Customer Reviews

Applica Clear 2O Water Pitcher #CWS100A

5 star:		(50)
4 star:		(31)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Consumer Reports just rated this filtering water pitcher one of the best on the market, so I bought one. I do think they are correct, it fills up quickly and the taste of the water has definitely changed (for the better). I haven't gone searching for filters yet, but I don't think that should be a problem. HOWEVER, you now have to use their built-in tube and quick fill connection to fill this filter, and the hose is very short if you can't use a regular kitchen sink (which we can't as we don't have a removable insert in the faucet). So, before we panicked and sent it back, I went to the hardware store and bought two 'barbs' and a similar size piece of hose, and within a few minutes and a few dollars my problem was no more...I had successfully made the hose longer so that I could use the pitcher in my bathroom sink instead. So, that's your answer; get two 'barbs', which are brass connections which fit into the same size hose on both sides, and you are golden.

I was pleasantly surprised at how sweet the water tasted. I could immediately taste the difference between bottled water and the water from this pitcher. That charcoal filtration system is awesome. The water fills up quickly in the pitcher and the hookup to the faucet is really easy. I'm so glad not be lugging those heavy bottles of water anymore and spending a fortune on them

After checking my local water quality and the substances I was looking to filter, the Clear2O was the only model that cut the mustard. I'd never heard of the product, as it clearly doesn't enjoy the market share of Brita or PUR, but I'm extremely impressed with the product to date after two months of use.

PROS:

- It fills quickly. Snap it onto the spigot, turn on the tap, and water is ready to drink in well under a minute. Given the sizable capacity, this is pretty impressive performance.
- The water tastes great. My first reaction after tasting water from this the first time was a sense of digust...wondering what I'd been drinking all this time any time I slurped something straight from the tap. The water tastes very similar to premium bottled waters, although I'll agree with other reveiwers that it does not taste like Brita/PUR product, which probably lets a higher degree of minerals through the gate.
- Big capacity: I hadn't checked just how much larger it is, but it is incontrovertible that this is bigger than your standard Brita/PUR pitcher. The website boasts 50% larger; I could believe that, as we go quite a bit longer between refills.
- A real filter meter. I was always aggravated by the simple timer that came on Brita filters; how would it know how decayed the filter had been? The Clear2O appears to have some sort of actual meter that tells you when the filter needs replacement due to wear, not simple passage of time. That will save money and guesswork on the life of the filter.

CONS:

- Special equipment needed. We have a kitchen faucet that's got a removable spray head. It took me a little snooping online to find out definitively, so here it is: yes, you need to attach something to a standard faucet in order for this to work. Fortunately, we had a bathroom we don't use, and attached the spigot to that faucet, and we fill the pitcher in the bathroom (a minor inconvenience). That said, the hose attached to the pitcher was too short to work with a sink you can't fit the entire pitcher in, height-wise. If that's your problem, ensure you buy the Clear2o CWX100A Hose Extender.

- This thing is loud! It's bizarre to think of a water pitcher being noisy, but here we are. Hitch the pitcher up to the thing, turn on the water, and there's a noise that can best be described as grinding that emanates from the hose and filter working. Like I said, it's for less than a minute, but it's still noisy.

- Minor leak: as noted by other reviewers, I note small rivulets of water running down the side of the empty pitcher while filling, where the filter assembly meetings the spout. If you hold the pitcher directly upright, the problem is minimized, but...

All in all, I'm extremely satisfied with the product. The filters are cheap, far cheaper than buying water at Costco. It's convenient, and gives you peace of mind that the water you're drinking is indeed clean.

After reading the excellent reviews both here and in Consumer Reports, I decided to buy one even though I wasn't sure it would attach to the faucets in our kitchen sinks. As it turns out, it attaches just fine to both faucets in our two kitchens, even though the faucets are from different manufacturers. The faucets are the kind with a spray head, that can be switched between spray and narrow stream, with a pull-out hose that comes out of the gooseneck over the sink, rather than having a separate hand-held spray hose mounted to one side of the central sink faucet. Both faucets, as it turned out, have a screw-in aerator in the center of the spray head, and it was a simple matter to unscrew that aerator, screw in the attachment that comes with the Clear2O water pitcher, hook the pitcher hose to the adapter, and voila!

The pitcher fills very quickly, it pours well without dribbling, and it looks sleek. The water tasted fine, as good as the bottled water we had been buying. So now I'm going to buy a second pitcher for the second kitchen sink!

BTW, even though this is irrelevant to this product review, Firefly (the retailer) shipped quickly and I would buy from them again.

I contacted seller AND manufacturer because I have an old faucet in my kitchen sink and was concerned about whether the hose attachment (or one of its two additional adapters) would work with my faucet. I had read on the Firefly website that my money would not be refunded unless I returned the pitcher completely as it was sent to me with no packaging opened. I called and queried the manufacturer about how I could know if any of the attachments/adapters would fit my faucet if I couldn't completely unpack the parts to try them on my faucet. I was told that I "would know right away" without opening the packaging. Firefly also told me that if I returned the pitcher and its parts, all of its components/parts would have to be unopened and I would have to pay return postage if I wanted a refund. When the pitcher arrived (within the stated time frame), it turned out that its standard attachment and NEITHER OF ITS ADAPTERS FIT THE FAUCET IN MY KITCHEN. Also the tubing supplied is VERY short which makes it very difficult to fill the pitcher without its falling over in the sink. I now am filling it in my downstairs bathroom which does have a faucet that the main attachment to the hose on the pitcher fits (thankfully!). Typically the pitcher does fall over in the sink when I attach it to the faucet and it starts to fill, but I can then stand it up. I feel that the company should provide a longer hose as standard equipment. I asked about a longer hose when I spoke with the manufacturer but the longer hose (I think it was twice as long) was about 2 1/2 times as much money as the pitcher itself!!! Something like $45!! (The pitcher was around $18+). I thought this was outrageous! I noted that one or two customers who reviewed the pitcher had gone to a hardware store and purchased a longer piece of tubing and even found attachments that fit their faucet at their hardware store if the supplied ones didn't work. In my case, my kitchen sink's faucet was just very slighlty different in size than the closest attachment which was the permanent one attached to the tubing. I went to a local hardware store and two plumbing supply stores but none of these has an adapter that would fit my kitchen faucet (I do not know what brand of faucet it is. It's about 25 years old and I couldn't find a brand name on it). I WAS ALSO TOLD THAT THE TUBING THAT THE HARDWARE STORE AND PLUMBING SUPPLY STORES HAD WAS NOT INTENDED FOR DRINKING WATER!! It is used for pumps, so I didn't want to use it! (It defeats the whole purpose of getting a water filter pitcher in the first place!!!)

Having said all of the above, the water that is filtered by this pitcher is TERRIFIC!!! It is almost sweet. I had used both BRITA and PUR pitchers in the past and neither one completely removed all of the bad taste from my town water supply. Also the Clear 2O filter takes out far more contaminants and impurities than either PUR or BRITA do! So, in the end, I am really quite happy with the pitcher, though it is somewhat hard to fill even though I have a high faucet. It does fill very quickly though which is great. it uses water pressure in the system to force the water through its solid filter. Note that this pitcher is rated a "Best Buy" by Consumer Reports!!

There should be a better way to "make good" if a customer needs to return the pitcher due to no adapter working with their faucet. I WAS told by the manufacturer that they had one other adapter available but it too was very expensive and they couldn't guarantee that it would fit my faucet. I feel other customers should know about possible issues with this pitcher. But again, the water filtered by it far exceeds my expectations for taste and filtering abilities! I am using it all of the time now in spite of some inconvenience when filling it.

We purchased this water filter because the pitcher was to fill fast and the number of impurities it took out was provably more than any other commonly available pitcher system.

The unit definitely fills faster than Brita or PUR pitchers do. However, ours makes a terrible, loud, higher-pitched gear grinding sound as it does so. It's not bad enough to wear ear protection, but you will have problems understanding someone in the room until you stop. Fortunately, it is less than a minute before it is filled.

Filtered water definitely tastes "cleaner." However, this taste is not as desirable as water filtered from the Brita pitcher would taste. Where the Brita might make water taste more like a crude Dasani, Clear2O makes the water taste more like distilled water. I guess that is the price you pay for having 44+ contaminants removed (NSF verified) to 95+% efficiency (almost are 99.9 to 99.99+%). The solid block carbon filter does a great job of making water taste plain. Unfortunately, this does highlight why an ion-exchange system such as Brita's can make more poorly filtered water taste better. For us, we've finally adjusted to the "cleaner" taste.

It is important to occasionally clean the pitcher, as the website states in its FAQ, "with vinegar." This was only something I tracked down once I started seeing occasional translucent floaters wafting around in the pitcher water when held up to the light. Vinegar would kill most bacteria that might start to colonize the filtered water area, and it seems to curb our problem.

Hi I called clear20 to ask why they were not listed or registered with NSF which is the governing independent body that tests the product for what it filters etc. During this call I finally got it out of them that they this product is being discontinued and that once the filters have all been sold, they no longer will be able to support the product ... Meanwhile they make no public mention of this and continue to advertise their product to sell there remaining stockpile. I bought several and after finding this out I was understandably upset. This is unethical!!!

I live in an old Victorian house with very questionable plumbing. I've had water filters in the past and got discouraged with the speed of filling, then switched over to buying filtered water from the store. This entailed lugging the heavy neoprene containers back and forth...not fun. When I read the reviews for the Clear 2O Pitcher, I thought I'd give it a try. The shipping was lightning fast, packaging was great, and the price is hard to beat. The only discouraging thing was when I tried to take the lid off to remove the cardboard packaging inside the container, I just couldn't figure it out. The lid was pressed on so tight that I was afraid I was going to break it getting it off. The manual didn't clearly cover this, and the 1-800 number provided was no help as they were closed on the weekend. Being anxious to try it, I decided to go for it and gently, slowly and successfully coaxed it off. Luckily, the fittings fit my kitchen sink, which is deep enough to accommodate the pitcher and the short fill hose, so I didn't have any of the fill problems that others have mentioned. Now on to the good part....The water is crystal clear and tastes great! I love the way it fills so fast. However, I do leave the water pressure low so that the water isn't forced rapidly through the filter. Don't know if that makes a difference or not. However, even at the lower pressure, the pitcher fills up in maybe only 2 minutes. I think I'm going to love this pitcher for all the drinking water uses...teas, coffee, cooking and my dog's water.

A practical and great product. The long life of the filter a BIG plus. The shape and size fits great in the frig. The only weak point is the short fill hose. I see why most people listed it as an issue but I'm fortunate to have an extended flexible kitchen sink faucet. The water taste great! It's like drinking crystal clear and clean spring water, amazing!

We replaced our Brita water pitcher with the Applica and found that the water from the Applica tastes better. The only drawback is that we have a bronze finish on our faucet and the Applica faucet attachment is chrome so every time we fill the pitcher we have to take off the original aerator and put on the Applica one and then do the reverse when done.