How Long Does a Water Filter Cartridge Last: Mystery Solved
Clean drinking water is a serious issue for people all over the world. Luckily, most places in America have at least mostly-clean tap water, but adding a filter cartridge to your spigot is still a smart plan. The things you can’t see are much scarier than anything you notice. However, it helps to know how many to stock up on when you shop. How long are they supposed to last? Since no one wants to spend more time in stores than they absolutely must these days, a little bulk buying can save you time and money. I’ll show you why every home needs a water filter on their tap, how they work, and how many you can expect to go through. Happily, I can tell you it’s probably not as many as you think.
How long does a water filter cartridge last? Water filter cartridges last one to three months, depending on how much you use them. Most brands can handle roughly a hundred gallons of clean drinking (or cooking) water before they wear out. Moreover, compact, easy to install filters typically have a convenient indicator to tell you when they need changing.
The Lifespan of Water Filter Cartridges
Too many people avoid getting a faucet filter for drinking water because they’re afraid the cartridges will just wear out too fast. The good news is that they make about a hundred gallons of fresh, clean drinking water per cartridge.
How much time it takes to drink a hundred gallons depends on you. A single person who works away from home might have the same cartridge for six months. The average is closer to about three months. Meanwhile, a family of four or six, who homeschool and work from home, will use it up much faster.
How We Drink Water
According to Livestrong, the average American consumes around three-point-two liters of water per day. That’s a little less than one gallon. Hopefully, you’re at least average because you should drink at least eight glasses of plain water daily to stay healthy.
Unfortunately, not all that liquid is in the form of pure drinking water. Most people get about sixty percent of their daily intake from other beverages and foods. For a healthier body, you need more unadulterated H2O.
By installing a simple, compact, faucet purifier, you make it easier to get that daily need filled. Grab a three-pack of Waterdrop RF 3375 Water Filters for Pur from Amazon, and you’ll taste the difference. You’ll love the hundred-percent satisfaction guarantee and excellent customer service from this independent brand. Find out more when you click here.
Water Filters Have Come a Long Way
Modern filters are capable of accomplishing so much because we, as a species, have been working on perfecting the system for over four thousand years. Regrettably, people all over the world still use the outdated boiling method because they believe it gets rid of every waterborne issue. Straining and boiling water will kill bacteria and many other problems. Unfortunately, heat can’t remove heavy metals or other chemical contaminants.
You might recognize the name of Hippocrates. He’s widely regarded as the father of modern medicine. Even today, doctors take the Hippocratic Oath when they get their licenses. However, he could just as readily be called the father of water filtration. He created a simple cloth filter called the Hippocratic sleeve around 500 BC.
Not much changed for hundreds of years. Both the early Egyptians (around 400 AD) and later, Sir Robert Bacon (in the 1620s) made advances in filtration using sand. However, it was the seventeen hundreds that quite literally changed the way we see the water. The invention of the microscope brought into sharp focus the reason why merely getting a drink could make you sick.
Before that, sickness was just something that happened. We couldn’t see microbes, bacteria, viruses, or other dissolved contaminants for the most part. The ability to view what happens ‘invisibly’ all around us every day changed everything we understood about the world and ourselves. Plus, it showed us what we were missing. That changed water filtration forever.
By the eighteen hundreds, educated people everywhere were beginning to understand more about the way our world works. All of that was thanks to the new perspective from microscopes. We could finally see what makes a person ill. Furthermore, we could look at the water after it passes through various materials and figure out what removes the contamination most effectively.
Around eighteen-fifty-four, a British scientist named John Snow discovered that cholera passes through water. More importantly, he was the one who figured out chlorine could destroy that virus, among other things. Resultantly, we now have tap water that doesn’t give us diseases.
It would take another half-century or more before most places in the world enacted universal standards for potable water. Though it was certainly a long time coming, we no longer filter water through a sieve or a basic piece of cloth. In an emergency, you can still boil water to help destroy some of the potential dangers, but it’s far wiser to keep modern water filters on your taps.
How Water Filter Cartridges Work
People have been filtering water to drink for centuries, but water filter cartridges are a more recent invention. Fortunately, they simplify the process. Hence, people can quickly get clean drinking water even when their tap-source is contaminated.
Since roughly seventy percent of your body is made up of water, replacing it is vital to life. While people can survive weeks without food, going without water for a single day can kill a person in the summertime. Avoiding tap water is not a good idea.
I won’t ask you to jump blindly into trusting a filter cartridge. It’s much easier to see why you need additional water purification for your tap once you know how it works. There’s no real mystery. I’ll break it down for you below.
Busy homes need long-lasting solutions like the Culligan FM-25 Faucet Mount Filter. Unlike most similar options, this ingenious water purifier can handle two-hundred gallons of water before you need to replace a cartridge. More importantly, the Culligan is certified by IAPMO against ANSI Standard 42 and 53. Plus, it comes with adapters for all standard nozzles. Find out more on Amazon by clicking here.
What’s Inside a Filter Cartridge
The primary ‘ingredient’ in your home water filter is something you’re already familiar with. Activated carbon granules is a fancy way of saying charcoal. Wood and similar organic substances are burnt in a low oxygen environment to get active carbon. That ‘stuff’ is then formed into granules. Yes, it’s that simple.
Why carbon? Well, water is a little too good at dissolving things. It will hold a lot of contaminants, and plenty of them are toxic to humans. Worse still, you can’t see or even smell a lot of the microbes and bacteria that come out of an ordinary faucet.
The carbon is porous, like a sponge, and it attracts those nasty impurities. The process, called adsorption, is really just another way of saying ‘trap.’ Although it might seem like magic, it’s just basic science. In short, water dissolves ‘stuff,’ and carbon takes it back.
Most filter cartridges also have a porous sheet of material that acts like a cheesecloth or a sieve. Anything large enough to see gets trapped there. A second filter layer keeps the carbon inside the cartridge, and that’s all it takes to keep your water up-to ninety-nine-point-nine-nine percent free of contamination.
Brita – 36312 Cartridges are some of the easiest to use. They click into place and release effortlessly when the indicator turns completely red. A single Brita cartridge replaces up to seven-hundred and fifty standard sixteen-ounce water bottles. You get clean water while doing something good for the environment. Get yours from Amazon when you click here.
You Need a Filter More Than You Know
We all know that drinking water comes from water treatment plants. Surely they take everything harmful out before they send it to us, right? Sadly, no. Furthermore, water treatment plants use chlorine to help kill pathogens and other waterborne problems.
Chlorine is good at killing lots of things, including people, if you get too much. Fortunately, the amounts used in our water aren’t enough to cause sickness and death. However, chlorine is a problem in other ways. For one, it can eat at old metal pipes releasing rust or even dirt into your tap.
If that’s not alarming enough, chlorine reacts with numerous organic compounds. That chemical reaction can result in trihalomethanes (THMs). This nasty group of chemicals is linked to higher cancer risk and kidney problems.
Too little chlorine is terrible as well. Undertreated water can leave giardia alive in your water. Giardia is a parasite that causes nausea, diarrhea, and pain. Sadly the bad news doesn’t stop there.
If your tap water tastes metallic, there are probably metals like iron and copper present. Naturally, chlorine won’t kill a mineral because it was never alive. However, it can cause rust.
When it smells like fish or eggs, there’s a different problem. That fish smell can warn you of barium or cadmium. Both of those can cause severe illness.
Meanwhile, the egg-stink means hydrogen sulfide. This naturally occurring gas can mix with bacteria to become sulfate that causes diarrhea and dehydration. Water that dehydrates you might sound like a science fiction nightmare, but it’s all too true.
All You Need to Know to Use Filter Cartridges
You’re probably ready to run to the nearest store and get something to remove all that awful contamination from your water. I sure was when I first learned about it. However, some people hesitate for a different reason.
When you’re not mechanically inclined, it can seem very daunting to install a sink filter. Allow me to put your mind at ease. Not only do the packages have clear, concise directions for installation, but changing filters isn’t as big of a headache as you’d expect.
Four Little Things
There’s a little bit of variation from one brand to the next, but most cartridges have just four parts you need to worry about. The line-up, the indicator, the switch, and the button are the only things you need to recognize.
Be aware that you usually need to run some cold water through your cartridge before pouring a glass to drink. The package will tell you how long to turn on the sink. This isn’t one of the four parts, but it’s essential to know this step.
First comes the line-up. Inside, most cartridges are a couple of tubes that stick out. In the sink attachment, there will be two holes. They are often similar in size, but not quite the same. If your cartridge ‘won’t go on,’ then turn it around and try the other direction.
Second, you need to find the indicator. Some have lights that blink, but many filters just have a green-to-red window. Whether the change is sudden, or it shifts gradually from all-green to half and half, over to entirely red, you’ll know when it’s time for a change.
Third, the water switch or knob is what makes it dispense filtered water. If this toggle is in the off position, you get normal tap water. When it’s on, you’ll get a thinner stream of filtered water.
Don’t leave it on after pouring the drinking water. You’ll end up wasting a lot of filtered water over time. Instead, reset it to the sink side after every use.
Fourth and finally, almost every cartridge has a small button on the side. That’s the release you use when you need to change it. Push the button in and pull up on the top of the cartridge. Other than that, you merely need to find compatible filters for your system. Now you know pretty much everything that matters about changing a tap water filter.
When you’re ready to replace your cartridges, grab some PUR RF9999 MineralClear Replacement Cartridges from Amazon. These outstanding filters remove ninety-nine percent of lead, plus seventy other contaminants. Moreover, Pur has been developing its water purification systems for over thirty years. Have these delivered to your door when you order from Amazon right here.
Final Thoughts
Adding a compact water filter to your faucet is easy, and the filters last. A hundred gallons of water, when you only use it for drinking and food will last a month or more in most houses. Moreover, the space-saving design means you don’t need to take up a chunk of your under sink storage.
Arguably the best part, other than knowing your water is free of contaminants, is the portability. You can pop a filter off of your sink and move it to a new room or a new home in no time. It’s certainly a lot easier than relocating a whole under-sink system.
Everyone deserves clean drinking water. You can rest easy knowing that a simple faucet filter will keep your family safe from bacteria and other contaminants for as long as you use it.