Regenerate Expensive BRITA FILTER. Is it healthy? Use activated carbon?

Question

You may be helping a lot of people to save money and keep healthy by answering and share your experience using Brita filters.

I found that Brita Filter replacement cartridges and similar products are extremely expensive. Not mention if you have to pay for the water+sewage as well in your monthly utility bill.

1. Is it good for pregnant woman to drink water filtered by brita instead of buying bottled/distilled water?
2. Is brita filter cartridge contains only activated carbon, what are the white/cream particles inside?
3. Is it easy to regenerate just by boiling it, or you have to reactivate the carbon by baking or burning it?
4. Can you replace the carbon with regular activated carbon (with the same particle size)?

Answer 1

It depends on what you are wanting to filter out of the tap water. Do you know if your tap water contains an elevated level of lead or other heavy metal or chemicals other than the chlorine added in water treatment? If not, I suspect that most filters are very effective far beyond their recommended capacity, since that is based on the worst possible level of contamination in any water system. If you want to test this, use the filter for a while beyond the recommended replacement date, and test the water for chlorine with a swimming pool test kit. If you don't have a pool or know someone with one, call local pool maintenance companies & see what they would charge to test it for you. I am quite certain that there is no way to regenerate activated charcoal/carbon.

Answer 2

The activated carbon in Brita filters is made from coconut shells.

Activated carbon will remove a lot of harmful stuff including many organic compounds and chlorine. What it will not remove is heavy metals such as lead.

To remove heavy metals, Brita include an Ion Exchange Resin. This is artificially manufactured and I have no idea of it's properties. I assume that this is the white bits.

I would not advise trying to reactivate this product unless you know exactly what the artificial resin is and what will happen to it when you heat it.

If you replace the activated carbon and not the resin, you will not remove any heavy metals.

As to the safety of the water that is produced. The large surface area of the carbon makes a nice home for bacteria. If the filter is only used infrequently there is a possibility of bacteria growing in it. For this reason, if you have not used it for a while, just run some water to waste for a few seconds to flush out any bacteria before drinking.

Answer 3

I find that the essential points of your Q have been answered by the previous answerers.

What I have to add, regarding the 1st component of the question, is that bottled water was found (more than once) having a big microbial carriage due to their confection and not proper storage conditions (exposition for a long time in high temperatures, transparent bottles under the sunlight ecc.)
So, if a pregnant woman decides to drink bottled water, it is always preferable a vetrum confection and if she prefers filtered tap water, then she has to follow the advice given by the previous answerers and change the filter frequently, according to the manufacturer's instructions. If a filter stays longer than what is required, then all the chemicals that are accumulated in the filter, can be released at once in our glass. And this is very harmful for our health.

katerina

Answer 4

I wouldn't presume to answer these questions a priori, except #1. Tap water is very safe, even for pregnant women. Running it through a proper filter will make it safer.

As for the others, they are interesting. They could be determined experimentally, w/o much difficulty. Most colleges and universities would have the instrumentation to answer this. It would probably be more fun than most assigned labs.

Answer 5

i exploit my brita consistently... that's such an progression from tap water, which I can also not tolerate (even even with the actuality that there is not any longer some thing incorrect with it the position i stay) It makes the water flavor sparkling and crisp like spring water. you in simple terms could be particular you position in the clear out wisely (soaking it and operating some pitchers of water through earlier ingesting) the individuals getting eco-friendly lines or spots should be getting mould in theirs which probable skill they don't wash it, it quite is disgusting. i'd get a brita clear out for particular.