I dunno about brita specifically, but my walmart water filter has served me well throughout the years.

Back when I moved in to a friend's house and started drinking his tap water, I would get sick all the time. I knew it was the water, I could feel it. Every time I drank it, it tasted weird, metallic, and I could tell I was poisoning myself.

Ever since I started filtering it, I stopped getting sick. Haven't looked back and have been drinking walmart-filtered tap water ever since.

Haven't been sick in years, either.

If you have decent quality tap water you aren't going to see any health benefits from filtering. You're right to be skeptical. If you think the taste is better after filtering, then that is a good enough reason to filter. Personally, I shifted over to unfiltered tap water decades ago and am fine with it.

Activated carbon does absorb lead because it has a variety of binding sites that will bind to lead ions. The problem is, those binding sites are limited and will get quickly used up if you're having to actually deal with any significant amount of lead and if you have other metal ions (like copper) trying to compete for binding sites the whole profile looks worse. This means if you've got hard water with a ton of competing ions, the filter will likely do dick for lead. So the Brita filters do do something, but if there's an actual utility to what they do in regards to heavy metals depends on the water.

Filters like britta make your coffee or tea taste nicer and you barely have to decalcify your machine or kettle.

But healthier? Never seen any study that proves it (it would be nearly impossible to really make any claim stick, because tap water varies quite a lot across regions and countries)

Project farm did a cool unbiased comparison of the different water filters. Tldw: zero water wins.

https://youtu.be/ja0ioX6GSz0

Pour Mountain Dew through a fresh Brita filter and watch what happens.

I've read that Brita elite filters do capture some PFAs. However, it is well known that Brita filters and the like aren't as efficient and effective as more dedicated solutions.

That is to say, no, they're not bullshit -- they're better than nothing, but they're just a marginal improvement. From my limited research so far I think it's correct to say that you're paying Brita more for a convenient system than for efficient and high quality filtration.

I can't say anything definitively about any health claims, but as someone who lives (and occasionally struggles) with very hard water, activated carbon filters absolutely do make a difference in regards to calcification at and around every tap/faucet.

I should probably set a timer or alarm of some sort, but it's easy to visually see when it's time to replace my filters.

They are irrelevant, except for a few compounds that affect taste, if your local water treatment plant is doing its job properly. I've had the misfortune of renting in an area that did a half-ass job with water treatment, so I used those attachments as a precaution. The water did taste better, but hard water deposits were still about as bad as without it. Didn't run any tests beyond that though.

The issue really comes in with the lifespan of the filters. If you're intent on staying hydrated, you'll burn through cartridges (and $$$) like nobody's business and it's tempting to put off changing out filters for weeks at a time. And after several months, the attachment itself will leak quite profusely from the filter/passthrough toggle.

If you actually do need to treat your water, such as in the case of well water, and have access to your plumbing, it's much more economical to install an inline or whole-home filtration system.

They work for getting rid of that 'hard' water taste.

It might reduce lead and PFAS in some small way (leaving them trapped in the filter and slowly leeching into every glass you pour until you replace it), but it's not really doing much for that. It's not going to fix Flint Michigan's water.

If you're in a place with bad drinking water, first you should use one of those water purification tablets, then put the water through a Brita filter to get rid of the tablet's taste.

I have a Britta jug in my fridge that hasn't had a filter in it for years. It keeps my unfiltered tap water cold. I love it.

I just use those filters to get rid of the hardness in the water due to drinking tea.

Brita filters are just carbon filters. They make water taste less like the minerals in your water. There are some filter pitchers that filter out more things, such as lead,

I feel most people prob use the filter longer than they should and cause more risk that any benefit they will gain.

I don’t know anything for sure, but always thought it was more likely to filter out contaminants in your pipes?

There's a lot of pipeline between the filter at the plant and your home which is where something like lead contamination would happen. However from wiki,

When filtering water, charcoal carbon filters are most effective at removing chlorine, particles such as sediment, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), taste and odor. They are not effective at removing minerals, salts, and dissolved inorganic substances.

And The EPA, make it sound like Carbon filtering is not an effective solution to PFAS contamination at an industrial scale. So I doubt your Brita pitcher is going to do better.

Where I live the water is very hard, poor quality (but inside of the allowed limits), and also the pipes in my flat’s building are fucking old, so yes, I only drink from bottled or filtered water.

It might not pose a real risk, but I prefer err on the safe side. Additionally the Brita filter removes the nasty taste that the tap water has here and the kettle doesn’t have lime stains.

They're probably beneficial for people with their own wells

I think you need a zero water filter I think they're supposed to be the best.