PUR water filters review – are they great for filtering water or do they suck?

PUR filtered water tastes great, but installing and replacing filters is a pain in the ass!

don’t know about where you live, but in my town the tap water smells and tastes of chlorine and other nasty constituents. If you were to drink our tap water and then drink some filtered water you would see a difference of night and day. So of course on the use some kind of a water filtration system.

Now when I bought my house there was a PUR water filter already attached to the kitchen sink. So I unscrewed the front which was quite a challenge on this thing because there’s really no where to get a good grip. This is a serious design flaw that PUR water filter company needs to correct if they want to stay at the top of the water filtration market.

I had actually stick a flat head screwdriver inside the hole the water comes out and use this as leverage to open it so I could get access to the filter and change it. Now once I got the lid off the filter wouldn’t come out. I couldn’t yank it out. I couldn’t twist it out. But it did come out with some force when I turned the water on without the lid installed. This of course got me all wet along with everything else nearby on the counter – this is another serious design flaw from PUR.

So then I took the old water filter to Wal-Mart to get a new one at Wal-Mart they come in two packs that cost around $25. I later found out BJ’s sells a five pack for $49 which is a much better deal. Now once you open up the package for the new filters they are actually quite easy to install and place back inside. Then unfortunately have to put the lid which has no good places to grip on it back on. And it’s the same exact chore to put it on as it is to get it off – it’s a pain in the neck.

When hand tightening it it will only go so far and that usually leaves it so that the hole where the water comes out points upward and not downward.  That is definitely not good so you have to insert a screwdriver or butter knife or something in there to get some leverage and crank it around so that the hole where the water comes out points downward like it’s supposed to.  That is another serious design flaw.

Now once you install the new filter it tells you to run the water with the filter on for five minutes to clear it out.  Apparently there’s some soapy residue or similar in their that has to come out and does in those five minutes.  You can tell if you pour the water into a cup and hold it up and look at it.  Early in those five minutes it will look cloudy and smell like charcoal and soap.  But after about five minutes and all clears up and tastes like good filtered water.

So I have to say the steps for installation and replacement of the PUR water filters is definitely not a desirable situation.  It’s definitely not easy and requires using a screwdriver something similar for leverage to both twist this thing off and then to reinstall it after you replace the filter.  I also greatly dislike the fact that you have to turn on the water to blow out the filter to dislodge it.  This gets one soaking wet and the area around them wet also and there is no avoiding this. 

The instructions state to simply remove the filter by pulling it out.  Apparently whoever wrote those instructions never did it themselves because it won’t just pull out.  So taking this into account I have to give the PUR water filtration system a failing grade.  The filtered water tastes great, but the installation and replacement of their water filters is ridiculous and messy.

Tags: clean water, complaint, DIY, drinking water, filtered waer, healthy, How to, Not recommended, PUR water filters, review, water