Boroux vs. Rorra vs. Culligan: Water Filters, Tested Head to Head

I will admit that the popularity of those giant, stainless steel, gravity-fed water filters remained a mystery to me for some years—even as multi-gallon water filtration systems from brands like British Berkefeld and Berkey seemed to proliferate equally among lovers of doomsday prepping and holistic wellness retreats. I have been testing different breeds of water filters for more than a year, including reverse-osmosis filters and filtered water pitchers. But often, the big water filter tanks have seemed as much like status symbols as functional items. They're good-looking in an industrial stainless steel sort of way: an expression of a lifestyle and a stately point of pride. If you see a big gravity-fed filter, you know the person in question is serious about wellness, survival, or both. What changed my mind about these big stainless steel filters was microplastics. Most water filter pitchers are made of BPA-free plastic. But as new research shows that bottled-water drinkers ingest tens of thousands of excess microplastic particles, wellness lovers have begun to look askance at water filters that are themselves made of plastic. A newer generation of gravity filters has leaned into this, removing all—or nearly all—points of contact with plastic. And so since…