Fluoride is an organic mineral that naturally leaches into water sources. In the United States, municipal authorities also add fluoride into tap water to promote teeth health, especially in children and young adults.
Although fluoride levels are rarely above the safety standards (4 mg/L) set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), high levels of fluoride in drinking water have several negative health effects, such as bone fractures, arthritis, and muscle damage. So, it’s no wonder that some American households are looking for effective methods to remove fluoride from their drinking water supply.
So, do brita filters remove fluoride? Unfortunately brita filters do not remove fluoride because they’re made of activated carbon filters. Activated carbon filters cannot filter fluoride in water.
Why Brita Isn’t Able to Remove Fluoride
Brita has six different filter types: bottle filter, stream filter, standard filter, faucet filter, elite filter, and Longlast+ filter. None of these filters can remove fluoride because they all use activated carbon filters.
There are four water filtration methods that can remove fluoride:
- Distillation: In the distillation process, the water is completely evaporated. Once in the vapor state, fluoride molecules can’t stick together. So, when the vapor is returned to a liquid state, fluoride molecules are not there anymore.
- Reverse osmosis: Reverse osmosis (RO) is one of the most effective filtration methods in which the water is pushed through a semipermeable membrane that has 0.0001-micron pores. Fluoride molecules are bigger than these pores, so they can’t make their way into your drinking water cup.
- Anionic exchange: Anion exchange is like the reverse version of the ion exchange process employed in salt-based water softeners. Whereas ion exchange targets positively charged mineral ions (cations), like calcium and magnesium, anion exchange targets negatively charged ions (anions), like fluoride and arsenic. However, it’s a very expensive method that has no household application as of yet.
- Adsorption: In the adsorption process, an adsorptive medium like bone charcoal is used to trap anions through contact. However, this is a complicated and expensive process, and like anion exchange, it has no household application.
None of the Brita filters that are currently on the market utilize any of these filtration methods. Instead, they all have an activated carbon block that can only remove or reduce aesthetic impurities like chlorine, odor, taste, color, and sediment.
Standard, faucet, elite, and Longlast+ filters, on the other hand, also feature a non-woven filter medium that can remove and reduce primary health hazards like lead and mercury. However, this medium is ineffective against minerals like fluoride.
Brita Alternatives That Can Remove Fluoride
So, if Brita can’t remove fluoride, what other options do we have? Clearly filtered pitcher and Aqutru RO system are the two most common brita alternatives that removes fluoride. If you want more options, check our article on fluoride water filters.
Here’s a quick comparison table for the 2 most common brita alternatives:
| Brita Alternatives | Contaminants removed | Filtration Technology | NSF Certifications | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clearly Filtered Water Pitcher | 365+ contaminants including lead, arsenic, and fluoride | Affinity Filtration | NSF Standards 42, 53, 244, 401, and 473 | $90.00 |
| AquaTru Countertop RO System | 82 contaminants including lead, copper, benzene, and fluoride | 4-stage filtration with semipermeable RO membrane, sediment pre-filters, and an activated carbon coconut shell | NSF Standards 42, 53, 58, 401, and P473 | $449.00 |
1. Best Water Pitcher Alternative to Brita: The Clearly Filtered Water Pitcher
- Type: Water Pitcher Filter
- Fluoride Removal Percentage: 99.5%
- Warranty: 1-year Warranty
- Price: $90
The Clearly Filtered Water Pitcher uses a special filtration technology referred to as Affinity Filtration. Affinity filtration technology uses a combination of contaminant magnet and unique structure to remove more than 365 drinking contaminants, including fluoride, from water. Clearly filtered has the highest contaminant removal for a water filter pitcher or any kind of water filtration unit.
Clearly Filtered removes 99.5% of fluoride in water (it reduced 0.6 ppm of fluoride water to 0.00 ppm), and it has all the relevant certifications issued by the National Sanitation Foundation: NSF Standards 42, 53, 244, 401, and 473. These certifications guarantee that the product provides healthy water by removing or reducing all the contaminants listed in its performance data sheet as tested by an independent laboratory.
2. Best Countertop RO System Alternative to Brita: AquaTru Reverse Osmosis Water System
- Process: Reverse Osmosis
- Fluoride Removal Percentage: 99.75%
- Warranty: 1 Year
- Price: $485
The AquaTru Reverse Osmosis Water System is one of the best options for countertop reverse osmosis filtration that also removes fluoride from water.
It also holds all the NSF certifications with NSF/ANSI Standards 42, 53, 58, 401, and P473, meaning that there are aesthetic impurities, health hazards, and emerging pollutants among the 82 contaminants that are listed in its performance data sheet provided by an independent lab.
Another reason we like it is that it has a 4-stage filtration in which two sediment pre-filters and an activated carbon coconut shell supplement the RO membrane in achieving the best possible filtration.
Of course, all that technology comes with a high price, as the AquaTru RO System is easily one of the most expensive alternatives to Brita with its $449 price tag.
Conclusion
Although Brita has 6 different filter types, none of them can remove fluoride from water.
However, there are ample alternatives that can remove fluoride and many other contaminants. The best alternative is the Clearly Filtered Water Pitcher, which can staggeringly remove more than 365+ contaminants. Although it might be a bit expensive for a water pitcher, its efficiency is surely worth the investment.
For those who want to have the purest water and have no budget restrictions, we recommend the AquaTru Countertop RO System.
Although bone char filters are available to combat fluoride, activated carbon may not be able to. Bone char is activated carbon that is created from carefully chosen and cleaned animal bones. The most effective and affordable method of removing fluoride from water is unquestionably this one.