Waters Co Water Filter Jugs compared
In the water filter jug category in our store, Waters Co Australia were the first brand and they are our premium option in store. They were the first water filter jug in Australia to successfully remove up to 99.99% of fluoride from your drinking water without the need for reverse osmosis and expensive equipment and a lot of time. Since then, others have come on to the market but they have a lower removal rate and Waters Co still comes out on top with the level of filtration in their filter systems.
At a glance, the two jugs you see above appear to be identical. They are not. The White Jug is the original AceBio Jug that has a mutli-piece filtration system and the jug comes with enough filter cartridge pieces to last you up to 2 years of filtration. Over the 2 years, it's cheaper to run than a Brita jug and produces far less plastic waste because is uses few cartridges to do it. The Black Jug is the new MyWaterJug (new to the range in 2020) with a 1 piece filtration system that is replaced every 3 months. Below, we'll give you a side by side comparison of the features of each of the jugs along with a comparison to the mini Waterman Pot.
HOW DO THE FILTERS DIFFER BETWEEN JUGS?
For the purpose of discussing the filtration capabilities of these three products, the AceBio uses one filtering system, and the MyWaterJug and Waterman Pot share a slightly different filtering system.
MyWaterJug / Waterman Filter Cartridges
It's a multi-layer activation method filter cartridge in one single cartridge unit with 7 stages of filtration.
- BIOBall
- Membrane filter
- Activated silver carbon
- Carbon resin
- Coral and silica sands
- Magnets & far infrared
- Nano activated carbon.
It's one piece, single use and has a 3 months filter life.
AceBIO
This filter system comes in 3 pieces with 10 stages of filtration in total. There's enough filter pieces in your kit to last you for up to 24 months of filtration. The AceBIO filters out everything the MyWaterJug does with the addition of a pre-filter membrane to catch any visible grit etc (you get a big stack of these as they get changed every couple of weeks) and an upper first stage filter (you get 4 of these, they get changed every 6 months) and the main filter cartridge that lasts for the 24 month duration / up to 4,800 litres.
VOLUME
While the physical exterior of the two larger jugs are identical at just under 2 litres, the capacity to filter water in each of these jugs is determined by how much water the jug holds in the lower section. These jugs need all the water to be filtered through the top section and in to the jug before you tip it up to fill your glass or water bottle.
- MyWaterJug has a 1.5 litre capacity
- AceBIO has a 1 litre capacity
- Waterman has a 600ml capacity
The size of the filter cartridges in the AceBIO are larger, both because of the extra stages of filtration and because there's enough material in the main filter to be used for up to 24 months (their benchtops have larger sized cartridges again and last for longer than 2 years). The MyWaterJug is a quicker set up and the filter cartridges use less space in the jug. The Watermans funnel is removable and is perfect for travel.
WHAT DO THEY FILTER OUT?
As well as filtering out up to 99.9% of fluoride, the jugs also remove up to 99.9% of chlorine, heavy metals, nitrate, odours, sediment, bacterial, cysts and viruses. Waters Co publicly display the independent lab test results for their products on their official website. We reviewed these results before we stocked the brand many years ago now. The products are made in Korea and the tests are performed by Korea Environment & Water Works Institute. The test for fluoride for the AceoBIO jug as displayed on their website actually detected no trace of fluoride in the water.
DO THEY CREATE ALKALINE WATER?
A part of the filtration process is to remineralise the water. As a by-product, the water becomes more alkaline than it was before. Depending on the original quality of your water, you'll end up with an average results of 7.4 to 8.5 pH level.
A few years ago now, there was a health theory going around that drinking alkaline water could somehow change the alkalinity of your body and your blood. There is no evidence to support this and the theory has been debunked. The acidity level in the stomach will cancel out the alkalinity in the water as soon as it enters the stomach. There is great benefit in having trace minerals in your drinking water, especially if they are lacking in your diet, so for this reason, we are a fan of re-mineralised water that just happens to have a slightly higher pH level than it did before it went through the filter.
DOES THE FILTER CHANGE THE TASTE OF THE WATER?
Yes. Water you drink from any Waters Co Filter will be some of the cleanest tasting water you've ever had. The water is remineralised as a part of the filter process, so it's not a 'nothing' taste like distilled water, it's more like the taste of a quality spring water.
IS THE WATERMAN ALSO A WATER BOTTLE?
Yes it is. This is a photograph of the older style blue bottle. Today's design is identical and just comes in black now. The blue funnel on the right hand side in this photograph gets placed on top of the water filter bottle after the very top section of the lid is removed. This allows for a full 600ml filtration in the bottle because the funnel does not live inside the filter, it's removable.
It's the perfect companion for travelling or to take to work. If you want to drink from it, place the lid back on so it's leakproof for transport. The water you're drinking has already been filtered. Most water filter bottles on the market have you suck the water through the filter as you drink. I have always joked that it's like trying to suck a golf ball through a hose! The water flow is terrible. The Waterman eliminates this issue and it has a far more extensive filtration system than most water filter bottles on the market. We have road tested many in our time and come up extremely disappointed which is why we don't stock any besides this one.
DO ALL THE WATERS CO JUGS REMOVE FLUORIDE?
Yes they do. All three products mentioned in this post remove fluoride as well as their benchtop filters. It is not our place to advocate one way or the other for fluoride removal in drinking water. We trust that our customers will read quality information and make up their own minds.
We do have a water jug in another brand in store that leaves the fluoride in the drinking water if that's what you prefer. Check out the Enviro Products Alkaline Water Filter Jug at a 3.5L capacity >
