8 litres.

A fresh filter reduces hardness to about 20ppm. After a fortnight it is only reducing it to about 140ppm. After 4 weeks it doesn't do much at all.


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## lookseehear (Jul 16, 2010)

I've just checked on Thames water and apparently our water is 250ppm. I use a brita but don't change the filter as often as I probably should. After your post I think I'm going to be changing it a lot more regularly.

Edit: for the sake of consistency I'm tempted to switch to bottled water.


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## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

When you consider that 20ppm is useless for coffee, and so is 250, there's a limited window inbetween when the filter is doing you any favours.


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## Spazbarista (Dec 6, 2011)

Well I'm not sure I agree with that. The coffee is certainly ok when the filter is fresh. I prefer to be guided by my taste buds and I've been doing this long enough to not pay too much attention to what I may read on blogs, however much they get repeated by others as a truism. Of course, your experience may differ and is no less valid than mine.



lookseehear said:


> I've just checked on Thames water and apparently our water is 250ppm. I use a brita but don't change the filter as often as I probably should. After your post I think I'm going to be changing it a lot more regularly.
> 
> Edit: for the sake of consistency I'm tempted to switch to bottled water.


The reason I don't use bottled water is that my machine flushes loads of water through the OPV and I can easily end up spending £3 a week on bottles. It's purely an economic decision. If you go down the bottled water route look carefully at the mineral content as some are high. Volvic is one of the lowest.


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## Earlepap (Jan 8, 2012)

My current filter is now 4 weeks old and I have noticed a degradation in the quality of my brews recently. I'd forgotten about the filter to be honest, but this could explain it.


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## Spazbarista (Dec 6, 2011)

lookseehear said:


> I've just checked on Thames water and apparently our water is 250ppm. I use a brita but don't change the filter as often as I probably should. After your post I think I'm going to be changing it a lot more regularly.
> 
> Edit: for the sake of consistency I'm tempted to switch to bottled water.


I'm spending a day in the company of a friend who is a phd chemist and I've asked him to clarify how these filters work. They do indeed degrade through a combination of the hardness of the water and how much water you put through them. They work on ion exchange, so the more parts (as in the parts per million ppm) that you ask them to exchange the more of whatever is being exchanged will be used up.

He was amused by the suggestion that water below and above a certain ppm range is useless for coffee and wondered whether proponents of this notion would clarify which parts in the ppm are causing the problem, as ppm is a measurement of particles and not what those particles consist of.


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## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

I am amused that your phd friend is amused







I can refer him to various academic papers on the subject of coffee brewing chemistry and the impact of water quality if he wishes to become more informed on the matter.

I'm off out now an will reply later


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## CoffeeJohnny (Feb 28, 2011)

As my home machine is either main or tank I use big bottles of water I have an ever pure should I choose to plumb it in.

I also use Maxtra for 2 weeks in my britta ketle and jug also Claris in the quick cup the same.

Not sure if anyone has had a try of the tefal quick cup but temp is perfect to use instantly into your brewed coffee. Its my choice when making press pot coffee.


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## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

In the meantime Expo, please ask your friend for his professional opinion of ion exchange in water treatment for coffee brewing


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## Earlepap (Jan 8, 2012)

Anyone tried these - http://www.waterbobble.com/jug.html ?


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## brun (Dec 26, 2011)

when you talk about 2 weeks, im presuming these filters dont lose effectiveness over time ?

does it depend on how much water your putting through them ?........if you dont use it very often would they last more than 4 weeks ?


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## Spazbarista (Dec 6, 2011)

MikeHag said:


> I am amused that your phd friend is amused
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I'm quite sure you can, but do you understand them? I know he will...


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## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

No point continuing, expo. Just your usual contrary self not genuinely interested in understanding and discussing coffee.


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## Spazbarista (Dec 6, 2011)

No, just not prepared to accept regurgitated Internet wisdom as fact.


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## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

So very very naive about the depth of learning that others undertake. Stay in the shallow water.


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## Spazbarista (Dec 6, 2011)

I'm not going to take the bait, Mike, and respond to your insults with insults.


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## CoffeeJohnny (Feb 28, 2011)

Haha play nice, each of us had the level we are willing to go to learning wise, my friend honestly has a phd based on coffee she literally is dr coffee, others are content with its like that so I accept it.

I personally have books on the subject of biochemistry relating to coffee as that's what I find fun, 49 alcohols in coffee believe it or not! lol, my fun fact from 'coffee flavour chemistry'


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## Spazbarista (Dec 6, 2011)

Remember GB, the only thing that matters is what ends up in the cup and experience certainly trumps reading other people's opinions on the Internet and repeating them. I'm pretty sure Mike would have the humility to accept that in terms of experience in coffee he is somewhat of a newbie.


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## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

Absolutely right for a change.

Expo, I'm going to do us both a favour. Since I find it impossible to hold a rational discussion with someone so hell bent on being controvertial and attention-seeking as yourself, whenever you decide to join a thread from now on I'll drop off. You destroy every thread anyway so I'm not going to be missing anything. As for insults, I think you'll find it was you who made the first in this thread. Your style as always.

Post your closing quip. I won't be reading it.


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## CoffeeJohnny (Feb 28, 2011)

Expo taste is king and someone on a rapid Learning curve can trump someone who's been making coffee for years. Finding the balance is key and accepting we don't know it all is what keeps us all striving to be better.

I can learn from someone who thinks the only wave is 3rd and don't understand it's called 3rd because there were 2 before it. Equally I can learn from the set in there ways, coffee lover who have enjoyed it 'just so' for years.

But I personally believe we have never had access to such a range & better coffees than we do now. That said though I won't buy a VST coffee refractometer as like I said at the start taste is king and I couldn't careless about the TDS if it tastes great.

Just dialled in my grinder and pulled my first shots off my machine so apologise for rambling. First espressos in weeks.


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## Spazbarista (Dec 6, 2011)

geordie-barista said:


> I won't buy a VST coffee refractometer as like I said at the start taste is king and I couldn't careless about the TDS if it tastes great.


Nor me. It smacks of 'all the gear and no idea' and quite frankly if you need a £500 device to help you make a decent coffee then you are probably missing the point.

I'm with you on the better accessibility of coffees, and I think that demand has lead to some interesting variations of production and processing. For example I recently tasted a Sumatran coffee that had I been blindfolded I would have sworn was east African.

The whole surge of interest in coffee is great, but you do have to filter out the white noise, he who makes the loudest noise can be found out when you taste their coffee. I had an example of this today. Mentioning no names I went to a cafe run by a chap that has a coffee training consultancy and makes a lot of noise. I ordered a flat white. What I got was a crap cappuccino with the milk far too hot. No velvety steamed milk, and a very one-dimensional coffee taste underneath.

In contrast, and the words I am about to utter are near-heresy, I'm typing this from the terrace of a Starbucks, waiting for the chemist to return. I've got a flat white. The milk is really well done although the espresso is a bit too roasty for my taste. Would Mr Coffee Consultant be able to even countenance a suggestion that Starbucks do a better coffee than him? I think not.


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

I see disputes like this all the time in other spheres of interest...some parties like the analytical approach, backed up with facts & figures and other trust their senses...I kind of have a foot in both camps...I trust my senses but I also am interested why I get the result that I do (I do get the impression that Mike does not solely go by the numbers).

Different courses for different horses, I think everyone is agreed that the result in the cup is paramount...how you got there is secondary.

Expo - I constantly get into "scrapes" on amplifier forums with electronics engineers who are lost without oscilloscopes and consider anyone who works by ear as a "hack"...so I understand your view, but also understand that a sound understanding (rather than total reliance) of theory can be helpful when you hit dead ends & might be looking for new insights or better consistency.

One thing that seems rarely acknowledged & discussed here is there being an element of "it's the Indian, not the bow", it tends to get lost in the numbers...but this IS an internet forum - we can download & upload (well everyone else can...I'm still somewhat flummoxed by this typewritery thing with a TV screen on top, I have here) videos, pictures, written words but we can't (usually) taste each other's brews. As such, it appears to me that there needs to be an inherant degree of "benefit of the doubt" given. Again, due to the media were are using and IT's limitations, the grams, fl oz, ppm translate better than "I judge it by eye/taste & just do it & get a great result" methodology.

I'd ask both Mike & Expo to walk away when they see something inflamatory, rest on it a while & come back with a less heightened sense of conflict.

There are a lot of us with a relatively new found interest in the technicalities & aspirations of making great coffee and it would damage the integrity & quality of the information available if some "cold war" broke out and we were only party to one aspect, or view on matters.


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## Spazbarista (Dec 6, 2011)

MWJB said:


> Expo - I constantly get into "scrapes" on amplifier forums with electronics engineers who are lost without oscilloscopes and consider anyone who works by ear as a "hack"...so I understand your view, but also understand that a sound understanding (rather than total reliance) of theory can be helpful when you hit dead ends & might be looking for new insights or better consistency.


I think you might be slightly misunderstanding my position. I am not anti-science at all. If you look closely in this thread you'll see I've sought the views of somebody with a doctorate which largely consisted of water chemistry. I'm very interested in what somebody with real expertise has to say.


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

I'm probably not misunderstanding anything, more being tactful.

"I'm very interested in what somebody with real expertise has to say." I think we all are...so could we focus on that, rather than taking up bandwidth with a pissing contest, so we may then look forward to receiving some enlightenment.


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## CoffeeJohnny (Feb 28, 2011)

There are plenty of different ways to approach coffee which is why it's so wonderful. Differing opinion doesn't mean either party is wrong, just means differences I would blow a sbux coffee out the water in my opinion. But if you want a roasty note to it and that's what u expect you maybe wouldn't agree.

I've had plenty comments, mostly from my wife, "tastes of coffee" whereas I pick up the subtleties.

Each to there own I say.


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