I got my first Culligan faucet filter (FM 15) about 2 years ago after doing quite a bit of research. I finally chose the Culligan over Britta and Pur after reading Consumer Reports regarding their testing of water filters. The Culligan filtered out more impurities and the filter lasted MUCH longer than the others. Best of all it was cheaper back then, I don't know if it still is.
I've been very pleased with the filter with one exception. At my old apartment I had great water pressure. I guess too great for the filter. After about 9 months of use the plastic casing started to leak. The good news is that Culligan warranties the filter so I just took it back to Sears (where I got that one) and they gave me a new one. Thus, I still give it a five even with the problem since they warranty it. Culligan FM-15A Level 3 Faucet Filter
Okay, tried Brita. That fell apart. Tried PUR. Lasted longer but on wrong tap on it and its a fountain all over the place with leaks from the connection / unfixable. FINALLY...Culligan.
THIS THING IS GREAT. It's small. It doesn't leak. The water tastes CLEAN - LOVE the toggle back to tap water all by itself. I replace the reasonably priced cartridge every 2 months no problem...
Just skip the rest - So small...sure its white but hey - small price to pay for one that FINALLY WORKS...doesn't LEAK....doesn't crack -
terrific. It's a no brainer BUY NOW item! Wooohooo!!!
My town is currently going through upgrades to most of the water mains around my house. This has caused our water to take on a horrible chlorine like smell and sour taste. The water department told us that it is just the residual ......(they never explained what the residual is!!) and that the smell and taste would be gne within a few days. After a full week and living off of bottled water, I decided to give this faucet water filter a try due to its low price.
I got the filter and had it installed in under 30 seconds. For me, that is huge as I am petrified of anything plumbing related. For anyone with modern plumbing this filter just screws on to your existing faucet with no tools necessary. If you have an older faucet, this comes with multiple attachments that are supposed to fit most other connections. I can't comment on that as mine went on without needeing them.
Once it is installed you need to run the water for about 10 minutes or so to completely clean out the filter and then you are ready to go. To activate the filter you need to pull out the metal tab. Once the water is shut off, the tab automatically returns to its closed position so the filter is shut off. The water will automatically run through the normal faucet until you pull the tab agin for filtered water.
After my filter was "cleaned" I filled to glasses with water. One from the unfiltered tap and one from the filter. The unfiltered water had the horrible chlorine smell and sour taste(and waht appeared to be a lot of sediments). The filtered water had zero smell, no sediments and tasted, well...didn't really have a taste at all. Just plain water which is what I expect from my water!
So far, I am very happy with this filter. I will post back once I need to change out the filter (2 months or 200 gallons) to give an update if I have any problems. But for now, the price can't be beat to get great tasting and clean water from my tap. And I am happy I don't have to spend $1 or more per gallon for water at the market which, in my opinion, is no better than most tap water.
Update: February 18, 2009*****
After a full two months of use I can say that my initial impressions have not changed. The water filter has continued to operate as expected and I find myself drinking more water than in the past due to the clean taste.
My only issue is with replacement cartridges. The only place I can find them is here on Amazon. Problem is that the seller has them listed for $9.50 or so plus $7.50 for shipping bringing the total cost to $17.00 (or my original purchase price of the unit itself. The listing only states one filter so the cost to replace a filter is the same as buying an entire unit.
Amazon recently reduced the price of the whole unit to $14 and change. Because of this, I find it cheaper to just buy the entire unit rather than just the filter. I get free shipping from Amazon so I ended up buying two more units. Hopefully the filters will become available through Amazon (as the seller) so we are not hit with shipping charges that are almost as much as the filter itself. Otherwise, I will end up with a ton of leftover parts!
This is a tiny filter that's super-easy to install and use, and doesn't get in the way of using your faucet for washing dishes, etc. I like that its default mode is unfiltered - the filter toggle is held on by water pressure, so when you turn off the tap, the filter turns off too - this means you don't end up using filtered water when you don't need to. However, the taste of the water is really not as nice as the previous Pur filter I used.
I have no complaints about the construction or operation of the filter. It's one of the nicer faucet-mounted filters there are, with a very nice solid feel of quality. However, I did experience what some of the other reviewers mentioned: after a short while the filter didn't appear to have any affect on the taste of the water.
The problem, I discovered, is that if you run the water through the filter too quickly (by opening up the tap all the way) the charcoal filter just can't do its job. As a rule of thumb, only allow enough flow through the filter so that it takes about 15 seconds to fill up a glass of water, and you'll have great tasting water. So, if you have high water pressure, make sure you don't open of the faucet all the way when filling a glass. There's just no way a filter as small as this can do its job properly at the max flow rate of most faucets. You really need a large in-line filter for that.
Note that this only applies to the filter's odor and taste removal properties, because this involves a chemical reaction of sorts where activated charcoal pulls chlorine (and other chemical) out of the water by binding to them. This is a completely different mechanism than what you normally associate with filtering, such as particles being caught in a mesh (which is essentially how the rest of the filter works in these, and so it's really only the odor and taste that is affected by the rate at which you let water through the Culligan).'
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