so if you don't mind, what company received your business? I have an old PUR as well, which has started to crack and I fear I will face a similar choice before long.

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I got this from Gaiam:

http://www.gaiam.com/retail/product/01-0145

Love it.

Thanks for asking nicely, by the way. Too many people think that manners are overrated.

To your display? Um ok can re quite relying on the old spell checker and actually proof read?

Five years and a new one huh? Built in battery? Hmm sounds like Apple.

And what the hell? You find a better product but don't mention it? OK, thanks.

Is it really even necessary for you to be using a water filter? Most municipal water supplies are great as is.

Wow, ya the sealed-in user non-replaceable battery is just plain evil.

Hopefully, with enough competition (and more and more picky consumers that research products rather than just buying whatever is the cheapest off the shelf [ie. actually weighing the pros versus the cons]), this kind of stuff will eventually go away.

It always irks me to see what engineering can achieve, and then get spoiled but marketing evilness...

To apple's credit, they do have a recycle program setup for products with worn out batteries, and their products are eliminating countless pounds of waste from disposables (AA or AAA) that other companies are using.

I've been using a huge Pur pitcher for years so when I talked my girlfriend into getting a pitcher last year, she got the LCD display pitcher model as well. I just tell her to ignore the display and change the filter every few months, since she lives alone. I don't like the closed design of the new model line but there are companies that make non-Pur filters to use in Pur pitchers, etc. Just look up your model number online :)

Thank you for the information. I was thinking about getting one of these but now that I know about this I think I will look else where.

You're actually going to not buy a water filter because of the battery for the indicator? Just see how long it takes to use the first filter and then replace it every X months after that. I read this site a lot and get cool ideas and useful information, but sometimes you're too critical. Sometimes you actually have to be crafty/smart/cheap to be green.

Wouldn't it be easier simply to drink the tap water?

And if you have worries about the tap water wouldn't it be easier to lobby your elected officials to fix the problem i.e. upgrade the water treatment plant?

Do that and you won't have to buy something to stick over a tap anymore.

Cheers,
Christopher.

Nice review. Even if you have to replace every 5 years totally, you still do not waste on all those plastic water bottles and even if you recycle it still uses up a lot of energy.

Gaiam is a very eco friendly vendor too.

Apple isn't perfect - but on the iPhone and iPods you can get the battery replaced without throwing the whole device away. Also, I'm very impressed with the longevity of apple products when compared to other computers not made by apple.

First off, are we absolutely certain that the PUR and its compeititors contain a batteries? You are not addressing how the unit knows that the filter is plugged and needs replacement. It is possible to use a piezo electric crystal to generate current from the pressure drop between water exiting the filter and discharging from unit. If that is both the detection and the current generating approach, there is no battery. Does that make a difference to you? Why?

In general, all would agree that feature creep is a problem with many appliances: done to distinguish one brand from another instead of to add value. But we need to make sure that batteries are the actual issue here.

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Yes, you can read the box.

I just thought of another problem with the new PUR line. Everyone will just throw the old unit away. All those batteries will end up in the landfill since they can't be removed. Great.

You know it makes me sick that we as citizens need to even think about impurities in our water, or corporations dumping mercury all over the place. It is no different than the new scam of us having to pay our banks an extra fee for identity theft protection. It is the GOVERNMENTS duty to make sure that water, toys, food etc stays clean. As well that people are protected from identity theft. I mention the two topics together because there is a relation. The relation being that our governments turn their cheek to these issues that are their core responsibility.

As bad as replacing the unit every X years is, it seems to be dwarfed by constantly changing those filter cartridges every few months.

I know that I don't need better water for the flavor, but I bake and sometimes brew with that water, and yeast prefer filtered water. Is there a good filtration system to be found that doesn't produce so much solid waste?

I use a Brita water filter, but I have full faith in the government to keep the tapwater potable. I use it because I'm living in a somewhat old dorm building at The College of New Jersey. The water picks up a flavor from the pipes, so I filter it so that it tastes better. Beats using water bottles, which everyone else uses. Plus, I can even have filtered ice without spending a lot of money.

If you don't like the chlorine taste of tap water, put the water in a jug in the fridge overnight and the next day its gone.

Thanks for this info, I've been slowly shopping for filters too.

What's with the sarcastic tone of so many comments to what is, to many of us, an informative post? To those who say just drink tap water, it's not just the fact of how clean the water is before it gets to your house, some of us also have old, rusty pipes to worry about. I'm not drinking my tap water without filtering it. Plus, even if it's perfectly fine health-wise, I cannot stand the chlorine taste.

If you don't have those issues or concerns, great, don't buy a filter.

I'm so tired of the "tap water is great!" trend. On the other hand, PUR and Brita type filters are a long way from reverse osmosis or distillation.

Pur filters aren't worth it anyway, nor are the brita ones. Go to aquasana for a filter that actually performs. Always demand performance data from your filter manufacturers.

http://www.waterfiltercomparisons.net/WaterFilter_Comparison.cfm

Thank you for labeling this as UnTreeHugger:

It is a much clearer message and I don't have to read the dozens of comments about the irony of your untreehugger article.

Well, unless you have dramatic seasonal changes in your water quality, could you just install a flow meter under the sink to know when to replace?

Or, could treehugged perhaps post pictures of what an expired filter looks like, so that people can check theirs even if their battery runs out?

People, not everyone has deelish water straight out of the tap. My water's so hard that it wreaks havoc with just about every aspect of household life. It needs filtering.

That said, um. What self-respecting hippie can't think for him/herself and just mark the calendar when it's time for a new filter?

I, too, am tired of people telling me that "tap water is fine...don't be an idiot." Maybe their tap water is good to go, but I received my first EPA water report after I moved into my house one year ago, and I had a horrifying reading experience. There are unsafe levels of radium in my tap water. Unsafe as in 8 times the legal limit. And I don't even feel too great about what the government says is a legal limit. Of course, I called my city government to find out what was going on. Apparantly the city well that feeds my neighborhood has a problem. And oh yea...they've known about it for over 2 years. They just decided to form a committee to brainstorm and come up with some ideas to fix it. It's a real feel-good to know it took them 2 years to decide to form a committee to even look into the problem. My next call was to the state EPA office. Drink bottled water they tell me. Oh, and as long as the city is "working on it" they won't get in trouble. I'm moving as soon as I can. And before I purchase my next house, I want to see the EPA water report for that home's water supply! By the way, I was a first-time homebuyer and didn't even know about EPA water reports. Live and learn.

I hear that electricity has a negative affect on water so wouldn't having a battery decrease the effectiveness or the desirability of the pur water filter??

I'm looking to buy a water filter now so looking at all sort of stuff.

Currently living overseas so not all options are available.

JL:

According to PUR's website, it is a battary:

Pur Horizontal Faucet Mounts have a new look! We think you’ll like the new platinum finish. And we also added a filter life indicator light that’s more convenient and easy to read than the bar.

When the filter is first installed or replaced, a battery-powered light flashes alternating green and red for a total of ten flashes, letting you know the unit is ready to be used. When you switch to filtered water, the indicator light flashes six times to let you know the status of your filter:

-- The light is green when you first install the filter
-- The yellow light indicates the filter is nearing the end of its life.
-- When the light turns red, it’s time to change the filter

With Pur’s new filter life indicator, there’s no more guesswork about when to change the filter.

FYI - I purchased this model of PUR faucet-mounted filter approximately a year and a half ago, and the battery has already died. I am single, and do not have excessive water needs, so the only explanations could be that I happened to purchase a unit that had been on the shelf for a considerable amount of time, or the battery doesn't last that long. On the website for PUR, they instruct you to call their customer service number if your light stops flashing, which I did, and now they're sending me a $10 coupon for a new unit. I don't think I'll be using that coupon.

The water filter will quit producing water when the filter is full. There is no reason to have the light it is only for convenience anyway.

I purchased my Pur filter probably six or eight months ago and the battery just died. Which is how I found this page. I was Googling how to change the battery since I couldn't figure it out. Now I know why. I think "five years" is just slick marketing (read: lying) on the part of Pur. It's great to say "mark it on your calendar..." Mark WHAT on my calendar, exactly? How do I know how long the filter will last? And to respond to a couple previous comments: No it does not stop producing water when the filter is "done." And nope, there's no way to tell by looking at the filter when it's full. I will call them Monday and ask them how long the filter lasts, and how to recycle the battery. Thanks to the previous posts, I will consider Aquasana and Gaiam. Thanks to those posters for the tips!

I just purchased a Pur water filter, and it was the old style with the line instead of the LED indicator. They are available still; I purchased mine from Target. Also, it is unnecessary to even have an indicator of any sort as the water flow will diminish greatly as the filter becomes clogged/worn out which signals it to be replaced.