What Do Brita Pitchers Filter Out Of Water?

What Do Brita Pitchers Filter Out Of Water?

When you’re trying to determine what Brita filters remove from your drinking water, it’s important to note the careful wording used by Brita and other companies. On its website, Brita says that it is “certified” to reduce chlorine, lead and copper to improve the taste of drinking water. According to their own specifications, the number of contaminants removed from water by these filters is limited. They may or may not remove the contaminants you’d really want removed from your household water, whether that water comes from a municipal supplier or your own well.

Let’s take a closer look at Brita filters and what they either reduce or remove. It is also important to look at what contaminants might need to be drastically reduced or removed entirely from water supplies. 

An Overview of Brita Water Pitchers and Their Built-In Filters

The Brita brand includes several models of water pitchers, bottles and dispensers with built-in filters. Activated carbon granules in pitchers and dispensers sponge up mercury and chlorine. Ion resins soak up copper, zinc and cadmium. In Brita bottles, designed to filter water on the go, a carbon block is used instead of granules to reduce chlorine taste and odor. 

The filters in Brita devices normally process 40 gallons of water before needing replacement. The Elite Filters are longer lasting and will filter as much as 120 gallons. Elite Filters also remove more types of contaminants than other pitchers or dispensers. 

The List of Contaminants Reduced by Brita Filters 

You can find the lists of contaminants that are removed by these filters on their own website. Brita provides the certified results of water filtration done with the different filters they sell. 

Elite Filters: Chlorine, lead, mercury, cadmium, benzene, asbestos, and particulates. 

What are particulates? Solid particles suspended in the water sample which can include sand, silt, plant debris, bacteria, fungi, rust and similar matter. 

Brita Plus: Chlorine, mercury, cadmium, benzene, copper, zinc, 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene, ethylbenzene, tetrachloroethylene, toluene. 

If you dig deeper into their specifications, you will find Performance Data Sheets that note that the quantity of these contaminants that are removed range from 64% (zinc) to 95.6% (mercury). Toluene, for example, has a 82.4% reduction. Benzene has a 79.3% reduction. 

Brita Standard: Chlorine, mercury, cadmium, copper, zinc.

What Contaminants Do the Brita Filters Not Remove?

Based on the information published by the company, there are hundreds of contaminants that you don’t want in your water that may not be filtered out by a Brita filter. 

Metals and Minerals: Aluminum, arsenic, barium, manganese, molybdenum, radium, strontium, uranium.

Industrial and carcinogenic chemicals: Bromoform, bromodichloromethane, carbon tetrachloride, methylene chloride, naphthalene, vinyl chloride, xylene and many more. 

Semi-volatile organic compounds: Alachlor, aldrin, benzyl phthalate, alpha chlordane, chlorpyrifos, fluorene, hexachlorobenzene, norflurazon, pentachlorophenol, permethrin, terbufos, tricyclazole and a hundred more.

Herbicides and pesticides: Chlordane, dieldrin, endosulfan II, endrin, heptachlor and many others. 

You may not at this moment know what these chemicals are. Pick one or two and do a little research. You will find endocrine disruptors, cancer causing chemicals, chemicals that harm livers, thyroids and kidneys or that cause anemia or cataracts and much, much more. The list of harms done to humans by these and similar chemicals is very long. A Brita filter is not certified to remove these chemicals that may be in your water due to industrial spills, agricultural operations or natural deposits in rock and soil near your well.

Microorganisms: Most of the Brita filters are not certified to remove microorganisms like E. coli, salmonella, shigella, norovirus, rotavirus, Giardia and many others. Brita filters may be suitable for use with municipal water supplies that have already been through a disinfection process. They are not as suitable for well owners that do not otherwise disinfect their water supply.

In water filtration, microorganisms are generally grouped under the heading of “particulates.” Only the Elite Filters are effective in reducing smaller microorganisms such as bacteria. Viruses are too small to be removed by Brita filters. Some bacteria may also be too small. 

What Are Your Other Choices for Water Filtration?

Purchasing a water filtration system is an investment in your family’s health. Nothing else will be as thorough at improving the quality of water served to your family for drinking, or that is used for bathing and brushing teeth. You can and should design a water filtration system that will address the exact contaminants common in your water. Before purchasing your filtering system, you should first get a comprehensive test of your water. You then will know exactly what needs to be filtered out and can choose the right system from these options.

  1. Reverse osmosis (RO): This is one of the most effective filtration types. It removes a wide array of contaminants, such as heavy metals, pharmaceuticals and dissolved solids which can include arsenic, copper, herbicides, iron, lead and sulfates. An RO system is expensive to run because a large quantity of water is wasted during filtering. 
  2. Activated charcoal: An activated charcoal filter removes a very wide range of contaminants such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), pesticides, herbicides, PFAS chemicals, heavy metals, microorganisms, and more. Some of the VOCs you will want to remove from your water include benzene, ethylene glycol, formaldehyde, toluene and xylene. 
  3. Water softeners: These systems remove a limited number of contaminants from your water but they are important ones. They remove calcium and magnesium before these minerals can clog up appliances and leave scale on plumbing fixtures. They can also remove iron and manganese. If your water is very hard, your RO system will work better if it is softened first. 
  4. Ion exchange: There are two types of ion exchange systems. One removes contaminants with a negative charge (arsenic, hexavalent chromium, cyanide, nitrate, perchlorate, sulfate and uranium) and the other removes positively-charged substances (calcium, magnesium, barium, radium, strontium). 

Make your decision easier by getting your water tested by a professional water testing company first. Then you’ll know what you need to remove. 

What to Do If You Need to Kill Microorganisms in Your Water

Brita and other filters of this type do not reduce enough microorganisms to make contaminated water safe to drink. They also won’t clean up lake or stream water sufficiently to make it safe. If your home’s water well is contaminated with fungi, bacteria, viruses or parasites, this type of filter is not sufficient to make your water safe for your family’s consumption.

When a well is contaminated with microorganisms, it is vital to try to find out where these microorganisms are getting in. Here are some possibilities:

  • Very small openings around electric lines or the well cap can let in small rodents or insects. They will carry bacteria and other microorganisms into the well.
  • Improperly grouted wells or cracked casings can permit microorganisms to enter. 
  • A well cap that is too close to the ground can allow rainwater or snowmelt to sneak into the well, bringing bacteria, parasites or other microorganisms with it. 
  • Unfortunately, microorganisms can also make their way into groundwater as it moves through coarse soil or fractured bedrock. 

Once you find and repair the reason for the contamination, you will need to sanitize your well. Household bleach is not the right way to sanitize your well as bleach has a tendency to hide in corners of your plumbing system. It is very difficult to fully flush out a system after it has been disinfected with household bleach. ETR Laboratories sells an FDA-approved well disinfection agent that is effective at killing microorganisms and is far easier to flush out of your system. 

If microorganism contamination of your well is a constant problem, adding an ultraviolet water sterilizer system will eliminate bacteria and viruses on an ongoing basis.

Your Home May Add More Contaminants to Your Water

You may think of contaminants as coming from rock, industrial or agricultural operations, gas stations and more, but your home may also be the source of some kinds of contamination. Aging water pipes may contain lead, aluminum or copper. Metals can leach out of pipes and fittings and wind up in your glass of water. 

If your water is acidic, the likelihood of metals being leached out of your household pipes is even greater. Much of the U.S. has acidic groundwater, including the Eastern and Southeastern U.S., Pacific Northwest and the Atlantic Coastal Plain. This acidic water will gradually eat away at your pipes and fittings. After years of exposure to this water, your pipes can develop so much corrosion that they begin to leak. Sewer lines can also be corroded by acidic groundwater.

If your groundwater is acidic, you can add a calcite neutralizer or a pH correction filter to your system. These will neutralize the acid so you can avoid adding metals to your drinking water and keep your pipes in better condition. 

Do You Need to Test Your Household Water if You’re in Town? 

If your home is supplied by municipal water, your city’s water system must comply with Environmental Protection Agency standards in their treatment, sanitation and purification. These standards should ensure that customers receive safe and pure water to drink. For the most part, the system works. But there are many documented failures that mean that municipal water may, at times, have high levels of toxic contaminants. 

As an example, PFAS are toxic, carcinogenic chemicals used in manufacturing non-stick and water repellent products. They resist heat, water and oil, which makes them very useful. The EPA has set the maximum contaminant level for the two most common of these chemicals (PFOA and PFOS) at 4 parts per trillion. Three other chemicals in this group (PFNA, PFHxS and HFPO-DA) are limited to no more than ten parts per trillion (ppt). National testing has found contamination at much higher levels. 

  • Municipal water at Atascadero, California tested at 34 ppt for PFHxS.
  • Municipal water at Fallston, Maryland tested at 129 ppt for PFHxS and 100 for PFOS. 
  • Water services at Upper Greenwood Lake Elementary School in New Jersey served up water with PFOA that measured at 173 ppt. 

It’s not a bad idea to check your municipal water to find out exactly what you are being served. Then you can decide if you need to add a filtering system to your home. 

The Tests You Need for Your Well or Municipal Water

If you are just starting water testing of your home’s water well or municipal water, it would be wise to get the most comprehensive water test you can. That test will give you a very good idea of what you are dealing with. You can then design a water treatment or filtering system to ensure that only healthy water reaches your family. 

Well owners should then test their water annually to ensure that nothing significant has changed in their well water. If the results change, then you have clues to help you track down the problem. It could be a cracked casing, damaged well cap, industrial spill near your home, landscaping changes that direct surface water into your well or a hundred other changes. 

ETR Laboratories has completed tens of thousands of tests for private well owners, municipalities, real estate firms, industries and medical facilities that rely on pure water plus many others. In fact, some other water testing companies send ETR Laboratories their samples to analyze. By working with ETR Laboratories, you can receive accurate results directly from our lab faster than if you work with any middlemen. 

How to Use the Services of ETR Laboratories

You can order the water test you need from the ETR Laboratories website. In a few days, you will receive a testing kit in the mail. Follow the instructions precisely to take samples of your water. Your kit will also include prepaid labels to return these samples to ETR Laboratories. Most tests can be completed in just a few days. Your results can be emailed to you so you can quickly take action to correct your water. 

Don’t wonder what’s in your water. Find out with professional, precise and comprehensive water tests from ETR Laboratories.