The Best Shower Filter Of 2012

I’ve been reviewing shower filters on MetaEfficient for about six years. It appears that there are no other independent reviewers of shower filters. The only review sites I’ve seen are those like WaterFilterComparisons.Com which are run by an Aquasana filter supplier (as mentioned on their About Us page).

In A Nutshell

If you can afford it, my recommendation is to get a whole house water filter from a quality manufacturer like Puriteam (as recommended by Colin Ingram the The Drinking Water Book). Whole house filters typically cost $600-$1000 plus installation fees. If you are not ready to make that sort of investment, the next best option is to install a shower filter.

If you want to remove both chloramines and chlorine from your water, get a  VitaMax Vitamin C In-Line Filter. If you want to remove free chlorine and other impurities from your water, get a Sprite HOB-CM Brass Shower Filter. You can only use both filters in tandem on one shower head (I do this myself).

Why Filter Your Shower?

Because your skin absorbs things while showering. Typically, 60% of the chlorine that most people absorb daily comes from showering in chlorinated water. Chlorine damages your hair and skin  – you can read about the hazards of showering in chlorinated water here. Shower water also contains things like heavy metals and VOCs (volitive organic compounds). Ideally, all these things should all be filtered out. Unfortunately, filtering water at the shower head is problematic, because the water is typically hot and under high pressure, making filtration difficult.

Here are the details on my recommended shower filters:

Sonaki VitaMax Vitamin C In-Line Filter

Vitamin C shower filters are the most effective shower filters because they remove 99% of free chlorine and 99% of chloramines from shower water. Chloramine or NH₂Cl  (a combination of chlorine and ammonia) is now commonly being used in place of chlorine for disinfection, but chloramines are not easily removed from water. Carbon filters are virtually useless in showers, because they do not work when the water is warm, and they also get clogged fairly quickly. KDF filters also don’t perform well in hot water, and they don’t remove chloramines. However, Vitamin C filters can remove 99% of the chloramines from water. To back this up, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission now states on their website that only Vitamin C can be used to remove chlormaines from municipal water. Here is the quote from the Commission:

Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) has recently been included in AWWA Standard (AWWA, 2005b) as one of the methods for dechlorination of disinfected water mains. SFPUC and other utilities have used Vitamin C for dechlorination prior to environmental discharges of chlorinated and chloraminated water. Since ascorbic acid is weakly acidic, the pH of water may decrease slightly (Tikkanen et al., 2001). Ascorbic acid has been used for a long time as one of the dechlorinating agents for preservation of chlorinated or chloraminated water samples for laboratory analysis.

The full document can be found here.

Vitamin C filters are simple in design — they contain a solid block of Vitamin C (ascorbic acid), and water runs through the filter and comes into contact with the Vitamin C. The Vitamin C neutralizes about 99% of the chlorine and chloramines in the water, and their effectiveness does not diminish until the Vitamin C is completely used up.

You can buy the Sonaki VitaMax Vitamin C In-Line Filter at Amazon or Sonaki for around $50. You can also find a handheld version of the shower filter, which comes with a low-flow shower head, and two replacement Vitamin C cartridges.

The filters last about two months before they need replacing, depending on how many showers you take. The filter is transparent, so you can see when the Vitamin C has run out. Refills are priced at $50 for 5 filters. You can buy them at Amazon or directly from Sonaki.

Sprite HOB-CM Brass Shower Filter

If you are just interested in removing free chlorine and sediment from your water, my recommendation is to use a  Sprite HOB-CM Brass Shower Filter. This filter is NSF Certified to standard #177 for shower filtration. It removes most free chlorine and some combined chlorine, sediment, hydrogen sulfide, iron oxide. Besides the fact that it does not remove chloramines, this is a quality filter, and it is constructed with brass instead of the usual plastic.

The filter comes with a one year warranty, it is rated to filter 20,000 gallons or last 12 months, which ever comes first. It should be flipped half-way through the year. If the O-ring on the filter breaks, Sprite will replace it for free.

Buy the Sprite HOB-CM Brass Shower Filter on Amazon for around $51.

See also my review of low-flow shower heads – these shower heads can be used in conjunction with these filters.