"I placed an order for a replacement water filter through their website for my filtration system at home which is a two stage (sediment + carbon) setup. Recently my wife and I have been getting concerned with the amount of fluoride that is in our drinking water and decided to buy a bone char carbon filter that is supposed to reduce fluoride. Pure water site is one of the few places that sells bone char filters for my system as of this review, and the filter they sell is advertised as being refillable by buying bulk bone char carbon and emptying out the plastic tube and repacking it.

I placed the order and it shipped quickly, and I even got 20% off without a coupon code during checkout. The filter arrived and I installed it but the water immediately had a weird smell. I let it run for over 10 minutes to flush the filter but the water continued to smell strange, almost like an artificial plastic-like odor. I tried a sip of the water and it tasted bad too, like the filter was imparting a chemical-like taste (think of the taste water has if it sits in a smelly plastic bottle for a long time). I flushed the filter by letting my water run for a very long time, almost 20 minutes through multiple faucets to try and clear the smell and taste but it only got slightly better. The next day, after no one had used any faucets overnight, the water again had the full smell and taste.

I contacted the company via email since it is their preferred method according to their website. I explained the situation, and they responded to me the same day with a poorly written email in all caps essentially saying that they are not aware of a taste with bone char and said I must have iron in my water (I don't because I tested for it) which can cause an "egg smell" which isn't what I said. They also offered to send me a free sediment filter if I order a new regular activated carbon filter instead. I didn't find this to be acceptable, since I bought the bone char filter for a reason, and I already had a new regular carbon filter I could use. I emailed them back asking if they have ever had any complaints about smell or taste with their bone char filters but I got no response. I felt they dismissed my issue of the taste and blamed it on my water, while trying to get me to buy another product from them. I promptly removed their filter and replaced it with the new regular carbon filter I had and miraculously all the bad taste and odor went away.

I then remembered that their filter is reusable so I twisted off the cap, took the foam disk off and saw the bone char carbon packed inside it. I took a whiff of it and sure enough, the carbon reeked of the nasty plastic-like smell so I threw it out. I wouldn't recommend this site for ordering water filters as they clearly have some issues with the quality and the site is unwilling to even look into it and is dismissive. I was not even looking for a refund or anything, but I just wanted an acknowledgement of my issue and maybe for them to look into it. Maybe they could have opened one of their filters in stock and smelled it, for example. "