# Are brita filters effective



## El carajillo (Mar 16, 2013)

Having received a TDS meter for Chrissy I thought I would see how effective BRITTA filters are. I am in the Severn Trent Water area and the local water is off a bore hole.

I first tried with a filter which had been in for 3 weeks.

Water from tap 170 ppm Second test with new filter. Water from tap 170 ppm

Water from filter 110 ppm Water from new filter 105 ppm

Water back through filter second time 102 ppm


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## Greenpotterer (Nov 29, 2009)

thanks for the info El carajillo, I used a Brita up until recently but he cherub has a built in water filter. This in itself raises a couple of questions whats a good reading and how does the effectiveness compare between filters.


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## CallumT (Aug 23, 2013)

TDS doesn't tell you everything about the quality of the water, it's been confusing me / running me around in circles abit.

Applications for drinking water filtration will be different to the ideal composition of water that will be used at elevated temperatures to extract solubles out of coffee; alkalinity and pH pay a key role at elevated temperatures along with TDS and chemical composition that is somewhat a trade off between scale build up and taste; anyway I'm be no means in the know about this just citing some of the many lengthy articles from the likes of Reiss @Londinium and Prufrock on their respective blogs.


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## Daren (Jan 16, 2012)

CallumT said:


> TDS doesn't tell you everything about the quality of the water, it's been confusing me / running me around in circles abit.
> 
> Applications for drinking water filtration will be different to the ideal composition of water that will be used at elevated temperatures to extract solubles out of coffee; alkalinity and pH pay a key role at elevated temperatures along with TDS and chemical composition that is somewhat a trade off between scale build up and taste; anyway I'm be no means in the know about this just citing some of the many lengthy articles from the likes of Reiss @Londinium and Prufrock on their respective blogs.


What would you suggest as a good method to measure the composition of the water and what would make a good reading? The reason I ask is I've just plumbed the Rocket in using an inline Brita C300 filter with a variable bypass valve. Even with the bypass set to 0% I am getting disappointingly high TDS levels. I was wondering if this really is an issue or should I be using an alternative method to measure the water quality?


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## tictok (Dec 1, 2013)

My machine still scaled up using filtered water... I live in a relatively hard water area (cotswolds)... water pumped from well.


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## Charliej (Feb 25, 2012)

Daren said:


> What would you suggest as a good method to measure the composition of the water and what would make a good reading? The reason I ask is I've just plumbed the Rocket in using an inline Brita C300 filter with a variable bypass valve. Even with the bypass set to 0% I am getting disappointingly high TDS levels. I was wondering if this really is an issue or should I be using an alternative method to measure the water quality?


You could always move to the better part of the country i.e. The North where we have nice soft water that hasn't been recycled by human bodies many times over before we get to drink it


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## Daren (Jan 16, 2012)

Charliej said:


> You could always move to the better part of the country i.e. The North where we have nice soft water that hasn't been recycled by human bodies many times over before we get to drink it


But how would I power my appliances? I've heard you don't have electricity yet? Also all my valuables would get stolen


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## CallumT (Aug 23, 2013)

TDS gives you a good initial ball park to aim for in terms of mineral content for scale build up.

My tap water is about 137 TDS ; my old brita purity c150 @20% bypass was around 154TDS (less bypass obviously the value converges toward tap TDS). At work we use BWT Bestmax Premium filtration and although owners hyped on about how much changed when they installed it I didn't really believe them. I took my TDS meter in and too a reading of 126TDS.

So as you can see not that much variance in TDS.

Ive vey spent the last week or so reading into better filtration for coffee machines and was initally considering either the Everpure Claris / Claris Ultra ; but I generally just deemed it abit pricey. After I decent search online I found a website ( http://www.thewaterwarehouse.co.uk ) that sold the BWT Premium Bestmax, so I went with that. Skeptical at best and with a wallet £120 lighter.

The BWT arrived yesterday and I'd spent a decent amount of time getting to know cult of done with the brita in anticipation to try to remember the shots for when the new filtration would be out in place, I left for work after emptying the boiler in the L1.

I installed the bwt as soon as I got home from work, using the same setup as with the brita and flushed off water as recommended (about 10 litres). I then flicked the L1 on and started flushing once it had filled up the boiler. Whilst waiting for the machine to warm, I was using the tap (hooked up to filter) at the side of the L1 to take TDS readings; mains tap was reading 137 and the filter tap at 131. So negligible different in readings with the bypass being at 2 on the filter.

Once the L1 was ready, I started with milk based drinks to see if there was a difference in taste. I noticed a difference in intensity from the drink I'd had earlier on that day with the brita. After I pulled a shot, and I can't out across how surprised I was. It was so much sweeter, something which I'd never tasted before. In terms of how much difference, in my opinion, you could compare it to the step up when you change to a better grinder. So although the TDS readings weren't significantly different, it has definitely affected taste!

Daren, I've not really experimented with any other ways of looking at it. I read a thread on homebarista about a review on a everpure claris filter which suggested looking at chemical balances in the water. I know there's kits which you can get which will identify what needs to be taken out. I haven't looked into that much though, so it's not something I could go into further


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## Daren (Jan 16, 2012)

CallumT said:


> (less bypass obviously the value converges toward tap TDS)


I think it must be to early in the morning for me to understand what you mean here? Correct me if I'm wrong - your saying the higher the bypass (say 100%) the lower the filtration ratio and closer to tap TDS readings are to be expected, whereas the lower the bypass (say 0%) the higher the filter ratio?


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## CallumT (Aug 23, 2013)

Daren, I just don't think the Brita was working on the relatively soft water; if you were to filter fairly mineralised water at high bypass vs low bypass the lower bypass is going to be closer to the cold feed tds.

To be fair I probably was running too lower bypass percentage but this higher amount of filtration did seen to taste better in coffee and as a glass of water.


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## Daren (Jan 16, 2012)

That may explain the high TDs readings then? I've got my bypass set to 0% thinking I would be getting the maximum filtration. Your saying I have this arse around face and should increase the bypass setting to maximise the filtration through the filter?


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## CallumT (Aug 23, 2013)

Noooooo higher bypass is less filtration! More water would then be bypassing the filter


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## Daren (Jan 16, 2012)

CallumT said:


> Noooooo higher bypass is less filtration! More water would then be bypassing the filter


As I originally thought. I'm easily confused and must sound like a simpleton now.


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## Dylan (Dec 5, 2011)

So is 0% high in this situation?


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## Daren (Jan 16, 2012)

For me - yes


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