Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Kitchen Gear Filter Takes Water to the Cleaners
Posted by Nicki Wood on Tue, Sep 22, 2009 at 10:27 AM
Lesson #1 in business school and media studies is: hardware PLUS software. PlayStation and games, TV and DVDs, iPhone and apps. The consuming must continue after the main purchase or you've got no kind of revenue stream.
The lesson extends to plumbing and refrigerators now, too. An astronomical plumbing estimate was discounted if we purchased a gold circle warranty plan that would ensure we were a plumbing priority. (Shouldn't we be anyway, if we chose to call that particular plumber?) And our Kitchen-Aid fridge was fitted with a water filter that has a complex business plan of its own.
The first filter was free -- easy decision. A timer on the fridge changes color when the filter's six months of efficient filtering are over. Handy! And at the same time, a notice arrived in the mail to remind us, along with an order form and a toll-free number. Time to buy that filter!
The filters cost $55 plus shipping, which seemed a little steep, but okay. (If you've examined the tubing of a 10-year-old refrigerator, you'll want to filter the water.) No ignoring the timer, either, because if the filters aren't replaced every six months, the ice maker stops working. It wasn't the money so much as the well-planned effort to separate us from it. It seemed a little forceful.
The decision was made for us when I snapped off a connection removing a filter.
The business plan accounted for this, though, and discount coupons for the filters arrived in the mail. $10 off! Free shipping!
But it was too late. We brought back the Brita pitcher. Funny how simple and old-fashioned it seems.
Comments (10)
Showing 1-10 of 10
Ugh! This makes me crazy. We've had our fridge for 8 years, and for 7 years and 6 months, we've drunk tap water. Try explaining to a toddler why the water dispenser is dirty, but the ice dispenser is clean! (Yeah, I get the gap in logic, but we just try to drink things fast before the ice melts.)
like
dislike
Nicks, I bet you can find it for $35 at the Cool Spring Lowe's. I found ours (another $50 sears job) for that price.
I switched buildings here at the industrial complex; this one does not have filters on the ice machine or any taps. So I trotted out the husband's ancient Brita pitcher and have yummy, lukewarm water at my fingertips.
We made the move to a steam distiller (thank you the Atlantic for pointing out the rest of the crap that is in our water that our Brita was probably not filtering out though I had been happily unaware.)
Really, really like it and thinks it warrants its purchase price of 120+ or so. It does use a decent bit of electricity (though I don't believe it's actually statistically significant, plus there are so many other externalities to bottled water) and it does add some heat to your kitchen/wherever you have it.) Nonetheless, we distill a gallon a day & put it into a 2.5 gallon storage thing (thanks Container Store) and are quite happy with that solution...
Okay, Mimi, I'll bite. What else is in the water that the filter isn't filtering?
In a word, Nicki, drugs:
From the Atlantic: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200903/pure-drinking-water :
"An Associated Press investigation http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/homepage/x1574803042 last year revealed that trace amounts of pharmaceuticals make their way into the drinking water of at least 41 million Americans. These chemicals (for example, meds for angina, cholesterol, epilepsy) can accumulate in the body, in a process that scientists don’t fully understand. Fish may fornicate in our water sources, but thanks to estrogen-like endocrine disrupters that have built up in watersheds such as Washington, D.C.’s Potomac River, some male fish have been found with immature eggs in their testes. Fish in Texas have been found with the active ingredient of Prozac in their brains."
It's the drug thing that got me. Scary and yep, I understand it's from the Atlantic, but I tend to trust their journalistic intregity & the AP study. If I am going to take Prozac etc., I want to know about it.
Meanwhile, the user review/geek sites on the Megahome water distiller insist that the water produced (by the steam distiller)is ridiculously purer than I care about. And,I believe it also takes out the fluoride etc., but hey, we just like it.
Oh I read that, and was suitably grossed out. I didn't know there was anything so sophisticated as a steam distiller. Actually, when I was cycling past your house this morning, I thought maybe I heard the motoor running, and maybe the grid dimmed a little.
