First off, I've purchased thousands of products online and never sat down to review one, even though I constantly tell myself I'm going to. Well, I finally made a purchase that disappointed me enough to do so. Here goes.
I drink a lot of water. I had been using a Brita filter for years and a friend told me about Zero Water after watching the infomercial, and he espoused all of the convincing reasons to try the Zero Water, which play on my personal paranoia of contracting some communicable disease or cancer from drinking water. My Brita filter was on its last legs, so score one more for Zero Water marketing -- I went and bought the pitcher from Target.
I must say, despite the initial negative reaction from the overall cheapness of pitcher itself and the super slow fill rate, the first few weeks were blissful. The water tasted great, and it came with a nifty little water tester. I went around and tested every water source I could find with the Zero Water tester. I tested my tap water, it read 400+ (I believe it measured Total Dissolved Solids in Parts per Million), when the normal range was supposed to be 200-300. Wow. I ran that water through my Brita filter, and it still read almost 300. For shame, Brita!! I tested bottled water, and it was still read between 50-80. The Zero Water pitcher produced amazingly clean tasting water that read "0" on their tester. I was extremely satisfied with this purchase....at first.
You see, since I figured I had been drinking water that was between 200-300 TDS for g0d knows how long, I figured that Zero Water's recommendation to change the filter once it read '6' TDS was way below my tolerance of probably 100-150, figuring that I could get more life out of these extremely expensive filters (by comparison to Brita). Boy was I wrong. *** AFTER ABOUT 4 WEEKS, THE FILTER BEGAN PRODUCING WATER THAT HAD A FISHY TASTE TO IT *** I thought something had gone bad in my fridge, I thought my dishwasher was ruining my cups....it took me a long time to believe that it had to do with the Zero Water pitcher. I was in denial. No matter what I did, I had to change the filter in this thing every 4-6 weeks because the water begins tasting bad. Only one other person lives with me, so it's not even like we drink the same amount as a family would, and we still have to replace it after a little over a month due to the taste. Sometimes it's fishy, sometimes it's bitter like a rotten lemon, but either way, this pitcher lets you know when its time to fork over another $15 for a filter by producing barely potable water.
I've owned this thing for a little over 6 months now, and I'm finally fed up (well, and I ran out of my surplus of filters). I'm scrapping this thing. Consumer Reports seems to rate the Clear 2o pitcher as their Best Buy. I'm going with that one.
Pros:
Great Tasting Water (for a short period)
Cool Water Tester (but, what is it actually testing?)
Cons:
FISHY/BITTER/FOUL Taste to the Water after about 4-6 weeks
Cheap Pitcher
Filters SLOWLY (5 minutes per refill)
Filters are EXPENSIVE (~$15+ each) and don't last long
Spigot on the back drains water at a rate slow enough that it's almost completely useless
Pitcher capacity is really small (Two large cups of water, and you're refilling it....and only about half way because the reservoir is so small, due to the massive filter)
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The *only* reason I didn't give this product two stars is that for that first 4-6 weeks, the water actually tastes really good. But, look at my list of negatives -- it outweighs any small taste factor (I mean, how *good* can water actually taste, anyway? It's frickin' WATER for god sake...).
Anyway, I would recommend this product to no one. Save your money.Get more detail about ZeroWater ZD-013 Filtration Pitcher with Electronic Tester, Filter Included.
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