What Should a Water Filter Actually Cost You?

A $35 pitcher can cost more over five years than a $300 under sink filter. Key Takeaways — Where does the money go? Hardware is usually a quarter of what you spend. Cartridges are most of the rest. The cheapest setup to buy is often the most expensive to own, because small cartridges cost nearly as much as big ones and die far sooner. Before you compare prices, work out how many gallons your household actually filters in a year — that one number changes which option is cheapest, sometimes by a factor of three. KNOW THE PROBLEM BEFORE THE PRICE Know what you need to filter for before you price anything Your utility’s report names what was detected. Check your area by ZIP. Check my ZIP → The number that decides everything Gallons per year. Not people, not budget, not square footage. Work it out roughly. Drinking water is about half a gallon per person per day — that is the familiar eight glasses, since a gallon is sixteen cups. Add cooking, coffee, and pet bowls and most households land somewhere between two and four gallons a day. Call it 700 to 1,500 gallons a year. Now look at what a cartridge is rated for. A standard pitcher cartridge is about 40 gallons. An under sink carbon blo...