PureIt Excella (Advanced) 9L: Review
Clean drinking water is important and a huge part why life expectancy is much longer today. If you live in an area where tap water isn't safe to drink (or you just don't like the taste) and you feel buying water outside is an hassle. Then a water purification system might be the thing for you
Tap water is not safe to consume in my area, doctors doesn't even recommend use the water when you toothbrush. Meaning we need to buy drinking water and up until now, we've been buying 5 gallon water bottles (about 20 liter), from our local water stations. As this can be a bit of an hassle at times, as you might forget going there before they close or are worried about the cleanliness of the water station
That's where water filters come in. I've used a system before, that you connect to the tap. With mixed results. When it worked, it was awesome and when it didn't, it could be a bit of a nightmare. Especially as companies don't seem to care about writing and providing good manuals anymore (more on that in a bit)
Now lets take a look at PureIt Excella 9L (called PureIt Advanced 9L in India), which is Unilever's water filter solution and is a standalone system, with no need to connect it to a tap or use electricity
Assembly
Assembly is pretty straight forward and the manual will tell you with pictures on how to put it together. Before assembly, you need to clean some parts. The instructions make that seem like a fairly easy and quick process
How does it work?
You start by pouring water in the top chamber, which will go through a filter. This filter is mainly just to take any debris that might be in the water
Then the the water will go down into the Germkill Process (chlorine cleaning). After it will go through the advanced micro fiber mesh, which will remove visible dirty and metallic impurities
Then the water will continue through a Carbon Polished, which removes harmful parasites, pesticides and chlorine from the water. "Which gives a clear, odorless and natural tasting water" says PureIt in their promotional video, we'll come back to this in a bit
When that's done. The water will go through a second purification, in the Microcharged Membrane and now it's ready to be served
First impression
After following the instruction for setup and first time cleaning, both included manual and official PureIt videos on YouTube. Hooking it up for the first time, I didn't manage to drink the water. Water looked clean, but tasted and smelled like a swimming pool (chlorine in other words). After reading online from other users, I wasn't alone with that experience. Bright side is that the users said it should go away after a few days and the same said a friend also using the PureIt
To try to speed up the process, I run water through it a few times and straight threw the water coming out, it didn't get much better. My kids disliked the water taste so much, that they went outside and bought water, straight up refusing to drink it. One or two weeks without being able to drink the water, each time you change the filter didn't feel like a good solution
In my attempt to find a better solution or if the unit was defect, I reached out to PureIt
Better solution
After speaking to PureIt, they they provided me with a better solution and this goes for every time you've a new filter (first time and replacement)
1) Soak carbon polisher and micro charged membrane for 24hr
2) Carbon polisher: Pump it 20 times with bellow pump, while covering the other side of the carbon polisher
3) Micro charged membrane: Insert it with the holder, then pump with the bellow pump 20 times
4) Flush the system 3-5 times
After doing this, water tested good and as initially expected it to taste
I don't know why this isn't in their manual, as I find this very important and ensures you'll have a great experience from the first drop you drink
Replace Germ Kill Kit
At one point you'll need to replace your PureIt Excella Germ Kill Kit. There used to be two refill sizes on the Philippines market, an 1500 liter and 3000 liter. These days you'll mostly just find the 3000L variant. PureIt Excella 9L (Advanced) will come with 1500 liter in the box, but supports both the 1500 liter kit and the 3000 liter kit
I've now used the PureIt Excella for about 4 months, with the 1500L kit included and there's still no indication of red mark on the Germkill Life Indicator. As I have a big household, we probably empty it about 2 times a day. Making that about 18 liters a day, which matches or old consumption of a 5 gallon (~20 liter) water bottle in 1-2 days
I do also notice, now that we don't need to worry about going outside to buy water (or get it delivered), I use a lot more filtered water in cooking
Refill water
You'll need to keep refilling it, which you need to make a habit of doing or you'll quickly end up having to wait on it filtering the water. Which doesn't take to long, after the initial flush cycles (first time can be very slow)
Is it really cheaper, than buying water outside? That will fully depend on what water you buy and what you pay for it. For my sake, it would be cheaper for me to buy water outside. We have a water station in my village, where I get eight 5 gallons (20 liter) free each month and we used to be able to buy additional water at heavily discounted price. They've discontinued the option to purchase water, now you only get the free water and have to buy elsewhere if that's consumed.
Conclusion
When you add in convenience of always having water readily available 24/7 at home and that it taste good. I don't regret investing in one, but if it right for you, depends one how you get your water today today and the number of people using it
If you're only one person, that doesn't consume much water. Then it might not be a good option. Have friends who live alone, who says they don't manage to consume the water fast enough and it stays to long in the device, so they stopped using it
If you're small to large family, this would be a good investment. At least when considering convenience and water quality
PureIt Excella 9L is a good option, if you live in an area it's not safe to drink tap water or don't like the taste of it. It's much more convenient, than having to go out for water or waiting for it to be delivered
Pros
- Water readily available 24/7
- No need for electricity or connection to tap
- Taste good
- Refills fast
- Device looks nice
- Hygienic (No need for other people to handle your water / water bottles)
Cons
- Water teste bad if cleaning is not done correctly (following manual = incorrectly)
- Needs to be frequently manually refilled
- Need to be cleaned once in a while
- Might not save you money
Tags: #PureIt #PureItExcella #PureItAdvanced #WaterPurification
