New Shower Filters Coming!

Good news, everyone. I've decided to add a few more shower filters to my comparison site. I started getting a bunch of emails from readers asking about one brand or another, so finally decided to bite the bullet and add a few more. I'm not sure which brands or models I'll be adding, but if any of you have suggestions, now would be a good time to make them. I plan on ordering the new shower filters sometime during the next 30 days. Once I get them in hand I'll test them and post the results to my site.

So go ahead and post your suggestions now. As always, I'll do my best to accommodate as many requests as my wallet (and wife) will allow.

I'll also start a new blog post once the new results have been completed.

Is anyone out there or am I just talking to myself? OK, I've officially gone insane. Sorry.

What Does Your Water Quality Report Say?

I found a link to a page on the EPA's website that allows you to lookup the water quality report for your area. Just click on your state and then on your city from the list that comes up on the next page. If there is a water quality report for your area available online, it will be available for viewing or download. Here's the link:

Water Quality Reports

I'm not sure how often this page gets updated, so some of the links may be broken. If you find this to be the case, just call your local water company and ask them to send you the latest update for your water quality report. It should be free. All you need to do is ask for it.

For those of you that own your own home you can find this information in with your monthly water bill. Apartment dwellers that don't pay a separate water bill should just head on over to the management office and ask them who provides water to the complex. Either way, it only take a few minutes to find out.

For those of you that don't understand the importance of reviewing your water quality report, allow me to recap. The water quality report shows current and average levels for various contaminants across a certain period of time. All water quality reports must contain a minimum amount of this information as required by the EPA and other regulatory agencies.

Since my site deals with shower filters, I usually recommend checking this report to find out if there is free chlorine or chloramine being used to disinfect the water in your area. The efficiency of most shower filters will be directly related to which disinfectant is used. All the shower filters in my comparison were tested on a 100% chloramine system. That's what my results show. For those of you that haven't been switched over to chloramine yet may find your results with a particular brand may be a bit better.

The only two units in my comparison that should perform equally well with either regular free chlorine and the newer chloramine are the Sprite (chlorgon) and the Vitamin Shower (vitamin c). This is because these two units use active reduction agents, such as calcium sulfite and ascorbic acid/sodium ascorbate respectively.

Anyways, enough for now. I need to get something to eat before I start to get grumpy.

Best of luck!

The thing about fluoride is...

It's almost impossible to get rid of completely. Because it's use is so widespread in our potable water supplies, it tends to end up in some some places that may or may not have occurred to you before. Potable water is just another way of describing water that's suitable for drinking. And if you get your water from a city municipality, this includes shower and bath water as well.

Fluoride...It's In There!

First of all, you have to realize that every product that uses fluoridated water as an ingredient has the potential to contain fluoride. It all depends on the source of water that was used to create that product. Some of these include soda pop, certain types of teas, tobacco products, some rock salts and a large percentage of bottled water derived from municipal sources.

Another category includes those items that have fluoride intentionally added to them as a preservative. These products include all types of canned foods, especially canned fish products.

Then you have those products that include fluoride for other purposes that don't really seem all that clear to me. Things like fluoride in vitamin supplements, toothpaste and even certain antidepressants and medication intended to treat osteoporosis.

The bottom line is, it really doesn't make sense to add fluoride to products if better alternatives exist. One of the main reasons fluoride use is so widespread is because there's so much of it available and it doesn't cost very much. Also, I haven't been able to find a single source of credible information that would lead me to believe that fluoride is anything but hazardous to your health.

Hey, Get Your Fluoride Out of My Water!

You can't boil it out, freeze it out or even wish it away. Unfortunately, fluoride is here to stay unless our elected officials make it illegal to add to potable water sources. In case you missed it, here's a link to a very interesting video dealing with some of the main reasons why fluoride was, and still is, added to our water.

The Fluoride Deception (Scroll down a bit to see the video)

I've been getting a lot of questions lately from readers dealing the removal of fluoride through the use of drinking water filters and shower filters. In the case of shower filters, you can forget about it. It just ain't gonna happen. With drinking water filters, there seem to be three main methods for dealing with the removal of fluoride. I'll list them below with a brief explanation of each:

• Water Distillation - Does a good job removing fluoride and most other contaminants from water. There are several different types of distillation units available commercially. Some people don't like the idea of drinking distilled water because they believe, by doing so, it causes your body to lose essential minerals. I'm not one of these people, though.
  

• Reverse Osmosis Filtration - Most bottled water is purified through some type of reverse osmosis filtration unit. Unfortunately, contrary to popular belief, not all RO units can remove fluoride effectively. It all depends on how the unit is made and what other types of media are used in tandem to the RO membrane. You can expect to pay a hefty fee for an RO unit that can guarantee fluoride removal.

• Activated Alumina Filtration - This type of filtration requires you to purchase and use a dedicated type of cartridge that's specifically designed to reduce fluoride. Cartridges tend to be expensive and don't last very long. However, for those of you that already own a water purifier that uses a cartridge based system, this may be the best option for a quick fix. Just contact the manufacturer of your water filter and ask if they have an activated alumina cartridge or add-on package for your particular model.

So what do I use at my house to get rid of fluoride? Nothing. I've already resigned to the fact that unless fluoride is removed at the source of our water supplies, trying to get rid of it is simply an exercise of futility. It just costs too much to implement and maintain a fluoride removing drinking water system. Plus, if your fluoride levels are higher than average, none of these methods can guarantee complete fluoride removal.

Best of Luck!