ZeroWater 12-Cup Pitcher
The ZeroWater 12-Cup Pitcher is a reliable water pitcher that offers a respectable performance at a fair price. We were impressed by how efficiently it removed salt and chlorine, and it even removed lead reasonably well.
PROS
- Great filter performance
- Good taste
- Affordable
CONS
- Slow filtration
- Cartridge lasts for forty gallons
The ZeroWater 12-Cup Pitcher is a reliable water pitcher that offers a respectable performance at a fair price. We were impressed by how efficiently it removed salt and chlorine, and it even removed lead reasonably well. The judges from our review agreed that the water produced by this filter tastes just as good as water cleansed by any other model. The ZeroWater 12-Cup’s only flaw is that filtering everything takes longer than we would like. Having said that, if you don’t need to filter your water right away and want to keep your costs down, this is an excellent solution.
Performance Comparison
Lead Removal
We made a mixture of tap water with 2.3 ppm of lead in order to correctly evaluate how efficiently the ZeroWater 12-cup Pitcher removes lead from water. This is significantly more than the lead toxicity that anyone would likely be filtering, which is considerably above the EPA guideline for water that is deemed safe for human consumption, which is 0.015 ppm of lead.
We submitted the samples to our friends at a third-party water-testing laboratory, where they have the necessary tools for measuring lead levels, after running the contaminated water through each filter. 25% of the final score comes from this review section.
In our polluted sample, the ZeroWater 12-Cup Pitcher eliminated 98.7% of the lead. This puts the filtered water produced by this model well beyond the EPA’s guidelines, but given that we added a ridiculous quantity of lead to our supply water, we believe the ZeroWater 12-Cup would function flawlessly with any regular tap water.
Chlorine Removal
How well the filters remove chlorine makes up the next 25% of our final score. The EPA considers water with a chlorine content of less than 4 ppm to be safe for human consumption. To raise the mixture’s ppm levels to 106, we combined a batch of tap water with chlorine. We utilized chemical test strips to determine the final levels after filtering our chlorinated water through each filter.
The ZeroWater 12-Cup Pitcher achieved a flawless score for this criteria by completely eliminating all of the chlorine from our contaminated test water.
Salt Removal
Compared to chlorine or lead, acceptable salt levels in water for human consumption are a little less clear. The range of acceptable ppm values according to recognized healthcare authorities is 20 to 250. Those who advocate for lower levels frequently take into account the fact that we obtain sodium from a variety of foods and beverages. Others, in contrast, permit larger concentrations because salt is essential to human survival.
Whatever your opinion on the optimal sodium intake, the ZeroWater 12-Cup Pitcher achieved a flawless score in this category by lowering the salinity of our test water from 445 ppm to 0. 25% of the final score is determined by salt removal.
Taste
We used a panel of judges to provide their opinions on the taste of the water after it had gone through each filter. We utilized pure water for our initial tests to make sure the filters weren’t introducing any unusual flavors. We then used the same panel of judges and local tap water after filtering it to see if anything had changed. 15% of the overall review score is determined by this area.
In our taste testing, the ZeroWater 12-Cup Pitcher performed remarkably well. We discovered that the water that came out of this device had an impeccable flavor whether we utilized tap water or purified water.
Flow
The last step was to measure flow rates for the final 10% of our score. The ZeroWater 12-Cup Pitcher fell short of the competition in this particular area. This device filters a gallon of water in 36 minutes as opposed to less than a minute for some top water filters. We were only able to give it a score of 4 out of 10 for this metric because of the stark disparity in rates. The ZeroWater is not the right solution for you if you want fast, on-demand filtered water.
We consider the ZeroWater 12-Cup Pitcher to be quite valuable given its comparatively excellent performance and low price.
Conclusion
The ZeroWater 12-Cup Pitcher’s moderate flow rate and the fact that each internal filter cartridge only lasts 40 gallons are its biggest shortcomings. We like that this model comes with a TDS meter so you’ll know when to place an order for a replacement cartridge. The filtered water produced by this version tastes fantastic and does a great job of eliminating contaminants.