Question from Beth
I’ve been perusing your list for under counter water filtration systems. I see that Multipure is not on there, but it is the only company I’ve seen yet that makes stainless steel housings. Plastic housing on a water filtration system is counterintuitive to me. What can you tell me about the effectiveness of Multipure vs., the ones on your list, especially the top one that has the “accustomed to MCS” icon? Thanks.
Debra’s Answer
First in general I want to say that just because something isn’t on [Debra’s List] doesn’t mean it’s a bad product. I only have so many hours in the day and there are many products that qualify that aren’t on the list because 1) I don’t know about them or 2) I haven’t yet had time to add them or 3) I think other products are better and don’t want to make things so confusing you don’t know what to choose.
For many years I recommended MultiPure and still would recommend their filters if they fit your need.
Multipure filters are mainly carbon block filters that [reduce a long list of contaminants]= http://www.multipure.com/mpscience/contaminant-reduction-list/. The list includes both chlorine and chloramines, but it’s my understanding that you need a special kind of carbon to remove chloramines, so this doesn’t make sense to me. Also I don’t see a lab test that says how much of these contaminants are removed.
As for plastic vs stainless steel housing, in fact, both plastic and stainless steel can leach into water, but the contact time is so slight in a water filter that it’s unlikely that either is leaching much, if at all. What you need to look at is a lab test of the product water to see if substances that leach are in the product water.
I can’t compare this to all the other water filters on Debra’s List here in a blog post, but I will compare it to the top one on the list, the Pure Effect filters. These are very different. You can read my comments about them at why I chose the PureEffect Ultra-UC filter to install in my own home…
You will see the amounts of chloramines that Multipure has been NSF certified to reduce on the 3rd page of this document:http://www.multipure.com/media/mp-aquaversa-data.pdf . Notice that Multipure’s solid carbon block water filters reduce chloramines by greater than 97%. Tested and certified by NSF international. Hope this helps your readers in deciding which water filter will work for their specific needs.
Laura aka “the water filter lady”
Larua, I believe NSF testing is conducted in controlled laboratory environment, not reflective of real life tap water conditions in our homes. That being said, when a lab test is done in a controlled setting, e.g. very slow flow rate, isolated chemicals, challange water does not contain other contaminants except the one being tested for, etc… the results can be very different than what is experienced when filtering the water in our homes, which has potentially hundreds of various contaminants competing for absorption. In the link you provided, page 2, #10 confirms this: “10. While testing was performed under standard laboratory conditions, actual performance may vary.”
I would point out, that the Company (PureEffect) Debra Recommends here, tests their water filters in a real-life setting, with reasoable flow rates of tap water, which, in my opinion, provides a more realistic result of performance one can expect in their home, not in a lab.