Water, aqua pure, eau de vie – whatever you call it, the right to water is a basic human right.
Our bodies are 60 per cent water and it's vital for our survival. Plus, as the very hydrologic cycle itself takes H2O on a natural, continual journey from evaporation to condensation to precipitation to interception to infiltration to percolation to transpiration to runoff and storage, water is clearly an essential commodity that belongs to nobody and absolutely everybody all at once.
However, as much as we need cool, refreshing, rehydrating water, down here in London and the South East the water we get is what’s known as ‘hard’. No, it’s not covered in self-inflicted tattoos and clad in Stone Island clothes, it’s riddled with a high concentration of chlorine, calcium and magnesium which, while completely safe to drink, may leave a slightly chalky flavour on the tongue.
But the real issue with that is the sheer amount of limescale buildup it can leave behind in the likes of your kettle, added to the fact that the added minerals increase boiling point, so you’ll have to wait longer and use more precious energy when making a brew.
Naturally, there are ways to avoid this horror. Firstly, you could move to a better tap water region, such as Scotland, Bristol, Humber or Belfast. But, as that seems a little extreme, why not simply arm your sub-sink area with a water filter instead?
Easy to install – even for all-thumbs plumbing plebs – options aplenty exist to stop hard water ruining both your cuppa and your kettle, so if you’re sick to the calcified back teeth with chewing chalk, follow us and find your ideal water fix from my forthcoming selection of six of the limescale beating best…
Best under-sink water filters at a glance:
Fountain Filters Oyster Taste and OneFlow
Best for: A simple solution to scale and smell
Fountains, whether they’re ‘of youth’, a font of ‘all-knowledge’ or simply a bronze likeness of a small boy taking a wee in the centre of Brussels, everyone loves a fountain; particularly one that, for a tad over a ton and half, takes all the awful chlorine taste and odour away and reduces limescale to next to nothing, to ensure that your tap aqua tastes unadulterated and, by extension, your cup of tea or coffee of nothing but bag or bean.
It achieves this by taking all the ‘croutons’ that come in your Corporation Pop and dissolving those miserable minerals until they transform into harmless, inactive microscopic crystal particles. These then wind their way through your plumbing without latching onto and systematically ruining any vital bits.
You’ll need to know just how hard your water is, something expressed in terms of the equivalent quantity of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) in milligrams per litre or parts per million (check with your supplier). Here, for example, if your water is harder than 25 grains (427ppm CaCO3) then the OneFlow may not be suitable as this would make your water very, very hard indeed, but anything below that is fair game!
Coming in kit form with everything you need to fit and get all up and (tap) running on your own, 99 per cent removal of chlorine is good for up to 12 months or around 4000 gallons at 1.0gpm (gallons per minute), while the chemical-free scale prevention and protection continues unabated as long as your cartridge does.
An eminently affordable system for ridding your water of the curses of chlorine, the Oyster Taste and OneFlow makes the world of water your, ahem, oyster.
Buy now £185.99, Fountain Filters
Brita mypure SLIM V-MF
Best for: Knocking the nasty out of water
Easier to install than anyone might imagine, you will be able to get Britas mypure SLIM installed and filtering your flow in next to no time.
With an operating pressure of 2- to 6.9 bar, it's ideal for domestic duties and excels at cleaning up your chlorinated water, while also reducing the coarse impurities that could cause problems with your pipes, but still retaining the calcium and magnesium minerals that help your health.
Featuring a microfiltration membrane that reduces 99.999 per cent of the bacteria found in water, plus fine microparticles and traces of lead, herbicides, pesticides and medical residues, the Brita ensures that there’s nothing untoward wallowing in your water, and does so for 12 months, or for up to 8000-litres of H2O, before needing replacing. After the initial installation, filter cartridge replacement becomes a simple matter of ‘push and pull’.
A touch over a ton gives (largely) unlimited fresh, clean water every time you turn the tap, which is what makes Brita amongst the best.
Buy now £129.99, Amazon
Water2 Pod Starter Kit
Best for: Your fine first filter
Oddly, one question I haven’t bothered to answer just yet is: why is there chlorine in the drinking water supply in the first place? And the answer is that it’s the same reason they stick chlorine in the local swimming pool – to kill off any bacteria doing the backstroke in there, including the real bad bacteria such as E. coli.
However, while that all makes perfect sense, after all, E. coli can cause violent stomach cramps, bloody diarrhoea and uncontrollable vomiting that doesn’t mean you should have to smell, taste and ingest chlorine when all you wanted was a nice hot cup of char. So, get yourself sorted with a Pod Starter Kit from Water2, a system of weeding the bad stuff out of your water that is not only already enjoyed by over 30,000 drinkers but also comes endorsed by the massive science-minded brains at the University of Central London.
Complete with everything you need in the box, you will be able to fill your cup from the Water2 font of acceptable aqua within just 10 minutes thanks to a blended activated carbon and silver ionisation filter that eradicates lead, chlorine microplastics and nanoplastics, PFAS and PFOA, forever chemical and THMs, bacteria and viruses, arsenic, selenium, and pesticides from your supply, leaving you to imbibe in peace, free from all that assembled nastiness.
An excellent entry into the wonderful world of filth-free filter water, the easy-to-install Water2 Pod Starter Kit will have you raising a glass to your own rude health every time you turn the tap.
Buy now £99.01, Water2
Fountain Filters Moby Taste and OneFlow
Best for: Hitting hard water where it hurts
My second selection from the splendidly wide range offered by Fountain Filters, the team-up of the Moby Taste and the OneFlow makes for possibly the most efficient way to rid your tap water of the stench and the bitter smack of chlorine on the tongue, while also sifting out sediments and saving on the cost of scale.
Ideal for areas brutalised by hard or very hard water, the scale protection system is completely chemical-free, with all that ‘hardness’ converted into harmless, microscopic crystals, while all trace of chlorine is whisked away for up to 12-months, or 12,000-gallons, depending on which you hit first, then it’s just a simple case of replacing the filter/filters to carry on enjoying untainted aqua fuss-free forever.
Buy now £363.99, Fountain Filters
iSpring RCC7AK
Best for: Eau via reverse osmosis
Okay, there’s an immediate question begging to be answered here before I dare to go any further. Namely, what is reverse osmosis when it’s at home? Well, in a semi-permeable nutshell, osmosis allows the movement of water molecules from a dilute solution (high concentration of water) to a more concentrated solution (low concentration of water) across a selectively permeable membrane. So, flip that, and what you have is a similarly picky membrane separating water molecules from the other unwanted stuff you find in unfiltered water, such as chlorine, fluoride, lead, arsenic, asbestos, calcium, sodium and so on, so that all the aforementioned rubbish gets trapped behind and only pure water exits your tap.
Indeed, using RO, the iSpring can remove up to 99 per cent of over 1000 of the contaminants that could otherwise be lurking with nefarious intent in your tap, restoring the natural alkalinity and mineral balance as it does so, thanks to the inclusion of a special Alkaline Remineralisation filter.
Capable of removing contaminants down to 0.0001 microns, nothing escapes through the filter finger of the iSpring, resulting in bottled-water quality H2O, but without the bottled-water price.
Buy now £325.00, Amazon
Waterdrop 10UA
Best for: Bottled-water quality on a budget
“I don’t drink water. Fish f**k in it.” These were the sweary words of famed early-to-mid 20th-century actor and comedian W.C. Fields, which, while a bit direct, pretty much summed up the problem with additional ‘stuff’ in the drinking water of his day. Of course, back then, domestic water filters didn’t exist and the whole bottled-water industry con had yet to kick in, so there was little choice but to take your chances.
Fortunately, in these enlightened times, we don’t have to think about the filthy stuff fish get up to, because even those sticking to a tight budget can find their way to filtered water thanks to the Waterdrop 10UA.
Costing considerably under £100, the 10UA takes mere minutes to install, after which it’ll treat you to countless gallons of fluid free from chlorine and all the expected contaminants, plus anything extra added by frisky fish.
With a maximum service life of 12 months or 30,000 litres, utilising reverse osmosis, the freshness will just keep flowing until it comes time to replace the filter with a simple clip and connect, by which time you’ll have saved a fortune on bottled water, saved a future fortune on limescale damage, and saved yourself from ingesting all manner of unpleasant chemical and, perhaps, organic matter.
Buy now £67.99, Amazon
Best drinking water filter taps
Quooker Fusion Square
Serving cold, hot and boiling water from one source, the Quooker tap comes with a 3-litre water tank which can be upgraded to 7-litres if your household demand is high.
Naturally, with water available at 100D, a childlock is part of the parcel but it can be easily disarmed by adults. Available in a range of pretty finishes, extras like a cold water filter are also available.
Buy now £1250.00, Appliance City
Waterdrop WD-FC-04 Water Filter Tap
Waterdrop is on a mission to clean up the nation's drinking water. This little gadget screws onto your current faucet, using an activated Carbon Fiber (ACF) material to absorb up to 12 times more than ordinary carbon. It's a long-lasting solution too, cleansing up to 1200 litres over three months - just think how much you'll save on bottled water!
Further its lifespan by switching between purified and tap water by flicking the lever. A variety of adapters are included to ensure a watertight fit on your kitchen tap's spout.
Buy now £23.99, Amazon
InSinkErator 4N1 Touch
Best for: All your boiling and steaming water needs
Okay, first of all, this has a great brand name and, secondly, alongside an expansive range of options, the 4N1 Touch offers that something more.
Starting with the basics, a 4-in-1 tap, as the name would suggest, not only does this dish out filtered cold, hot and boiling water in an instance, it also adds in a fourth feature, namely the ability to access steaming hot water too. Thanks to a NeoTank nestled under your sink, a digital adjustable dial allows you to set the dial between 88- and 98°C, giving you utter control over your water’s temperature.
Featuring a 2.5-litre tank and a safety spring lock push-down lever mechanism that means the hot water handle springs back into place as soon as it is released by the user to stem the flow immediately, the InSinkErator 4N1 Touch is not only safe but it also cuts down on both water and energy wastage as you’ll only ever use the amount needed.
Filtering out impurities such as limescale to improve water taste, the 4N1 dispenses cold water at the touch of a button, making it very user-friendly, while – always with an eye on protecting you from any incidents involving the hot end of the scale - the flow of boiling/steaming water is automatically reduced to avoid any accidents from spraying and sink splashback.
Also, as good-looking as it is smart, this eye-catching Italian design tap comes in chrome, velvet black and stainless steel finishes to add additional class to a whole world of kitchen convenience.
Buy now £1250.00, Amazon
Best countertop water filters
Philips Water Station, Hot & Ambient Filtered Water Dispenser
Whether you're thirsty for cold water or want a cleaner cuppa, Philips water dispenser has six temperatures to suit.
This slim countertop device can sit neatly in the kitchen, ready to pour water when you need it. Hot water for tea, coffee, cocoa and cooking is available in seconds thanks to the device's instant heating technology, while volume settings mean you're only using the exact amount required - no wastage.
Hot or cold, water will taste all the more refreshing thanks to the Micro X-Clean Filter which catches contaminants before they reach you. Installation is easy - plug in and go.
Buy now £199.00, Amazon
BRITA Marella Water Filter Jug Starter Pack Graphite 2.4L
Perhaps the best-known water filter out there, BRITA has been washing water clean of impurities for years. The starter pack offers the perfect first step with a 2.4L jug fitted with a four-stage filtration to catch impurities like herbicides, pesticides and pharmaceuticals from entering your system.
From the first pour, you'll taste the difference. The plastic jug comes with a cartridge replacement indicator to keep quality high and you'll get three included with the purchase.
Buy now £34.00, Argos
