Filter Fridges Are An essential Part Of Your Kitchen

Everyone should drink more water; most people in the United States don't because other things taste better. One way to do this is with filter fridges, a water filtration device attached to your refrigerator. This is much better than bottled water, which is nothing more than tap water, poured into a bottle, labeled, and shipped. When you look at the total energy expenditure that goes into bottled water, including distribution, it's an ecological disaster.

There are real benefits to having properly filtered water. Most city water, while it meets the EPA's thresholds for purity, still has trace elements of lead and mercury, and depending on where it comes from, probably tastes strongly of chlorine, especially if the local water source is a lake or river system, rather than an underground aquifer.

A good water filtration system

A good water filtration system – usually a pitcher-driven filter – costs about $35, with filter cartridges that are good for a year costing a few dollars more. When compared to the price of buying bottled water, they're a bargain.

What  filter fridges do is put a filtration system like the one for a pitcher filter into a water and ice dispenser on the refrigerator door. The simpler filtration systems are single pass activated charcoal filters, which do the bulk of the work in making water taste good; activated charcoal will sequester chlorine and other oxidizers.

Higher end fridge filters use multi-step filtration systems which run water through osmotic barriers to screen for metals, soften the water, and then let it run through activated charcoal; these require a reservoir be built into the fridge door to store the water, much the same way that a filtration pitcher tends to hold about half as much as a standard pitcher does.

Cold Glass Anyone

What fridge filters do for your kitchen is make it likelier that everyone in the house will have a cold class of water, rather than grab a soda pop, because the water tastes good enough, and is cold, and comes right out of the door of the fridge. This will cut down on dentist bills and make everyone healthier.

There is a hidden cost to this – two in fact. You eventually have to replace the filter modules, but they last for roughly a year or two for most families using them. Also, any kind of refrigerator water dispenser means that there's less insulation in the door of the refrigerator, and you're going to spend a bit more on electricity. (Most of these are put on the freezer size of a fridge, because it's got higher density insulation to begin with, to minimize this effect.)

When you're looking at the list of features to have on your next refrigerator, seriously look into buying  filter fridges – there are even a few after market conversion systems for existing models of refrigerators. The expense is low compared to the health benefits and the peace of mind, and if you already buy bottled water, it'll probably pay for itself in three months. Less, if you aggressively comparison shop online.