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A retailer claims that Bobble water bottles:

Filter your own bottled water with this unique and patented set of two Bobble Water Bottles. An active carbon filter eliminates toxins and harmful chemicals such as chlorine and other organic contaminants from the water as you sip. The filter itself lasts for about two months, or at least 300 fills

[...]

removes chlorine and other organic contaminants from your drinking water.

[...]

uses active carbon filter technology to remove unwanted contaminants from your drinking water so it meets the standards of NSF International Standard 42, the standard that governs the quality of public and private drinking water. How it works is simple, really: as you sip, the water passes over the carbon filter where the negative ions of the contaminants are drawn to, and captured by, carbon granules. The result? Filtered water free of chlorine and other common organic contaminants--with no resulting plastic water bottle waste.

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    In current form this question sounds too much like a commercial spam.
    – vartec
    Jul 31, 2011 at 8:47
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    @vartec, that was my first impression too. The user's other questions (across the SEN and elsewhere) convinced me this wasn't a deliberate spam attempt; just someone asking about a product.
    – Oddthinking
    Jul 31, 2011 at 13:54
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    btw. I know that in US "bottled water" means filtered tap water, but for the rest of the world "bottled water" is usually mineral and spring water. Hence total fiasco of Dasani in Europe.
    – vartec
    Jul 31, 2011 at 15:02
  • This works perfect for me!! I have a private well with a reverse osmosis water system yet the water still has a strange metallic taste to it(due to large amount of iron most likely). The Bobble makes my water taste like perfect bottled water. Very much worth the $10 or whatever it is.
    – user5536
    Dec 20, 2011 at 20:59
  • I purchased 2 Bobbles from BestBuy and upon testing the filtered water with a ppm tester the water had no change in quality. Matter of fact the ppm actaully gained 5 points making the water quality worse. In our humble opinion this product is worthless. We now have a Zerowater filter which took 693 ppm water down to 0 ppm. Amazing but the filter needs replacing often and they a expensive.
    – user10821
    Dec 23, 2012 at 20:48

1 Answer 1

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From description sounds like standard activated carbon filter. No mystery there. There are thousands of these on the market.

BTW. the standard they are referring to is:

NSF/ANSI Standard 42: Drinking Water Treatment Units - Aesthetic Effects Overview: This standard covers point-of-use (POU) and point-of-entry (POE) systems designed to reduce specific aesthetic or non-health-related contaminants (chlorine, taste and odor, and particulates) that may be present in public or private drinking water.

In other words, it doesn't serve for actually filtering water, that is not potable in first place.

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    I considered a very similar answer, posting the very same link. However, I decided that it didn't prove that activated carbon filtering could work in the context of a water bottle. The ones described here seemed far more elaborate and I wonder if there is any scientific evidence that a tiny filter, with the water rushed through it, has any effect.
    – Oddthinking
    Jul 31, 2011 at 14:01
  • @odd I'd have to agree; the water filters for tap water I'm used too have much bigger filters, the filters need to be replaced every 3 months (IIRC) and the flow is not nearly fast enough to drink from Jul 31, 2011 at 14:44
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    @Odd: added reference to the standard, which makes it clear it's not water purification system.
    – vartec
    Jul 31, 2011 at 14:57
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    I just wrote to their PR department, asking if they have been independently certified.
    – Oddthinking
    Jul 31, 2011 at 15:23
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    I got a non-responsive reply, pointing me to the FAQ. I have to assume that means no independent certification.
    – Oddthinking
    Aug 4, 2011 at 4:38

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