Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

As a consulting engineer, and very interested in getting a high quality water pitcher, I was captivated by their excellent videos and data. Looking on their website, I did find a lot of impressive details. Spent a lot of time, and decide to order, but only from Amazon, since they will take underperforming products back. Manufacturers often don't. My initial impression was very good, as I opened the package. Very well done! But, then reality started to set in as I looked at the skimpy instructions. But, what the heck, you only use them once, so on we go. I noticed the "wrench," mentioned on other reviews was missing. Since their instructions did not mention how to use the wrench, people were confused, so they just quit including it. I flushed the filter for about 10 minutes (twice as long as the instructions require) and assembled the unit. I was very surprised at how light the filter was. It weighed only about 1/4 as much as my Zero Water filter. Here is what I found, using my TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) meter, that came with my Zero Water Pitcher. I had checked the TDS meter on distilled water (0.00), RO water (12.1), Tap water (170), and Zero Water (0.00), and I'm impressed at how well it works. So, it seemed fair to use it to check the new Clearly Filtered Clean Water Filter Pitcher. Here are the very disappointing results: 0.00 TDS Water put into new pitcher 58 TDS came out (tested 16 oz of water) So, it was adding "something" to the water. 0.00 TDS Water put into new pitcher 96 TDS came out. (tested 16 oz more water) Same result, just more of the "something." 0.00 TDS in, 1 Gallon put in 32 TDS came out More "something" still added. 0.00 TDS in, another Gallon input 19 TDS Out Same bad result. 0.00 TDS in, 3 gallons put in 14 TDS Out Same bad result. Ran about 10 gallons of tap water thru filter, no measurements made, then measured two pitchers of water. 171 TDS tap water in 161 TDS Out Looks slightly better. 173 TDS tap water in 171 TDS Out Wow! It is doing virtually nothing! Then I ran 3 gals of 0.00 TDS water thru pitcher, then measured again: 0.00 TDS in 29 TDS Out - THIS IS REDICULOUS! It is still adding unknown "stuff" back into clean water. How disgusting! What a disappointment! I just returned the pitcher. Thank you Amazon for being such a good and understanding company. Just went back and looked on their web site, and reviewed what impressed me so much originally. They present a lot of data, from unidentified independent testing sources. The also cite the "County of Los Angeles" test data. Look great, but that test data it is dated April 7, 2006. That's over 9 years ago. If they were doing ongoing quality testing, they should have something much more recent. My conclusion: they probably started with a very good pitcher, and it did well 9 years ago. But, as products become popular, they had to increase their volume of units manufactured, and also lower manufacturing costs at the same time. Often, this is were problems develop. To maintain a quality product, an ongoing quality program must be implemented to verify specifications are being met, in EVERY SHIPMENT of components from their sources. Bottom line: the product is adding stuff back into the water. Does it really filter like they claim? Highly unlikely but who knows without expensive testing. Maybe the stuff they add back into the water helps the flavor, but that is not the function of a filter. A lot of 5 star ratings, which is good for the company. I think they are judging only by the taste. I do give them credit for using BPA-free plastic. I wish I could give it 0 stars. Note: If the Zero Water filter used BPA-free plastic, I would be very satisfied. Otherwise it is an excellent pitcher.