What's the deal with waterfilters? They're either sold like razors, with overpriced cartridges, (Pur) or offered through cheesy networks of multi-level-marketing that look like something from the Davinci Code.

After doing some googling I got interested in aquasana then discovered they were spamming usenet as recently as 1999. That sets my spider sense a-tingling.

I have yet to find an unsponsored site with reviews of filters, but Dr. Weil suggests a combination of charcoal and KDF for most filtering needs. Is there any reliable information out there, or do any of you have positive or negative experiences?

We're looking for something that will fit under our sink and make our highly mineralized well water taste good. Filtering out toxic crud is an added bonus. Thanks in advance!

addendum: This site (the NSF) has some good data, but no price-per-gallon.
posted by mecran01 on Mar 18, 2004 - 10 answers