Recently we received an unusual question from a reader named Leo G and he asked, “When is the next water testing competition and how can I make an entry?”

We suppose this email comes as a result of our postings about the results of previous water quality testing competitions…

To answer Leo’s question directly, quite honestly we have absolutely NO IDEA how a person, or water department, would go about entering their water into one of those competitions.

As a good place to begin researching that task, though, try visiting the Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting web page. You could also call The Country Inn at Berkeley Springs where the annual event gets held: 304-258-2210 or 866-458-2210.

As far as other water tasting competitions go, we suggest contacting the sponsoring organization directly since they, better than anyone else, will know the ins and outs of registering a water sample for their respective competitions.

PUR FM-3700B Faucet Filter
PUR FM-3700B Faucet Filter
NSF/ANSI Standards 42 and 53

Improving the taste of your water?

Many people in the United States still believe they have to put up with the offensive taste and smell of chlorine in their drinking water. Why? Because somewhere along the lines someone told them that removing/reducing the taste and smell chlorine in their water would cost them a small fortune.

Sorry, but unless they got that knowledge 20 or more years ago, someone lied to them. Many relatively inexpensive options exist for removing/reducing the smell of chlorine in drinking water.

NSF/ANSI certified AND affordable?

Since we know some of you have already thought, “Yeah, but if we want a unit that has certified to an NSF/ANSI Standard for chlorine reduction we WILL have to spend a small fortune, right?”

Nope. Not at all. As a matter of fact, the average person can choose from a number of easy-to-install and highly affordable faucet filters that have certified to NSF/ANSI Standards for the reduction of potential contaminants in drinking water.

As an example, the PUR FM-3700B Faucet Filter has certified to NSF/ANSI Standards 42 and 53 for the reduction of the more than 30 unwanted drinking water contaminants — and the unit costs around $30 most places we checked.

Aside from the unit’s obvious filtering capabilities, we also like the fact that its users can easily replace the PUR Faucet Filter Replacements 3-Stage Filters without having to take out a second mortgage on the house.

A 3-pack of PUR Faucet Replacement Filters (RF-9999) costs around $40 dollars and each filter has an average life expectancy of around 100 gallons depending upon the condition of source water.