ZeroWater ZJ-003 Filtration Water Cooler Bottle with Electronic Tester Save 37% Off

We loved our zero water system. After a few months the water started tasting funny and had a foul fishy smell. The meter tested the water under 6 so we knew the filters should still be good. We changed the filters any way, way before time. Still fishy smell. I cleaned the filtration bottle. Still the same. It wasn''t till I took apart the stand the water filtration was on that I discovered a film of slime in our cooler. At the time we had one of those cold/hot dispensers a few feet tall. I mean I really had to take it apart and check every palce the water went. After I did that, the smell went away. A few months later it came back. Took it apart and slime again. We changed the water filtration to a countertop no cold/hot type holder and havn''t had any problems since. The filters last many months now. Also if you put water in the filtration system above the middle white ring....it will leak. Water is meant to only be stored in the lower 1/2 of the system.

I''ve been buying bottled water for years and was kinda getting tired of always hauling the cases of water around. Then my girlfriend talked myself and one of my children into a diet that included drinking a large quantity of water a day, so I decided it was time to switch to the 5-gallon bottles and a dispenser. Found a wonderful stainless dispenser at that makes hot water hot enough for tea and cold water just right for drinking. So now I have to mess with the 5-gallon water bottles. This basically gave me, I thought, 3 options. Having a water delivery service (very expensive), picking up 5-gallon water bottles pre-filled at a place like Home Depot, or taking the empty water bottles in to Wal-Mart and for $2.00 a bottle, refilling them myself. All of these options required that I have storage for a couple empties, and all of them have varying degrees of annoyance. Then while walking through the Home Depot I came across the Z-bottles by ZeroWater. Seemed like the answer to all of my problems.

So, I bought the bottle and hooked it up. Went easily into the new water dispenser and immediately started making water. I personally really like the taste of the water. I have one daughter who belives it tastes metallic, and a couple other household members who really like it. If you think about it, Dasani starts with purified water (000) then adds stuff to it for flavor, so not real surprising that the flavor is not something enjoyed by all, though I myself am real happy. Would be nice if the ZeroWater people could come up with a second type of filter that would add back some stuff to improve that flavor back to a Dasani flavor or something (believe I heard that Dasani measures like 039 parts per million of total disolved solids.

Anyway, for me, this Z-bottle is the way to go. I''m not storing anything but new filters. No huge 5-gallon water bottles sitting around. I''m not lifting and changing water bottles. I''m not running water bottles to the store, or paying a crazy amount of money to have them delivered. All I''m doing is filling a pitcher with water every night and dumping it into the top chamber of the Z-bottle. Nothing could be easier.

One other word to the wise. I''ve read some reviews where people complain about the water not immediately registering a 000 with new filters, or starting to smell right away. When I bought mine, I decided to buy filters as well. Home Depot was clearing them out so everything was marked half price and I decided to buy them out and be set for a long time to come. Upon putting the filter boxes into the cart, I noticed that some of them had been re-sealed. At $60 per box of 4 (I was getting for $30), I decided to take them up to customer service and check them out. The re-sealed ones looked good. Then I had them open an un-opened one. Not only was the un-opened one in a plastic bag, which the re-sealed ones were not, the filter itself, where the holes are for the water to go through, was somewhat shiny, whereas the re-sealed ones were a very black matte color. This was true for all 3 boxes of re-sealed filters, whereas all 3 boxes of filters that were not re-sealed were shiny. My assumption? At $60 box, people were using them, cleaning them up, and returning them to Home Depot for their money back. Would not surprise me at all that the people with negative reviews, and with water filters not registering 000 from the start and going out real quick may have been purchasing and using USED filters. Moral of the story, make sure the boxes of filters you are buying have never been open, or open them up and look for the "new" signs like in plastic bags and "shiny" black instead of "matte" black.

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At first the water tasted fine and we were happy, but after about a month and half we noticed a fishy odor in the water itself (while the water tester was still reading zero). There are only two of us so I have trouble believing we could use up the filters that quickly and besides the water tester indicates the water is still clean each time the smell occurs. I looked on the Zerowater website and found no information about foul odors. I contacted customer service and all they could say was "sorry you''re dissatisfied". We''ve had to replace the expensive filters every month and a half and my husband cleans and airs out the entire system each time he replaces the filters (which we have had to do 4 times now). Now we are very dissatisfied with the product and frustrated because we don''t want to keep lugging home water and buying more plastic bottles. Personally, the smell is so gross that even after the filters are changed I''m hesitant to drink the water.

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I completely respect the views of those outlining their poor experience, but I''m stunned.

We''ve had ours for over two years, and have found it to be fantastic. We live in an area where there is so much chlorine in the water I joke that it is the "Hartford District Pool Water". I literally cannot bear drinking from the faucet. When we put it through the ZeroWater system, it tastes like nothing but pure water. It is one of the few low-cost solutions that can remove chlorine so effectively.

We have not changed the filters since we bought it two years ago. We tested its output about 6 months ago, and I think it was registering 1 ppm.

Some reviewers note the "leaking". Come on folks...it is a split structure--of course if you put more water in than the bottom half can handle it will overflow.

Another reviewer pointed out how slow it is. That is true. So plan ahead. No biggie. We keep a one gallon jug handy at all times, pour the "pool water" in when the ZeroWater gets low, and we''re fine.

I also exchanged a number of phone calls and emails with the company to verify that the plastics used in the product do not contain BPA. They were very helpful in providing detailed and publicly available information that indicated that the product is made of AS and ABS plastics, which are variations on styrenes, and that styrenes do not pose a BPA risk.

Spectacular product. I highly recommend it.

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I wanted to add my opinion on Zero Water filtration system. I bought this system at Target for + tax. Before I installed it, I read up on it, and I''m aware of possible high filter costs, but whenever I get billed for every 5 gallon bottle of water from Sparkllets, I feel like I get ripped off.

Before I installed the Zero water system, water from Sparkellet read at 10-11, which is far better than Fullerton City water, which read at over 350!. I installed the system on 7/28/10, and the installation was fairly easy, washing the whole system was not very difficult either. I just tested the water, and the meter does read 0, and the water tastes great!

I did over fill the reservoir this morning, and my wife was unhappy because of the mess, but it was because I put too much water in there. I thought the water I put in was enough to top off the reservoir, but it''s better to leave some room so you don''t make a mess like I did.

We go though about 10 gallons of drinking water in 2 weeks, so I''m hoping the filters will last me at least 2 months. If it does, the filter system would pay for itself. And hopefully, if the filters can last 2-3 months in the future, I would be saving money on water and won''t worry about breaking my back replacing the 5 gallon bottles.

I''ll keep you all informed if anything happens with the system.

Update: 8/11/10

It''s been 2 weeks, and the meter still reads 0. No smell. No more spills. We''re going through about 1-2 gallons a day, with 4 adults and 2 kids. We make at least 10 cups of coffee/day, use the water to cook and drink. So according to my calculation, we''ve at least gone through 15-20 gallons of water in 2 weeks. That''s a saving of so far compared to sparklletts. =)

Update: 8/15/10

Alas! The Fish smell has struck! Yesterday, I check the water level, and all of a sudden it read 66. I thought that''s strange. It shot up from 0 to 66 within a couple of days. Needless to say, I was very disappointed. So I decided to clean out the system. While I was cleaning, I noticed that the smell came from the filter and the container. I used the disinfectant wipe from costco to wipe the inside of the container and the outside of the filters. I pour water on the filters, and it struck me. One of the filters was letting the water out faster than the other one. Sure enough, the fish smelling water came from the filter that lets the water out quicker. I tested the water from both filters and the slow letting filter read 3, but the water from the fast letting filter read 165. It was obvious to me that due to the irregular rate of filtration, one of the filter became more dirty than the other one. This gotta be the reason why the filter didn''t last as long as I expected.

I''m going to contact Zero water tomorrow and see if they say anything about this issue. I ordered another set of filters through Amazon, but for mean while, I closed off one of the filter holes so that only one filter is doing all the work.

I''m going to have to down grade this water system to 3 stars. :(

Update: 8/19/10

New filters have arrived, so I replace the old ones. The fish smell is so bad, it seems to eminate from everything that came in contact with the water. I left the filters in my garage, and even the whole garage is filled with the smell. I thought about recycling the filters and receive $5 credit, but if it''ll cost me $10 to send them, I would be losing even more money, while Zero Water co. just needs to replace the stuff inside.

I haven''t contacted the customer service, since I can''t imagine they would do anything for me. I should try anyways.

Update: 10/9/10

The filters changed again on 9/10/10 and now I have to change the filter again. This morning, I noticed a slight funky taste, and tested the water and it was at 85. The filter is lasting constantly about 4 to 5 weeks for us. The Zero water website does say that "customers with tap water near 200 TDS tell us that one filter will treat about 30 gallons of water before seeing a reading of 006 on their TDS meter." Our city water, Fullerton, Ca., reads at about 380. So I don''t think I''m doing anything wrong. The FILTERS JUST DO NOT LAST LONG, if your tap water has high TDS number, do not get this system.

I''m sort of stuck with this now, after investing over $120, since July. BUT IF YOU HAVEN''T BOUGHT THIS SYSTEM, PLEASE CHECK YOUR TAP WATER TDS LEVEL FIRST! If it''s higher than 200, I suggest you look for a different filtration system.

Update: 12/13/10

Since the October, I noticed couple of differences. The filters look different. The packaging was a bit different, and the filter has "Zero water" written on the side. Pretty cool. Another, more important difference is that fishy smell is almost non existence. Instead, there''s strong acidic taste, that lets me know to check the TDS level. I''m not sure if the cooler weather has lessen the development of smell, or they changed something in the filter.

SO IF YOU WANT TO TRY A FILTRATION SYSTEM, BUY THIS AND CHECK YOUR TAP WATER. IF YOUR WATER LEVEL COMES OUT OVER 200, RETURN IT!!!

Update: 5/16/12

I''ve had it folks. After 2 years of cleaning and changing filters every month, and after dozens of filters, I can''t stand to use this system anymore. And I''m lowering the rating to 1 star

Here are my reasons:

1. THE RECYCLING SYSTEM IS A JOKE! It costs so much to send the used filters, and the coupons they send you are basically useless. Yes, we''re helping the environment by recycling, but we''re also helping the company make bigger profits by returning the used filters to them OUT OF OUR POCKETS!

2. More I thought about it, more it got me to think that the funny smell/taste the water produce at the end of filters'' life is something the company "designed" so that the consumer will HAVE TO change the filter. During the last 2 years, I have become very cynical about this company''s practice.

3. I''m tired of worry about my filter supply. Yes, I used to order in bulk, but once it runs out, you have to spend another couple of hundred dollars to order, and if you don''t have new filters in your supply, you have to drink tab water until you get new filters! I have bigger things to worry about than how many water filters I have in my garage!!!

So, in closing, I decided to go with the under-sink system. It cost me $130 to purchase and took me 30 minutes to install (Aquasana). Filters cost about $50/6 months (I used to spend 2 filters/month with Zero water. At cheapest, 12 bucks a pop, so that''d be $24/month!). Granted the water doesn''t taste as good as Zero water, I don''t have to worry about the water quality, filter life, or the hassle of changing filters/cleaning the system. Finally, I do not trust this company and refuse to give them any more business.

Thanks for reading!

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