Brita Pitcher Customer Support

Brita Advanced Filter Cartridge
Brita Advanced Filter Cartridge

When I discovered a performance problem with the Brita® Advanced Filters I documented my experience and contacted Brita Pitcher customer support (here). I gave my observations and pointed out that I was filtering distilled water, not tap water. After fully explaining the problem I asked what they planned to do about it.

Brita Pitcher Contact Form

Here is the inquiry I sent through their online support form:

I have been using my first box of the Advanced Filters in my pitcher and they seem to have worse performance than the original style of filter. A new advanced filter works great, filtering one quart of water in about 2 minutes. Over a period of about 3 weeks that filtering time rises to about 20 minutes per quart. By the end of 4 weeks the filtering time is over an hour. I have not been measuring the quantity exactly, but it is roughly 30 gallons.

 

I am fairly certain of that estimate because I am filtering water from my distiller. The distiller takes a gallon of tap water in and produces less than a gallon out. I use the Brita as a final filter stage to improve flavor. I always filter cool water only. The distilled water goes into glass storage containers overnight.

30 gallons is only 75% of the 40 gallons claimed for each filter. Also, the old style filters did not take longer to process a quart of water at the end of life. I think there is a design problem with these new filters. Can you tell me when it will be fixed?

Brita Pitcher Customer Support Response

Here is the response I got.

Hello Ray,

 

Thank you for contacting us at Brita. We appreciate you taking the time to write to us.

We’re sorry to hear about your experience and thank you for bringing this to our attention. We can assure you that we take all feedback very seriously and I will be sharing your comments with the rest of the team. We would also like to inform you, there was no change in the Cartridge itself, just the design! The filter should last as long as the older style filters did. So we may further assist you, please provide us with the following information:

  • How many filters came in the box?
  • When were the filters purchased?
  • Price of product
  • Name of store where purchased

We look forward to your reply.

Again, thank you for reaching out to us.

Sincerely,
Consumer Services

Analysis

When I supplied the information they requested I received another email stating that they would be sending a refund for the Brita Pitcher filter cartridge purchase. I accepted and cashed the check. What I found most interesting about this response was the comment that nothing changed in the cartridge itself except the design.

Hmm, so nothing changed except possibly everything, since the word design covers material specifications, manufacturing processes and engineering requirements. I also think that comment is negated by statements on the filter carton itself. The new and improved filter claims to have no black flecks and clearly indicates a new mesh screen on top that prevents black flecks.

Distiller Good Brita Alternative

One way to end frustration with slow Brita Pitcher filters is to switch from filtering to distilling. A good water distiller produces pure water with virtually no contaminants. Bacteria cannot survive the distillation process and an activated carbon filter removes most chemicals that evaporate with the water.

Many brands and models are available. I have owned a Waterwise 9000 distiller for over twenty years. I bought a replacement unit a few years back when the old one finally reached the end of its life. I think it has been an outstanding health investment and I highly recommend it.

“Brita” is a registered trademark of Brita LP.

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Ray N. Franklin

Owner, SF Writer at Big Leaf, LLC
Ray N. Franklin lives in Fort Collins, Colorado. He has been a software engineer, granola entrepreneur, and internet marketer. Now he edits palindrome anthologies at Palindromedary.us and writes science fiction. Find him on the Mastodon federation @rnf@mindly.social.

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