I've gone round and round with this question for years... which is better, and which should I drink? There are a few things about bottled water that I personally can't stand... in fact, its what had me go out and spend $1,500 on a drinking fountain at the gym - the trash and the price. Did you know that Americans throw out 2.5 MILLION bottles every HOUR? That's 60 million every day and 21,900,000,000 per year (that number seems unreasonably high to me, but even if it were 1/4 of that, it's still way too many). YIKES! I'm not a big environmentalist, but holy cow - imagine the size of that mountain of bottles (click here for some more disturbing statistics.) It's a joke - don't be wasteful, foolish or lazy... get one, two or even 3 bottles that are reusable (my personal favorite is my SIGG aluminum bottle), fill them up with water, drink it, and when you're finished, rinse them out and re-use! I've had the same 3 water bottles for the past 4 years... and none are even close to wearing out.

And what about the price? $2.00 for 16oz of bottled water? And the AVERAGE person should drink a minimum 64 oz per day... so $8+ per day on water? Even 5 gallon jugs delivered from Sparkletts or Arrowhead... those are at least $10 for 5 gallons, which is much better, but still, who's got the money to literally piss it away?

I'll be the first one to say that I'm not a big fan of "free" municipal drinking water. If the chlorine isn't bad enough, you get reports like this that talks about pharmaceuticals in water supplies - yuck! So if you don't want to pollute, spend your hard earned money on water, and don't want to drink foul tasting chlorinated water that contains trace amounts of pharmaceuticals, what are you supposed to do?

I've done a bunch of research on water filters over the years and I've got some good news and bad news. First the bad... there doesn't seem to be any agreed upon answer or standard for filtering. Most of the information I found was from people who are either selling filters or are connected to people selling them. Not exactly credible sources. But after reading many of the web sites that these modern day snake oil salesmen, there are two types that stand out.

Reverse Osmosis (also called RO) water filters operate by allowing water to move across a permeable membrane, filtering pretty much everything out of the water. The result is water that is devoid of everything that you would naturally find in it, namely, salts and minerals. The quality of the water is close to that of distilled water, a process that involves converting the water to steam (as steam, water can't hold any of the minerals or impurities it does in it's liquid state) and then re-condensing it. The problem with reverse osmosis is that an RO system is expensive to purchase and install, it is a fairly large system (it doesn't fit neatly on or under your sink). It also takes time to make the water - it's a slow process which means it needs a storage tank of purified water and when this is empty, you're SOL. Even with this drawback, RO systems are probably the best out there for completely eliminating impurities in your drinking water. Finally, it takes regular maintenance to ensure it is working properly.

But another type that I more recently stumbled upon and purchased thus far has been great for me. Whether it is actually doing what it's manufacturer says it will is a totally different story. I haven't sent my influent or effluent out for analysis, so I really don't know for sure, but from everything I've read on their web site and the quality of the product that I received, it seems good to me. What I'm talking about is a ceramic water filter made by Royal Doulton (http://doultonusa.com). Prior to this, I had been using an activated carbon filter - good for eliminating the chlorine smell, but that's about it. According to Doulton's literature on their site, their ceramic filters remove particles down to less than 0.01 microns. This is a much tighter filter than activated carbon (usually 1.0 micron filtering), they require little or no maintenance, they are small (sit right on your countertop or under the sink), and relatively inexpensive - mine cost $210 with tax and shipping. Granted, every 18 months or 1,000 gallons I have to spend another $69 to replace the ceramic filter, this is nothing compared to the cost of bottled water or reverse osmosis.

Do the research yourself if you want, but I'm sticking with my Doulton ceramic filter, refilling my plastic and aluminum bottles daily, and drinking between 96 and 128 oz of water every day.