Water pitcher manufactured by Aquaphor received the highest ratings across all attributes and got the best price to quality ratio among all samples in a comparative study by Stiftung Warentest.
Stiftung Warentest, an independent consumer goods test foundation from Berlin, conducted a comparative study of nine popular filter pitchers. Selection brought together German, Swedish, Japanese and Chinese products, including a sample from Aquaphor product line. The test panel was conducted across 20 important performance attributes, such as water softening qualities, efficiency in eliminating organochlorine compounds, pesticides, heavy metals (lead and copper), bacteria and other water contaminants.
Klin-Tec, a brand name for Aquaphor pitchers in Germany, received the highest ratings across all attributes and got the best price to quality ratio among all samples.
According to the expert opinion, this filter demonstrates excellent efficiency in removing heavy metals and organochlorine compounds. The quality obviously not crucial for Berlin, but of immense value to consumers from other cities of the world, where aging water pipes are a widespread reality. AMETHYST (Klin-Tec) pitcher price in Germany is 20€, while the price range of other test samples varied from 10 to 34€.
World-famous Brita water filters were placed second and third in the list. The only attribute Aquaphor product was ranked lower than some of the contestants was the comprehensiveness of the user manual.
According to Stiftung Warentest experts, water softening and scale prevention are the most important qualities that a good water filter should have. German authorities claim that one can feel safe drinking water straight from the tap. Water quality in Germany is very high indeed, maximum permissible levels of contaminants in tap water are much lower compared to most countries. However, the reality is that water hardness isn’t the main issue for most consumers in the world. Heavy metals, chlorine, organochlorine compounds and harmful bacteria pose a much more tangible threat to human health and wellbeing.
Test results revealed that none of the pitchers were able to provide full water softening. Only two products managed to partially achieve this task: Aquaphor (Klin-Tec) and Brita. That is why for the areas with highly mineralized water it makes more sense to install reverse osmosis systems or under sink water purifiers with a water softening filter to cope with the so-called hard water. More on this topic at test.de.
If you notice scale in your kettle after using unfiltered water for a couple of days, then under-sink water purifier with a softening filter is not your best option. Using it for extremely hard water will demand constant filters replacement and lead to unjustified expenses. A cost-efficient solution would be to use a reverse osmosis water filter which will fully solve your scale problem and require attention once or twice a year.