Filters Fast - Water and Air Filter Experts

I just wanted to share some news on the Instapure F5 Faucet Filter, which was just named a Consumers Digest Best Buy. Since this title is awarded to less than three percent of competing models in each category, it's worth pointing out what makes this filter worthy of such a distinction.

Though the release doesn't specify exactly why Consumers Digest named it a Best Buy, we think it probably has a lot to do with the fact that the Instapure F5 reduces far more contaminants than most faucet filters. Most such filters reduce only the taste and odor of Chlorine, but the Instapure F5 also reduces 99.99% of microbial cysts, as well as lead. Given this, it's not surprising the filter was named a Best Buy, which Consumers Digest defines "as a product that offers the most value for a given amount of money." Filters Fast sells the filter for only $17.

Scott Wright, Instapure's chief executive officer, emphasized how just one faucet filter can reduce a person's dependency on bottled water.

"Every 200-gallon filter we put in the hand of consumers has the potential to eliminate 1500 plastic bottles," Wright said in a press release. "The Instapure filter is truly a green solution to help individuals reduce their carbon footprint."

Click here to see the Instapure F5, as well as our entire line of Instapure products.

Posted by Daniel at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

It's a question we've been bombarded with since yesterday morning, when the Associated Press published an article stating that United States manufacturers and drugmakers have legally released 271 million or more pounds of pharmaceuticals into water sources that often provide drinking water.

During this "PharmaWater" investigation, the AP identified 22 compounds present in drinking water. Included in these compounds are such chemicals as lithium, antibiotics, sedatives, mood stabilizers, sex hormones, skin-bleaching cream and chemicals used to combat head lice and worms.

Yet while drugmakers and manufacturers are certainly responsible for a large portion of the pharmaceuticals in our water, consumers of the pharmaceuticals are just as responsible for depositing pharmaceuticals back into the water supply. After taking these pharmaceuticals, consumers excrete the unabsorbed remainders into the toilet, where they enter the water supply. Flushing drugs down the toilet is a more direct way of doing this, and one that is surprisingly common.

Perhaps the only thing scarier than all of these pharmaceuticals in our drinking water is that there is currently no filter that removes pharmaceuticals from tap water. While companies are currently working on filters that remove pharmaceuticals from water, none do as of yet. Some theorize that filters using activated carbon may work, as the carbon has been shown to capture organic substances that may be found in pharmaceuticals. But as of now, the testing for pharmaceuticals is too insufficient to say whether or not this is the case.

So while we cannot say for certain whether these filters remove pharmaceuticals, we can say that many of our filters do remove contaminants that we know can be harmful to your health, such as arsenic, lead, chlorine, cysts, total dissolved solids, toxic heavy metals and bacteria.

Give us a call to discuss your specific filtration needs. Better yet, consider purchasing one of our many home testing kits, which will tell you exactly what is in your water (again, except for pharmaceuticals).

Then, when you know what's in your water, give us a call and we'll suggest a filter that will remove the undesired contaminants.

Posted by Daniel at 12:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

With warm weather now gracing much of the country, many are heading to the great outdoors to camp, hike and fish. Depending on how great these outdoors are, keeping hydrated and finding clean water sources can be paramount.

You don't want to be burdened with carrying bottles upon bottles of drinking water, but at the same time, you don't want to risk drinking water from streams, lakes and rivers, which can contain waterborne protozoa such as Giardia.

The Katadyn Exstream water bottle allows to drink such water without consuming bacteria and harmful contaminants. The bottle uses an advanced Virustat technology to kill 99.9999% of waterborne viruses. Just dip the bottle into any water source and you instantly have safe and delicious drinking water.

I know what you're thinking: doesn't that take some of the fun out of "roughing it"?

Well don't think for a second that MacGyver himself would prefer a paper clip, a piece of gum and some fishing line over this water bottle. When you're outdoors and clean drinking water is scarce, this water bottle can be a lifesaver.

Katadyn also makes a variety of pocket filters, siphons and emergency water tabs to ensure you'll be safe and hydrated when on your next camping or hiking trip.

Posted by Daniel at 9:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There are many reasons not to drink bottled water. But I can think of none so disturbing as the possibility you might be drinking a snail's aphrodisiac. This according to a Wired Science article citing a German study that discovered snails bred at a much faster pace in water from plastic bottles than they did in water from glass bottles.

The study attributes this to the plastic bottles leaching active chemicals into the water - chemicals that mimic natural sex hormones. These hormones, however, apply to humans as well.

Now before you go touting the benefits of an aphrodisiac as inexpensive and readily-available as bottled water, think of the consequences. The xenohormone residue found in the study's water can lessen virility in boys and cause the early onset of puberty in girls.

So until I find snails reproducing in my kitchen sink, I'm going to continue filtering and drinking my home's tap water. It's much cheaper, ecologically responsible and, most importantly, I can rest easy knowing I'm not overpopulating the world with gastropods.

Posted by Daniel at 11:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Adorned in colonial waistcoats and tri-cornered hats, the men piloted their boat into Boston harbor to dump the unfairly priced beverages back into the rolling sea beneath. It was nothing short of a political revolt, an act of resistance urging the masses to take action against the injustices under which they had suffered for far too long.

We all recognize this scene as from the Boston Tea Party in 1773. But some Boston residents witnessed this demonstration just a week ago, and it wasn't tea and taxes that was being protested against: it was bottled water.

Activists from the Think Outside the Bottle campaign performed this demonstration to draw attention to United Nations World Water Day on March 22. More specifically, it was an effort to convince more people to drink tap water, rather than its comparatively overpriced and ecologically-irresponsible equivalent.

So, America, rise up against your oppressors! Know your enemy, bottled water, and choose your weapons wisely. Whether you are looking for faucet filters, Brita pitchers, or even undersink or reverse osmosis systems, Filters Fast has everything you need to fight the good fight!

Posted by Daniel at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Despite the many studies and reports exposing bottled water as nothing more than tap water, one man is proving that our country might not be ready to tap out just yet: even when the water is blatantly marketed as tap water.

The Los Angeles Times recently reported on Craig Zucker, the founder of a new bottled water called Tap'd NY. As the name suggests, Tap'd NY takes as its source the same reservoirs and lakes that provide New York City with its tap water. The only real difference between the two? Price, of course, and one well marketed bottle.

A quick glance tells you this isn't your parents' bottled water. Rather than spell out the unnecessarily long word "Tapped," the company has chosen to eschew needless letters in favor of a simple apostrophe. It's a testament to the widely known fact that alternative spellings or abbreviated words just sell better.

The label also touts that "No glaciers were harmed in making this water."

To be fair, some of the nation's finest tap water does flow through New York City's faucets. But that begs the question--why would anyone buy Tap'd NY if they can get the very same water in their own home? A BPA-free plastic bottle or glass decanter allows you to take this water wherever you go.

If you live in an area with off-tasting tap water, there's a solution for that, too. You can filter the impurities from your tap water with any number of filtration systems, depending on the quality of your water. Our Brita pitcher systems, for example, are a great way to rid your water of the taste and odor of chlorine, as well as other contaminants.

The end result is water that often tastes better and is more healthy than its bottled counterpart, not to mention at a fraction of the cost. Better still, you won't be contributing to the millions of bottles that go unrecycled every year. You know, so you don't harm any glaciers while making your water.

Posted by Daniel at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Sea monkeys captivated many of us as children. We would pour them into their artificially constructed habitats and watch them float about, tiny specks that didn’t really do much of anything except hold our interest for a few minutes.

How little we knew.

It turns out sea monkeys—also known as brine shrimp or Artemia salina—could reduce heavy metals in water, according to an article from the Daily Forty-Niner, the student paper of California State University, Long Beach. Roger Acey, a chemistry professor at the school, noticed some brine shrimp living in a water solution with a high level of toxic metal. He and his team later learned that the shrimp contain a protein that binds to toxic metals in the water—such as arsenic, lead or mercury—all while allowing healthy metals and minerals to pass through.

Acey produces the protein by placing a cloned gene from the shrimp into bacteria. He and his team received patents for the gene and protein sequences, as well as for using the technology to remove metals from water.
Acey plans to use this technology in the design and production of a water faucet filter and hopes to develop a prototype device in the future.

Until then, however, you might just want to consider our line of faucet filters. They might not help you recapture your childhood love of sea monkeys, but they will be just as effective at removing toxic metals and other contaminants from your water, as well as the taste and odor of chlorine.

Posted by Daniel at 9:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Does your water taste salty? If you don’t live near the ocean or a salt mine and you’re wondering how the heck salt got in your water you should know that in most cases what you’re tasting is Chloride. Chloride can make its way into your water source several different ways such as, agricultural runoff, wastewater from industries, natural deposits, and road salting. But my guess is that you care less about where it comes from and more about how to get it out of your water. You’ll need a reverse osmosis filtration system. RO is the most effective water filtration system and is the only system capable of desalinating water for drinking.

Posted by Roxanne at 3:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Rust and sediment is the most common water problem and ranks right up there with Chlorine. If your water is cloudy or brown, and you can see particles floating in your water, then you have rust and sediment in your water. The dirt, rust, and sand sediment may not be harmful, but it does have it's bad attributes. Rust and sediment will reduce the life of your appliances, make your water look and taste bad and will shorten the life of your more expensive water filters as they will clog quicker. Luckily, rust and dirt sediment is also the easiest and cheapest water problem that water filters can solve. We recommend you look at a whole house water filter system such as the AquaPure AP101T with the AP110 water filter. This will do a great job in removing the sediment and extending the life of your appliances and carbon based water filters.

Posted by Ray at 3:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)