I have always filtered my water as I have chlorine intolerance. Over the years I have been through lots of water filter jugs and disposable water filter cartridges.  At VegFest one year in Brighton, I came across the Charcoal People who sell Bamboo Charcoal Water Filters.

Please note this is a review of a gifted product and affiliate links have been used. It won’t cost you anything extra to shop through an affiliate link, but will help to support this blog. Opinions are all my own. This post has been updated in August 2020.

The pros of bamboo charcoal water filters

The Charcoal People say that their bamboo charcoal water filters are sustainable. This is because they are waste free and produced without the use of chemicals.

When they have finished being useful as water filters, you can use them as mini dehumidifiers. I put them in little bowls on some kitchen paper and them put them at the back of cupboards. This can help prevent damp build up in cupboard corners.

After that you can crush them up and put them on a compost heap. I’ve had mine for years in cupboards though. I can’t see any reason not to keep continue using them to absorb damp!

The cons of bamboo charcoal water filters

Using bamboo charcoal filters is a bit more time consuming than using a plastic water filter.  For a start you need to boil the charcoal initially. Then you need to boil it once a week to sterilise it.    

It is a slow method of filtering water. It takes 8 hours to filter the water.  This means there is no instant water and you need to plan ahead. I found that was OK in the winter when I wasn’t using much water. However in the summer I couldn’t produce the water quickly enough, unless I used more charcoal. The downside of that was that it would work out quite expensive and you need lots of bottles and space to store the water.

These particular water filters come in a small plastic bag (or at least they did when I bought them)

Tips for using the bamboo charcoal

See the instructions for using the filters here: Charcoal people water filter instructions. On top of these instructions though these tips can also help:

• Filter the water before you go to bed at night. Then do it again first thing in the morning to keep the supplies up.
• Store the filtered water in swing top glass bottles*
• Get a jug with a lid* to cover the water while it is filtering. Or if you already had a plastic water filter jug, use that.
• Set yourself weekly reminders in your calendar to boil the charcoal for 10 minutes each week.

There are a variety of factors, which will determine if they are cost effective or not. Plastic water filters are really expensive. However the costs of these charcoal water filters will vary. It depends on how much water you want to filter in one go and also whether you buy them in larger or smaller quantities.

I have noticed that there are other types of charcoal water filters on the market now, which say they last 6 months. The Charcoal People filters last around 2 months and it would be interesting to try out these other types of filters.

Have you used bamboo charcoal water filters?  If so I would love to hear how you got on with them in the comments below!

If you would like to find out about more eco friendly swaps you can make on your kitchen products check out my articles on the subject here: zero waste kitchen articles.