[Siebrie]

We have a Britta waterfilter, because the water in Brussels is so hard it's killing all our appliances (coffee machine) and leaves calcium dregs in the tea (YUCK).

It's a 1.8 litre carafe with a Maxtra filter; this filter has to be replaced once a month. We had run out of filters, so I went shopping.

Store A sold:
3 filters for € 19.90 = € 6.63 ($ 8.07) each
3 +1 free for € 20.90 (does not sound like FREE to me...) = € 5.23 ($ 6.87) each

Store B sold:
3 filters for € 16.90 = € 5.63 ($ 7.40) each

I tried to persuade store A to sell me the 3 + 1 filters for € 19.90 = € 4.98 ($ 6.54) each. They wouldn't budge; they said this was the price the factory had given them and they could not change it. I walked away in disgust.....

I went to store B, even if this was not the most economical thing to do. There, I had a proper look at the shelves to see if I really had not overlooked any offers. I was lucky: there was an offer of 12 filters + free carafe with 1 filter for € 59 = € 4.92 ($ 6.47) each. I bought this and brought it home.

My dh just happened to have been talking to someone about the Britta filters. This man wanted to buy a carafe at € 16.99. Dh ran to him with the new carafe with 1 filter (in its new box) and sold it for € 15. This made our filters even cheaper: (€ 59 - € 15) : 12 = € 3.67 ($ 4.82) each. Hurray! That's enough for a whole year and I don't think we'll find them any cheaper anywhere else.

In the end, we gave € 10 to a friend in very dire straits, who immediately phoned his mum. He hadn't been in touch with her for 4 months, because it was too expensive. This makes our filters more expensive (€ 4.5 = $ 5.92 each), but that's okay.

 

[hotprincesscm]

Wow, good shopping around, and also good friend you and your DH are!!

 

[Judi Dial]

Great sleuthing skills re the prices and what a nice person you are.

Good for you! Bravo!

Judi

 

[Grainlady]

Have you considered using a water distiller? It may be less expensive and absolutely more effective. Filters do very little to remove the most dangerous contaminants from the water, if that's a concern? Filters improve the taste and odor of water, kills some forms of bacteria, but little else. If you don't change them frequently, they don't do anything.

We use a 1-gallon water distiller to purify our drinking water, and have for around 25-years. It's the only purification method that removes prescription drugs from the drinking water, as well as all the farm-related chemicals and drugs used around here, which are also found in water even after it's been processed through the city water treatment system. There is a HUGE difference between filtration and purification of water...

City water treatment methods only treat bacteria, not drugs and farm chemicals. We just had a front page story in the local newspaper, last week, concerning Rx drugs in the drinking water. I've known about the problem for about 15-years - it was first discovered in Germany.

I've known 2 people who had drug interactions from drugs they take and drugs consumed in the drinking water. When they switched to distilled water the interactions wasn't a problem anymore.

The cost - $.21 (21-cents) per gallon for the electricity to assure we have the purest water possible to make at home. We checked it with a Kill A Watt Electricity Load Meter. I make 8-12 gallons per week. A distiller will normally last 5-8 years.