[donnachangstein]

> and maintaining a dedicated three stage filter spout next to my kitchen faucet costs me approximately nothing

Calling bullshit on this one. I have one, it's positively wonderful, but the filters are expensive and per the manufacturer's recommendation you're supposed to change them all simultaneously. So when one times out, they all time out. This runs approximately $150 a year minimum depending on usage.

[BugsJustFindMe]

> This runs approximately $150 a year

$150 per YEAR at american prices is approximately nothing. That's a measly 41 cents a day.

People spend far far more than that on far far more frivolous things without thinking twice.

[EA-3167]

People spend an order of magnitude (and much more) on coffee every day, never mind smokers or drinkers who spend crazy amounts just to hurt themselves.

Not that I don't love and respect Wirecutter (I don't), but I'm on team "I like how my water tastes when it's filtered."

[kelnos]

I suspect for most people posting here, $150 per year is "approximately nothing".

[bernawil]

> So when one times out, they all time out

Some units give you different fixed timespans for each. For that reason, I just use the Reverse Osmosis stage and ignore the rest. RO is the last step, and in theory it renders pure water meaning the only reason to have the previous ones is to pre-filter somewhat the water and extend the RO cartridge lifespan. Problem with that is, first, there's no way to gauge when each filter is spent. Second, they're priced the same anyway, so why even bother. Just go straight from tap to RO! Keep the post re-mineralization stage if you want.

[tguvot]

pre-filters typically have specified "capacity" in gallons. which is measurable. also if water is very dirty filters get clogged and pressure dropped. it's also measurable.

"post re-mineralization stage" is actually "ph adjustment".

[mousethatroared]

What system are you using? My five stage filter system has me replace the charcoal filters once a year and the RO every... three? Maybe five?

But let's assume it costs you $150 a year. Thats less than $0.50 a day for drinking and cooking water. I doubt you could buy any significant amount of bottled water for fifty cents.

[tguvot]

filters are cheap if you don't use fancy branded system that came up with it's own filter that incompatible with anything else

[an_aparallel]

You generally want to avoid cheap filters as they apparently can be tainted with formaldehyde