Save Money with a Whole-House Filter & Ditch the Bottled Water
For some of us, making smart financial decisions starts at the grocery store. That means creating a food budget, shopping with a grocery list, stockpiling groceries, and comparing food prices. Still, you can make a simple tweak to your shopping routine to help trim down our grocery expenses while improving your health and protecting the environment: switching from bottled water to filtered water.
Shockingly, Americans spend $16 million on bottled water every year when 99.2% of the country has access to clean tap water. Well, considering all the cunning and compelling marketing tactics used to promote bottled water as a healthier and safer choice than tap water, it’s clear why Americans choose to drink bottled water instead.
But the reality is that there’s a lot of money that goes into the production and distribution of bottled water, which, more often than not, trickles down to consumers like yourself. Bottled water can be pricey from the creation of the plastic bottles to packaging and distributing them. Let’s not forget the added costs of sales and marketing, retailer markup, etc.
That’s why today, we’ll be breaking down the real cost of bottled water and show you how you can save big when you switch to filtered water without sacrificing taste, quality, and safety.
Why is bottled water so popular in America today?
Bottled water is an 18.5-billion-dollar-or-more industry in the U.S., surpassing soda as the country’s favorite beverage. Yes, nearly the same water that comes from your tap. But how did we get here? How on earth did something available for free transformed into a billion-dollar industry?
Everything started to change in 1989 when polyethylene terephthalate plastic (PET) was introduced. PET is now the leading type of plastic used for bottled water, but before that, water bottles were manufactured with polyvinyl plastic, a dense and dull material. Almost instantly, PET plastic became the more attractive packaging material because it is lightweight, cheap, and makes the water looks crystal clear and refreshing.
After being criticized for their sugary and fattening drinks, another spike in popularity came when PepsiCo and Coca-Cola introduced their brands of premium, purified water products: Aquafina and Dasani, respectively. The companies already had huge distribution markets, so it was easy for them to sell bottled water to stores and restaurants that were already selling their products. And of course, their massive advertising and marketing budgets helped generate a lot of exposure for their water brands.
In the midst of that, people quickly flocked to bottled water because municipal water was often contaminated and sickening. Since bottled water was filtered to eliminate contaminants, it was said to help avoid diseases like typhoid, cholera, dysentery, and others. U.S. companies shelled out hundreds of millions of dollars to boldly market bottled water as a supposedly crisper, safer, and healthier option than tap water to appeal to the health-conscious consumers. Some companies even had ad campaigns to undermine tap water indirectly. It sounded terrific, plus there wasn’t much competition from tap water since utilities didn’t have marketing budgets.
So, pretty much, the mainstream companies garnered all the attention, and people bought into all the messages they were sending. Some companies even touted bottled water as a kidney remedy while some promised that their product would cure everything from “dyspepsia, liver and kidney complaints” to “seasickness, fever, and ague.”
Besides that, some people believed that bottled water offered greater convenience and portability than tap water. It’s said to be more convenient to pick up a single-serve plastic bottle and carry wherever they go than to pre-fill bottles from the tap when they’re on the go, which was a huge convenience factor that hadn’t existed before.
Thanks to marketing, gradually-cheaper bottling, and distribution costs, convenience, supposed health benefits, and other factors, bottled water has become the most popular and highest-selling beverage in the U.S. today.
The cost of buying bottled water for a year
When grocery shopping, it’s easy to pick up a few bottles or cases of bottled water without thinking too hard about the long-term cost. After all, it’s just water, and water is cheap, right? Not in this case.
Buying bottled water is a trap that most shoppers continue to fall into, especially those trying to cut back on their grocery bills. Spending a few bucks on a bottle of water now and then might not seem like a big deal, but when you make it a regular habit, the costs can quickly add up. Heck, you can end up paying up to 4,000 percent more on bottled water than filtered tap water, even though as much as 64% of bottled water is tap water.
According to Food & Water Watch, “A gallon’s worth of single-serve bottled water costs almost $9.50 — nearly 2,000 times the price of tap water, three times the national average price for a gallon of milk and four times the national average price for a gallon of regular-grade gasoline.”
Health authorities commonly recommend eight 8-ounce glasses of water per day, which equals to about two liters or half a gallon. But let’s assume all members of a household of four adults consume half of this recommended water intake instead. That means each person drinks four 8-ounce glasses or 0.25 gallon of water per day.
With these values in mind, let’s do some math:
- Daily intake for all four people: 25 gallon of water for each person x 4 persons = 1 gallon of bottled water
- Total spent on bottled water per day: $9.50 per gallon x 1 gallon of water for four people = $9.50
- Total spent on bottled water for a year: $9.50 per day x 365 (days in a year) = $3,468
Buying bottled water in bulk would probably cost less, but that’s just a ballpark figure. Now let’s compare that to the cost of using a whole-house water filter.
How much will I save with a whole-house water filtration system?
Filtering your tap water at home is a safe and low-cost way to gain full access to clean, healthy, and great-tasting drinking water without wasting money buying bottled water. A whole-house filtering system offers the same or better-quality water than bottled water, as well as a similar or higher level of convenience.
A decent-quality, good-sized whole-house filter retails for about $800 and requires filter changes every six to nine months or so at the cost of about $40 per pair of filter replacements. Therefore, a family of four will need to replace the filters once or twice per year for $40 or $80 without professional help. Although some whole-house systems come with manuals that allow for easy DIY installation, people who opt to hire a professional plumber or handyman instead will probably have to fork out an extra $300 on average in installation fees.
There’s also the water from the tap, which costs about $0.0015 per gallon in the U.S. From our example above, a family of four consumes about 365 gallons of water per year (one gallon per day for 365 days), which amounts to $0.55. Given that some household members will also need water when they’re on the run, let’s throw in about two 12-dollar reusable water bottles per person ($96 in total). So, assuming the filters are replaced twice per year, the total cost of using a whole-house water filter system per year for a family of four is:
$80 (filter replacement) + $0.55 (water from the tap) + $96 (reusable water bottles) = $176.55
Please note that this price excludes the cost of the filter system as well as the optional installation costs. Since the cost of the system and the installation costs are one-time payments, the listed price represents the total amount you’ll pay the following year after the filter has already been purchased and installed the previous year. So, that means a family of four can potentially save $3,468 – $176.55 = $3,291.45 each year after switching from bottled water to a whole-house filter.
A whole-house filter also helps you cut costs by avoiding frequent doctor visits due to the toxic chemicals contained in the plastic bottles, which often leach into the water inside the container. Apart from monetary savings, however, whole-house filters help to improve your health, reduce your carbon footprint, and protect the environment.
Can’t I drink the regular unfiltered tap water?
The quality of tap water has improved significantly over the years, thanks to the introduction of chlorination and other treatment methods, but drinking it could put your health at risk. Municipal water is usually treated before being distributed to households, but it may pick up contaminants along the way, including lead, copper, bacteria, viruses, and other toxic pollutants. The chlorine may also affect the taste and smell of the water.
In response, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has set standards for drinking water, yet every year, millions of Americans are still exposed to water that does not meet such standards. Often, these violations get correctly, but not before exposing millions of people to unhealthy water and its damaging effects.
Without proper testing, it’s impossible to determine if your tap water is contaminated or not. But thankfully, whole-house systems take the guesswork out of safe drinking water, filtering up to 99.9% of the harmful, unwanted agents before you pour your first glass.
Filter your water with a whole-house filtration system
If you’re looking for a solution that treats all the water entering your home from a municipal water line, a whole-house system is your best option. Whole-house filters can supply large volumes of fresh, contaminant-free water to all sections of your household – not just your kitchen and bathroom – without producing wastewater.
Whole-house systems, including the Springwell CF1 whole-house filtration system, are powerful and robust, and remove all kinds of contaminants from water. The CF1, in particular, is a highly efficient unit that uses the highest quality coconut shell carbon, ActivFlo technology, KDF media, and a host of other materials, technologies, and filters, to target and remove 99.9% of contaminants from water. Impressively, the system requires no electricity to work.
The CF1 removes contaminants, such as chlorine, chloramine, chlorine byproducts, heavy metals, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), PFOA, PFOS, haloacetic acids, pesticides, lead, and many other toxic contaminants and impurities. But if you want to rid your drinking water of bacteria and other microorganisms, our optional UV addon destroys all types of pathogens that cause bad tastes and odors in water.
Like all of our water filtration systems, the CF1 is easy to install and requires very little maintenance. We also offer a six-month money-back guarantee, a lifetime warranty, and free shipping with your purchase.
Contact us today to learn more about the CF1 whole-house filter and our other premium products. We’ll be sure to give you the best advice based on your needs and budget, so you can make “the switch” and improve your finances, health, and the environment.
Final Thoughts
Ditching bottled water and using a whole-house system is a smart financial decision and one you’ll never regret. When compared to filtered water, bottled water is a mere waste of your hard-earned money and a destroyer of your health and the environment. Filtered water, on the other hand, helps keep money in your pockets for longer, so you can spend it on things that don’t cripple your finances, damage your health, and destroy our precious planet. So, make the switch today, and watch your life change for the better, forever.
