I was wondering the other day what would happen if I put something other than water, like milk or a soft drink or something in my Brita pitcher and let it run through the filter. Would water come out the bottom, or would the result be nothing more than making my water taste like whatever I ran through the filter?
I’m tempted to try it, but I just bought a new filter and don’t want to waste it on something stupid like this… Has anyone ever done this?
Well, my friend just got a Brita filter recently…I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if I used it to make EXTRA sure the beer we drink is ‘cold filtered’ 
I’m pretty sure you would just wear out your filter, as it would try to catch all the non-water stuff in the liquid you just poured in it.
The little gnomes who live in the filter would quickly die in a desperate attempt to seperate the water from the other particles.
Gnomes? Ummm…where do they pee?? :eek:
The Brita filter contains an ion exchange resin that sucks up all the metal ions like lead, calcium, or iron, in your water, and replaces with them with less objectionable ions such as sodium. The filter is used up when most of the sodium, or whatever they charge it with, is replaced by other ions.
Orange juice, milk, beer, and coffee contain much higher concentration of various ions than does water, so they will use up the filter’s capacity more quickly. You’ll not get water out the other end of the filter, but rather orange juice, beer, or whatever that has had some of it’s ingredients replaced by ions from the filter.
I got to the end of a filter once and poured some coffee through it. I got coffee coming out which confused me because I thought it was supposed to remove particles … then again, maybe the “coffee-ness” is in solution and not a particulate.
The filter was at the end of its life, but FYI, subsequent uses made the water taste like coffee. Even after changing the filter, the plastic pitcher held some flavor and it took a couple runs through before I couldn’t detect it anymore.
We ran a can of Diet Coke through a Brita filter. It removed most, but not all, of the color and sweetness.
I’ve tried this with bulk ion-exchange resins, rather than a brita filter. If you have enough resin of the right type, you can remove most of the colored compounds from your joe, and end up with a clear drink that tastes somewhat like coffee.
Now all you need is a clever marketing team able to convince people JavaClear is a good thing.
“Never stain your carpet again!”
That was the general idea. By replacing those nasty organic chemicals with nutricious calcium, consumers could catch a buzz, and build strong healthy bones at the same time. 
And nice strong inorganic kidney stones as well. :smack:
I once poured Kahlua through a Brita filter. It came out clear. We didn’t taste it (the point of filtering was to get out the glass shards . . . long story), but it looked no different from water.
I asked a similar question last year, but the consensus was… unclear.
There is already caffienated water, so the JavaClear idea has been thought of. http://www.waterjoe.com/main.html
Brian
Nah, that stuff’s made for people, if they can be called that, who don’t like the taste of coffee or pop.
What are your sources when you say the brita filter contains ion exchange resin? :dubious:
Brains! But it is somewhat common to put cheap vodka through a Brita® or similar filtration device in order to make it somewhat more palatable.