I’ve got one of those under-the-sink filters, made by Zuvo, and the water from it is just disgusting. It’s somehow worse than the tap water it’s filtering, and San Diego already has some of the worst tasting tap water in the civilized world. What’s going on?
To be fair, my wife, and many other people think it’s fine … even good. Is there a way I can test it to prove I’m not crazy? (Proving I’m not crazy seems to be taking more and more of my time these days.)
Is it an osmotic filter? How old are the filter and osmosis cartridges?
Yes, it is osmotic. The water has tasted bad from the first day, but hasn’t gotten any worse, or better.
Has your mother had you tested?
Sorry, couldn’t resist. But it sounds like the problem is in your tastebuds, if other people think it’s fine. Can you buy or borrow another type of filter (standalone, not attached to the faucet) and see if you like it better? I have a PUR filter pitcher and the water tastes great.
I think most bottled water tastes awful. There’s something my tastebuds don’t like about more-pure-than-my-tap water. I think it tastes bitter, and I also have a major problem with most things that are actually bitter (beer, wine, coffee, broccoli, etc)
I agree that it probably is you.
When I was a kid, I was raised on hard water. When I started drinking (naturally) soft water, it was awful. There was a long period when I would visit relatives and enjoy drinking hard water again.
I took a few years before it “flipped” and soft=good, hard=bad became the norm.
It’s sometimes what you’re used to.
What does it taste like? Maybe plastic is leeching into the water and you are more sensitive to it than others. I would try a Pur filter pitcher filled from the bathroom tap and see if it tasted okay. Do a blind taste test with some other people, using unfiltered San Diego tap water, the Zuvo water, Pur filtered water, and maybe a bottled water for good measure. Use paper cups and label them underneath so you don’t get them mixed up.
Some medications can make filtered water seem to taste bad, its due to the lack of taste in the water, so you are sorta tasting your mouth.
Our fridge has a filter for the water dispenser, and to me, the water coming from it tastes a little funky for about a week or so after changing the filter. It’s like something has to wash out, or plug up for the water to taste “right”, and still better than the tap.
Or, if the filter is particularly old, there could be something growing within the filter, I suppose.
And last, I suppose the possibility technically exists, that something is getting filtered out that masks the taste in tap water of something else that isn’t getting filtered out, so that when you drink the filtered water, the masking flavor isn’t there.
You are not use to water that has little or no taste. Buy a bottle of distilled water and drink it as a comparison.
I had got use to San Jose water. My advice to people is to always chew the water before swallowing. When I would go back to the ranch which did have pure water it started to taste off. After realizing San Jose water will eat brass valves in a year I no longer drink unfiltered water in San Jose. And I installed a RO filter. At first the water was a little off. Now I am use to water without a bunch of minerals and if it is cold it taste ok. Warm and it taste flat.
You can test you water system. Get a hardness test kit and test the water coming from your RO filter, it should not be hard. Or if you can find a TDS meter (total dissolved solids) test the water. It should read near 0.
I have looked briefly at the available information for the Zuvo under-the-counter system and see several models that incorporate filtration, UV and ozone but not membrane in the sense of reverse osmosis. Simplisticly, there are three types of membrane systems: ultrafiltration (UF), nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO). In the order listed each removes smaller sized constituents such that RO will effectively remove ionic species such as hardness. So, in summary, the first question would be ascertaining exactly what type of treatment your Zuvo system provides.
Most taste and odor issues in water are caused by organic constituents such as cyanobacterial metabolites: geosmin and 2-methylisoborneol (MIB). Geosmin and MIB impart unpleasant earthy/musty odors to the water. The ability to remove these constituents varies greatly for different treatment methodologies including the above referenced UF, NF and RO in addition to UV, ozone, potassium permanganate and activated carbon filters.
You should be able to confirm or deny the presence of geosmin and MIB, cyanotoxins and other organic constituents by contacting your water utility as they are required to provide water quality data on their water. I might add that other inorganic taste and odor causing constituents such as hydrogen sulfide (smell of rotten eggs) can also be a problem in public water supplies.
Let me know the results of determining the type of filter and your contact with your supplier and perhaps I can provide further assistance.
It turns out there’s an inexpensive device called a TDS meter, which measures total dissolved solids in water. Results on my tap water were 407 ppm and on my Zuvo filtered water 429 ppm. In other words, the filter is actually introducing more solids than it’s removing. So, ha! I’m not crazy after all, and my taste buds are fine.
Sorry, Waterman, I missed your response last month. It appears you are right, the Zuvo filter I have doesn’t claim to include reverse osmosis. It does claim to use a “Class 1 Particulate Reduction Filter”, which according to this site is the best kind. Either the one I have is defective, or they’re just a bunch of liars.
Also, Snnipe 70E, I think I stopped reading your reply when it seemed like another “your taste buds are broken”. Sorry about that! If I’d kept reading, I would have known about TDS meters two weeks ago and received vindication that much sooner. 