mmmmmmm tap water

There are articles all over the web and in the media lately about tap vs bottled water and how most bottled water is really just purified tap water, marked up to ridiculous prices. It didn’t really bother me to pay $5 for a jug of water for my water cooler because it tasted so much better than my chlorinated city water. But, I started thinking, what if there were something I could do to make my tap water more palatable? I searched online, hoping I could accomplish this without buying something, but it seemed the easiest way to do treat my water at home was with a filter. So, we looked into the Brita water jug. The pro: It goes in the fridge, so no extra electricity needed. Con: It needs to be refilled often – probably more than once a day, and since our kids are pretty independent, it may get spilled fairly regularly. Also, it requires the filter be changed every 2-3 months. And, we already own a water cooler which we like.

Looking at the list, the cons outweighed the pros, but the next time we made a visit to Canadian Tire I found myself in the Brita aisle checking them out anyway. I ended up finding a water filtration system which fits our existing water cooler. Pro: It uses the cooler we already own; the filter lasts 6 months; it holds more than 2 litres so I won’t have to refill it every day; the kids won’t spill any more than usual J. Keith figured out that we would save about $120/year on water. Cons: we’re still plugging in the cooler so we’re not saving any electricity.

We decided to give it a try and this afternoon we got it set up – I’m happy to report that the water tastes great! Now I plan to work on taking my reusable water bottle with me more often so I don’t find myself running into 7-11 for a bottle of water for the road!