Heavy metal is best absorbed as music. You don't want it in your water. If you're a renter, or can't afford expensive whole-house or under-sink filters, your best and most convenient line of defense against PFAS forever chemicals or lead may be to find the best water filter pitcher to fit in your fridge door.
It's not just Brita anymore. A new generation of water filter companies now promises clean and healthy water to an American public newly and justifiably wary about PFAS “forever chemicals,” lead, or microplastics in their water. But health and filter claims can be hard to sort through. Not all filter companies have certified their claims with international testing bodies. And not all third-party testing is equal.
If your biggest worry is removing the most contaminants from your water, especially PFAS, the pitcher you want is likely the ZeroWater Pitcher from Culligan ($40). But note that this pitcher also removes helpful, tasty minerals ike calcium and magnesium. Clearly Filtered ($100) is an an excellent, though more expensive, filtered water pitcher for removing PFAS and other chemicals without reduced mineral content.
For this buying guide, I've privileged filters that are efficacious against cancer-associated PFAS and PFOA “forever chemicals,” because around half of Americans may currently be exposed to these chemicals in their water supply, amid slackening federal oversight. But if you're in the half of the country without PFAS exposure, the best-designed pitcher is the Brita Everyday Elite ($42), which does little for PFAS or fluoride, but is otherwise certified for removing perhaps the broadest number of potential health hazards.
But note that most of these fridge pitchers, including the best-certified, contain plastic. If you want to avoid this, I suggest you look instead at my head-to-head testing of stainless steel gravity-fed water filters for your countertop. For other guides to a contaminant-free life, look to WIRED's coverage of the Best Shower Water Filters, Best Backpacking Water Filters, Best Air Purifiers, and Best Indoor Air Quality Monitors.
Best Water Filter Pitchers
- Best Water Pitcher Filter for Overall Performance: Culligan
- Best Water Pitcher Filter for Taste: Clearly Filtered
- Best-Designed Water Filter Pitcher: Brita Everyday Elite
- Best Against Microbes: Lifestraw Home Pitcher
- Other Water Filters Tested
- How I Test Water Filter Pitchers
- Does My City Use Chlorine or Chloramine
Best Water Pitcher Filter for Overall Performance: Culligan ZeroWater
The Cullligan uses ZeroWater's proprietary reverse osmosis system, which among all of these pitchers is best tested and certified according to NSF standards to remove the most troublesome contaminants from your water—including PFAS and PFOA “forever chemicals,” lead, cadmium, mercury, and hexavalent chromium. Chlorine disappears. Particulates disappear. A helpful and accurate electronic meter comes attached to the pitcher and will detect the total dissolved solids in the filtered water. When the number climbs above zero, it's time to replace the filter.
This breadth of certifications and testing, particularly with regard to forever chemicals, places the Culligan atop my list as the water filter I'd trust most. The efficacy at removing PFAS and PFOA has also been attested to by nonprofit public health group the Environmental Working Group. The ZeroWater filter also removed total chlorine levels to utterly undetectable amounts in my own home testing, which likewise verified the total dissolved solids (TDS) results from Culligan's attached meter.
The filter is more affordable than other high-performing pitchers. And it comes in a variety of sizes to best fit your fridge. But this does not mean the water pitcher is the most convenient. It's not. Filtering takes 7 to 10 minutes for a 5-cup top reservoir, approximately middle-of-the-road as far as speed goes. And you can't pour from the filtered reservoir while the top reservoir still has water in it, lest unfiltered water slosh out the top.
Alas, that TDS meter reading of zero also means that helpful and tasty calcium and magnesium also disappear when filtered through the ZeroWater filter. Your water will taste very clinical, and less pleasant, unless you also use remineralizing drops like the ones from Trace ($38). If you care about coffee, I might recommend you use remineralizing sticks from Third Wave Water, ($18), which tunes its calcium and magnesium content to your preferred roast style. Remineralizing sticks and drops do add some extra cost to owning a ZeroWater. But your taste buds will thank you.
Best Water Pitcher Filter for Taste: Clearly Filtered
Clearly Filtered is among the more expensive water pitchers I tested. It's also the one that best preserves taste and mineral content in my water, while still showing near-total PFAS and PFOA reduction in reliable independent testing—including by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group.
Clearly Filtered's water pitcher works differently from a reverse osmosis system like ZeroWater's. It instead uses a carbon filter and other media to remove free chlorine, PFAS and PFOA, and other heavy metals—without removing dissolved mineral content or other dissolved ions. You'll have to prime the filter and run the water through it multiple times before water runs completely clear, because some activated charcoal will at first escape into the filtered water. Clearly is also a fairly slow filter: It takes 20 minutes or more to fully filter the top reservoir on a 10-cup pitcher.
The benefit, however, is that the filter is certified to NSF standards to reduce PFAS and chlorine to near undetectable levels. My own home testing also showed that it removed the vast majority of chloramine. Independent testing by IAPMO labs likewise shows filtering of hundreds of other contaminants, which don't all have international standards attached. Clearly Filtered is, quite simply, the most extravagantly tested filter that still leaves my water tasting good.
Best-Designed Water Filter Pitcher: Brita Everyday Elite
Brita's Everyday Elite pitcher is economical. It is well designed. It is BPA-free. It is also certified to NSF standards by the Water Quality Association to filter a broad variety of known health risks, pharmaceutical byproducts, and substances like chlorine that alter water's taste. These include lead, cadmium, mercury, benzene, asbestos, microplastics, and a number of drugs from ibuprofen to naproxen. However, the filtered substances do not include PFAS and PFOA, as tested by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group. The Elite filter also doesn't filter fluoride, which may please some public health advocates but bother others.
This still places the Elite among the best-certified filters on the market—a status backed by Brita's longstanding authority in water pitchers. Brita's extensive experience has also led to a well-designed, handsome pitcher that filters quickly, in less than five minutes. A somewhat ingenious filter-indicator light pulses different colors depending on how many times the pitcher has been filled. The push-top design on the top reservoir ensures that nothing enters or leaves the top water reservoir unless you want it to. It's strange that this quality is so rare among water pitchers. But it is. If PFAS is not a problem in your water supply, this Brita is among the most verified and certified water filters on the market, when it comes to other contaminants.
Best Against Microbes: Lifestraw Home Pitcher
Lifestraw does not market its stately, Erlenmeyer-flask-shaped water pitcher as suitable to treat dirty and disease-filled water from your local mud puddle. But if bacteria or protozoa were my concern, Lifestraw is nonetheless the water pitcher I'd get. In addition to an activated carbon filter that's NSF-certified to remove chlorine, lead, and mercury, Lifestraw also uses a membrane filter demonstrated to remove a great number of bacteria and parasites—plus particulate matter that includes microplastics and asbestos—based on testing data from what's now IAPMO's sole accredited lab in India.
This does not amount to an antimicrobial certification, hence Lifestraw's caution to market the device for anything but municipal water. But if my primary worry were the bacteria or mold known to potentially accumulate in other water filters and pitchers, I would certainly spring for this Lifestraw. The same IAPMO India lab data also shows good removal of PFAS and PFOA “forever chemicals,” though not quite to the levels of my top filter picks.
This doesn't mean the filter is perfect. The Home's tall dual-stage filter, comprising both a membrane filter and a replaceable activated carbon filter, causes the 10-cup Lifestraw to be quite lofty for a fridge pitcher: about 13 inches tall. It only fits in my refrigerator because I'd already removed a shelf to allow for tall bottles and meal kit boxes.
The Lifestraw filter is also among the slowest I've tested, requiring more than 20 minutes to filter on the 10-cup pitcher. And while it removes free chlorine, it does not remove chloramine—a more stable disinfectant found in about half of municipal water systems. And so if your city uses chloramine to treat its water and you're sensitive to the aroma, be forewarned.
For those especially worried about plastic even after filtering out microplastics, Lifestraw also makes a glass version of its 7-cup water pitcher. But note that the filter housing is plastic, and so this still won't make for an entirely plastic-free water pitcher.
Other Water Filters Tested
Waterdrop 10-Cup Lucid Water Filter Pitcher for $21: Waterdrop is a decade-old, California-based company best known for innovative countertop reverse osmosis water filters. This hands-free water filter pitcher from Waterdrop is a much more economical option than most filters; in fact, it's the cheapest filter I've tested. It also sports a weirdly likable design, with a little hinged lid that'll drop down almost frictionlessly to accept even a trickle of water into its reservoir before snapping back shut. The water filter is also the fastest I tested, dripping through a full reservoir in less than two minutes, and it’s certified to NSF standards for lead-free manufacturing and chlorine removal. Its makers also claim to have tested filtration to NSF standards on 372 other substances. So far, so good. But lab results aren't posted publicly, nor is the identity of the third-party lab. My own testing showed that the filter is less successful at filtering chloramine, the substance used for disinfection of municipal water in half of American cities. The filter removed about 75 percent of chloramine, far worse performance than my top-pick filters.
Aarke Water Pitcher for $165: The Aarke water filter pitcher is quite simply the prettiest water filter pitcher on this list—an elegant and stately affair of glass and stainless steel filter housing. It is, perhaps, the only water filter pitcher I've tested that I would like in my life based on looks alone. And Aarke claims the filter will remove the vast majority of lead, chlorine, limescale, and copper from your water. Though mostly plastic-free, it does not claim to remove microplastics. This said, the device didn't claim to remove chloramine either—but did in fact remove chloramine to undetectable levels according to my own home testing. Aarke does not seem to have certified its filter for removal of any contaminants, nor does the company publicly share lab results on its site.
How I Test Water Pitcher Filters
Water filter pitchers have come a long way since the first old-school Brita filters in the 1980s, which were mostly effective at removing chlorine that would have aired out after 20 minutes anyway. Modern filters can remove a broader range of cotaminants, including PFAS and PFOA forever chemicals and microplastics that have only more recently been recognized as hazards.
First and foremost, I examined the certifications and independent testing of filtration for each of the top filters. Even when labs say they've independently tested to NSF international standards, certifications are much more rigorous, are continually renewed and retested, and include the entire production chain. Which is to say, certification is always more trusted.
While filtering of PFAS and PFOA forever chemicals is one of my highest priorities, home tests are not currently available. I relied on third-party independent testing, and gave extra weight to testing by independent nonprofits like the Environmental Working Group, which were not enlisted by the filter companies.
I also examined each pitcher for its performance in removing chlorine and chloramine compounds that can affect taste. To test total chlorine levels, I got out my handy digital water colorimeter and a somewhat nasty chemical indicator, and then tested the ability of each pitcher to treat any of a number of chlorine compounds in the water.
I also assessed performance and certifications for microplastics, microbes, heavy metals, and pharmaceuticals such as painkillers that have also entered the water supply.
And, of course, I used the pitchers. I tested how long it takes to filter, how easy they are to prime and put into use, and whether they leak. If they didn't fit in my fridge door because they're too tall, that's a problem. Unless otherwise specified, I tested the 10-cup version of each pitcher as a baseline. Most are also available in additional sizes.
Does My City Use Chloramine or Chlorine?
Pretty much every filter on this list is effective at removing free chlorine used in many US cities to disinfect water from harmful microbes. Free chlorine also gases out after about 20 minutes anyway, so if your water's in a pitcher, it's probably fine.
But at least half of the largest US cities use instead a more stable chlorine compound called chloramine. New York, Chicago, Seattle, and Phoenix use chlorine. But Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Boston, and most big cities in Texas don’t.
Chloramine is a more stable and enduring chemical that’s harder to filter and test. That's also what's in my Portland, Oregon, water supply. And so I gauged the performance of each water filter on total chlorine removal, which has more disparate results on filtration.
Curious whether your city uses chlorine or chloramine as a disinfectant in your pipes? Check here for an accounting of the 50 biggest municipal water systems in the United States.
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