The comments section on my video review for Aarke’s large water purifier showed me that a lot of people are concerned about microplastics*.
When I bought my large Aarke water filter, I assumed it was plastic-free, apart from the handle and lid. Then a commenter pointed out that the filter granules contain ion-exchange resin beads, which are a form of plastic. I felt silly that I’d paid zero attention to the granules so thank you, @bookwormbandit4495.
Aarke sells two types of filter granules and both contain ion-exchange resin. Another filter company, Phox, sells three kinds:
- Clean: “for moderately hard water”
- Softener: “for severely hard water”
- Alkaline: “with added magnesium”
The alkaline pack contains coconut shell activated carbon, magnesium and calcium. It’s entirely plastic-free. I contacted Phox to verify this and Lily, their AI bot, replied:
“The Alkaline Refill Pack does not contain ion exchange beads. Instead, it contains activated coconut shell carbon and minerals that help maintain calcium content and increase magnesium levels in your water, but it does not soften water by ion exchange.
Ion exchange beads are only present in our Clean Pack and Softener Pack, which are designed to soften water and reduce hardness and limescale.”
The alkaline pack won’t work for us. We need the softener pack for our severely hard Norfolk water. But it might work for you, so over the last few months I’ve trialled Aarke + Phox and made some fun discoveries.
Planned experiments (in no way thorough or scientific)
Note any difference in taste between filtered water and tap water. Use filtered water in a freshly descaled kettle and monitor limescale build up.
1. Aarke Pure granules in an Aarke water filter
Tested for 5 weeks (although Aarke recommends changing the granules every 4 weeks).
Result: The water tastes sharp and clean in comparison to tap water. Limescale built up slowly in my kettle.
2. Phox alkaline granules in an Aarke water filter
One Phox pack should last for 45 days but I abandoned this experiment after 2 weeks.
Aarke’s cartridge isn’t designed to take Phox granules. Firstly, you don’t get enough granules so they sit about 1cm short. Aarke's granules fill the cartridge without a millimetre to spare (update: they used to. Recent packs have looked a bit short).
Secondly, Phox granules come with a carbon disc. The purpose is to limit the flow of water so it’s not filtered too quickly. The disc doesn’t fit neatly into Aarke’s filter cartridge as a) there’s no dedicated compartment for it, and b) the cartridge has a recessed mesh inlet that won’t allow the disc to sit flat (see video review). I dropped the disc in then poured the granules over it. With hindsight, this was dumb and water filtered through the cartridge quickly.
After two weeks it was clear that the granules didn’t change the water in any meaningful way. The water tasted exactly the same as tap water and my kettle furred up after a few days.
Result: Failure (user error).
3. Repeat experiment 2 but fill the cartridge properly
I bought more Phox granules as they provide two sachets in a pack and I’d already used one. This time, I filled the cartridge with enough granules to cover the mesh inlet. This created a flat surface for the carbon disc to sit on. Then I filled the cartridge to the brim with Phox granules, using just over one pack.
This time, 1 litre of water took 10 minutes to filter. This is longer than Phox states (4-6 minutes) and an improvement on experiment 2.
Result: Col and I could taste a slight difference between filtered and tap water, but it was subtle. The kettle had some limescale build up after a few days, and lots after two weeks.
Conclusion
Phox alkaline granules aren’t designed to remove limescale so they don’t work for us. We filter water mostly to save wear on our kettle and espresso machine.
But, depending on where you live, this could be a viable, plastic-free solution for you. A commenter on my Aarke video review gets on swimmingly with activated carbon:
“Water tastes just like from brita.”
We’ve reverted to filtering water with Aarke's Pure granules for our appliances. Our small purifier now contains Aarke's enriched granules. The small purifier was purchased for this experiment because I was explicitly told that the espresso machine must only be filled with filtered water. I grumbled about this, but with hindsight, it was the right call.
I’ll review the small Aarke filter and enriched granules soon.
* I know very little about microplastics and that’s intentional. I can be prone to health anxiety so I’m mindful about the topics I dive into. I’ve made the following changes and called it a day:
- Plastic chopping boards replaced with wooden (not bamboo).
- Plastic tupperware mostly replaced with glass. No heating food in plastic.
- Vitamix E310 container swapped for stainless steel (massive indulgence but I love it). I still use the plastic jug occasionally.
