Pure water to drink and use at home is something we all dream of. Our body is made of 70% of water. Filtered water is a key element to healthy living. How about trying to eliminate the use of plastic bottles and get the benefits of filtered water at the same time?
With all this in mind, we conducted some research and tried several water filters and systems.
We decided to examine the force behind Aquasana water filters and interviewed Todd Bartee, CEO of Aquasana.
Q: What is the story behind Aquasana?
A: Our founder’s son had a respiratory sensitivity to undetected chlorine in tap water. After testing multiple products, he discovered his son’s ailments only subsided after using a homemade filter that was fit to a shower head during bath time; thus the first Aquasana water filter was conceived.
We now offer a full line of water filter products for the home, from countertop and under counter drinking water filters, shower filters to whole house filtration systems for city or well water.
Q: What is your mission?
A: Our mission is to help families lead healthier lives by making clean filtered water easily accessible and as economical as possible.
Health-conscious consumers know that it is critical to filter tap water before they drink it, cook with it or bathe in it as it can contain harmful chemicals.
Only 91 contaminants are regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act, yet more than 60,000 chemicals are used within the U.S.
Our drinking water filters strip out more than 99% of the chlorine, lead, herbicides, pesticides, industrial solvents and cysts found in tap water while preserving its healthiest elements, which include calcium, magnesium and potassium.
Q: What sets you apart?
A: Our Aquasana Claryum™ Filtration Technology delivers on its mission.
It features three distinct stages, including activated carbon, ion exchange and sub-micron filtration. Together, this unique combination forces water under pressure over more than two million square feet of surface area of contaminant-grabbing filtration material; the equivalent of almost 35 football fields or roughly seven blocks in New York City.
What also sets us apart is our Performance, Convenience and Value (PCV):
Performance: our multi-step filtration process removes more than three times the contaminants than the leading pitcher brands.
Convenience: the water is readily available with the convenience of a tap with a filter that needs to be changed only twice a year. It prevents waste and plastic bottles.
Value: we offer great value, with water costing as little as ten cents a gallon, about half that of a pitcher-filter.
Q: Can you describe your shower filter? Why should we consider one?
A: First let me remind you that Chlorine strips skin and hair of its natural protective oils. Chlorine can be found in the tap water we use to shower with every day.
By removing more than 90% of the chlorine from shower water, Aquasana shower filters help promote softer skin and healthier hair.
The health risks associated with inhalation and skin absorption of vaporized chlorine in shower steam can also lead to health problems. Our shower filter reduces nearly double the amount of chlorine required for NSF certification.
This is especially important for young children, who are susceptible to breathing disorders and skin conditions such as asthma and eczema, which can be exacerbated by the chlorine in bath water.
Our shower filter has a handheld option which is ideal for children, is easy to install and has long-lasting filters. The cartridges only need to be replaced every six months or 10,000 gallons.
Q: We have installed your kitchen drinking filter and really enjoy the way our water tastes now. Can you please explain the reason behind it?
A: In addition to reducing chemicals and contaminants, the Claryum’s patent-pending selective filtration technology also reduces odor and improves the taste of tap water and also preserves its healthiest minerals such as calcium, potassium and magnesium which are vital for growth, development and overall health and wellness. Traditional filtration products, like pitchers, are not enough as they only filter basic contaminants from water.
Q: Who should consider a whole water system like a Rhino EQ-300?
A: People who live in a single home. They will get the benefits of healthier, better tasting drinking water and shower water from every faucet in their home. Since pollutants in water differ based on location and water supply, we first test our clients’ water, then customize their house water filtration.
Using a patented media, the whole house systems also reduces scale buildup in home pipes and appliances.
It simplifies life and there is not frequent replacement filters as they last three to five years or the equivalent of 300,000 gallons of water.
We also offer a variety of BPA-free bottles to store fresh and healthy filtered water.
Q: Can a shower filter be used for our readers who have well water and not city water?
A: Yes, it can be used with well water, but is not necessary if a whole house system is in place.
Q. Is a kitchen filter recommended in addition to the whole house system?
A. Yes. While the whole house system will remove chlorine and reduce many other contaminants in your water, we recommend using an additional drinking water filter for water you ingest to be 100% safe.
Q: What is your eco-friendly approach as a business?
A: We consider ourselves a green company, and operate as such. We think it is important and feel great about reducing plastic bottle waste.
After all, one of our filters provides the equivalent of 8,000 bottles of filtered water per year. We manufacture our products here in the US, and our manufacturing facility is powered solely by wind energy.
Our current drinking replacement elements and systems have been designed to minimize the amount of plastic in the parts that you replace.
The Aquasana drinking water replacement filters are not encased in plastic like so many others; so when you recycle your filters, it is mostly just carbon.
Drinking bottled water contributes to the largest pollution issue facing our country. People in the U.S. throw away more than 2 million plastic bottles per hour, and 80% of those bottles end up in landfills and our oceans.
Q. What do you want the world to know?
A. Please use a water filter. It doesn’t have to be Aquasana (but we would prefer it if it was), as long as you are filtering your water.
There is a high amount of variability of water quality from city to city as well as within each individual home. In 2010, the Presidents Cancer Council recommended to filter water as one of the top three recommendations to reduce environmentally caused cancers. We all like to know where our food comes from, and how it has been treated and/or raised – whether it is non-GMO or organic. We recommend applying the same diligence to your water. You are 70% water. You are what you drink as much as you are what you eat.
For more information about Aquasana.
San Francisco Green Living Examiner’s note: Aquasana drinking water filters have been named a “Best Buy” by Consumers Digest for six consecutive years and one of “America’s Healthiest Gadgets” by Health magazine (November 2011). As we are fast becoming a guide for green and healthy living in San Francisco for our readers, we are very selective in the products we recommend. We have tested Aquasana filters and use them now. Give them a try, you will be glad you did.
Contest: (6) lucky readers will get a chance to win an Aquasana BPA-Free Glass bottle courtesy of Aquasana. Sign up as a subscriber and email us at: sfgreenlivingexaminer@gmail.com
Water is life.
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