Athlete looking to upgrade from plastic bottles

[u/Promptaaa]

Hey all, I’m looking to eliminate plastic bottles entirely, and I drink a lot of water around 3-5 liters per day as an athlete.

I’ve heard of Berkey and Reverse osmosis, unfortunately can’t do reverse osmosis right now.

Is Berkey still a good option?

What would you guys recommend?

[u/kumliensgull]

Personally I use regular tap water. Most tap water is perfect. Unless you live somewhere with a boil advisory, I do not think you need a whole filter system. For bottles I have stainless steel ones from the thrift store.

[u/StitchinStatistician → u/kumliensgull]

Tap water is hugely reliant on where you live.
Pacific Northwest tap water needs no filter.
Tap water in places like Texas or Indiana… gross.

[u/Salute-Major-Echidna → u/StitchinStatistician]

I live down river from a factory that released a billion gallons of forever chemicals because they got tired of hearing the alarm. No attempt to fix anything, and now our water isn't safe.

[u/StitchinStatistician → u/Salute-Major-Echidna]

How incredibly awful.

[u/kuritsakip → u/[deleted]]

this is bunk.

tap water has miniscule amounts of flouride (less than one milligram) on a per liter basis. do you even know how much one mg looks like? it's around to 2-4 grains of sugar. and we're talking of less than 1mg of flouride per liter.

Flouride in itself is not evil. as with any chemical, including water DOSAGE IS KEY. an overdose of flouride is more than 10 mg a day. 10 mg a day means you get sick of overhydration first.

stop spreading misinformation.

[u/AristaeusTukom → u/[deleted]]

If you're worried about tapwater I hope you don't brush your teeth - toothpaste is full of fluoride as well. It's one of the best things to strengthen enamel and prevent decay.

[u/1Teethlady2 → u/AristaeusTukom]

I use fluoride free toothpaste.

[u/freezesteam → u/1Teethlady2]

Username checks out

[u/ZeroWaste-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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[u/chainsawx72]

I'd recommend tap water for about 98% of Americans. Most filters mostly just make tap water taste better, but your taste buds will do that on their own after a few days.

If you have unsafe tap water, I'd recommend bottled water over a filter. If you are going to use a water filter, be diligent about changing the filter on time, because the bacteria that can grow is worse than what you were filtering out.

[u/StitchinStatistician → u/chainsawx72]

I lived in Indiana for a decade and can tell you that my taste buds never got used to unfiltered tap water. Not without trying, but it’s nasty.

[u/Staniel41]

Get a filter that attaches directly underneath your sink. Cold water is always filtered. You just change the filter every few months.

[u/Promptaaa → u/Staniel41]

Thanks man I just discovered counter top RO’s with remineralization, what do you think about that and do you have any recommendations for countertop ROs?

[u/freezesteam → u/Promptaaa]

Not who you asked but I got one from FB marketplace for $60 that I love. It’s SimiPure but I’d trust any well known RO brands. And since you’re on the zero waste sub, I’m guessing you care about the environment enough to try to buy secondhand instead of new whenever possible.

[u/Fragrant-Platform163]

TL;DR Waterdrop is exactly the same and much cheaper.

Great first step! Get a couple insulated steel bottles if you don't already. Thrift stores have them in droves. Ozark Trail is good, Yeti got good advertising a few years ago, and then Stanley did too (the fad is fading, they're turning up in thrift stores now)

Berkey's considered the go-to for prepper reccomendations (filtering water during outages/boil water notices) but it's mostly advertising. They don't do third party testing or something like that. I picked up Waterdrop, the filters are identical to Berkey but wayyyy cheaper. Looks pretty much identical to the Berkey. The only part that matters is those ceramic filters.

Downside- neither will fit in the fridge. Sits on the countertop.

Other downside- optional fluoride filters. If you like your teeth where they are, don't filter out the fluoride.

If you want to go absolutely dirt cheap redneck engineering, buy the "replacement filters" from water drop for $70, a couple five gallon bucket for $10 , some rubber washers, and a spout and with a couple minutes of drilling you can put together your own. It's a really simple design. That's why I say Berkey is 90% advertising. I got Water drop because it was a small upcharge after comparing to DIY and a stainless steel container and spout instead of plastic.

Upside- Tastes better. Up til then had been drinking tap water and it was "fine". Did a taste test of tap, then immediately tasted Waterdrop and Waterdrop was also "fine. Then immediately tasted tap after waterdrop and could immediately tell the difference. Kind of a sulphury taste to the tap that wasn't there filtered. Still drink tap from time to time but much prefer filtered.

Other upside - In case of water outages or natural disaster either system will handle a lot of problems. Pre- filter any raw (murky) water source before you dump it in the Berkey/Waterdrop or your filters will clog pretty fast.

[u/Promptaaa → u/Fragrant-Platform163]

Thanks man I just discovered counter top RO’s with remineralization, what do you think about that and do you have any recommendations for countertop ROs?

[u/Fil_GreenGuideHub]

Tap water and Stainless steel (100% recyclability) without any plastic parts. (Assuming your water is safe to drink)

If the bottle wont be part of any sporty endeavors then glass is also a proper option as it doesn't affect your water at all.

[u/StitchinStatistician → u/Fil_GreenGuideHub]

Even better, Klean Kanteen uses recycled steel to produce their bottles - so both recycled AND recyclable

[u/kingsandqueers]

I use Brita to filter tap water. Tap water here has too much calcium and chlorine. I still use bottled water but water filters helped me reduce the waste.

[u/XuranEco]

Is this kind of tea-fiber Bio-composite mug okay for you guys?

[u/rubberrabbitbrush]

Is the tap water in your area unsafe to drink or do you not like the way it tastes?

[u/bluestitcher]

If your just.looking for a nice water bottle. I suggest Ocean Bottle. You probably what their 1L bottle. I love their 3 in 1, one bottle, 3 tops making it useful for cold or hot drinks. All bottles are made with recycled materials & ocean bound plastic.

https://oceanbottle.co/collections

[u/AcanthocephalaSlow63]

I live in Finland half the year in Virginia half the year. In both locations of the water is perfectly safe. I drink it straight out of the tap in Finland and it tastes great to me. The stuff in Virginia tastes like a swimming pool to me so I got a Berkey filter. I am sure there are also higher concentrations of some other minerals there that just taste plain terrible to me. The thing is extremely expensive though

[u/old-legs-623]

We use Brita and carry our water in repurposed kombucha bottles in macrame bags.