Phox Water filter review: Is it really budget & eco-friendly?
A year and a half ago my bestie Izzy got me the Brita Carafe water filter as a birthday gift from my Amazon Wishlist. I enjoyed using it very much and you can have a look at my Brita Carafe review here to find out what I thought of it. However I’ve recently discovered the Phox water filter jug and ordered it to see whether it is better than the Brita one that I already had.
Why I wanted the Phox water filter jug?
There are 3 reasons to why the Phox water filter looked very appealing. The main reason for me was that it comes with the option to have a alkaline water. The other 2 reason are because I love saving money where I can, but also live a greener lifestyle where possible.
Electrolyte enriched, alkaline water
Since the beginning of 2021, I started adding O.R.S. Hydration tablets to my filtered water, as I felt dehydrated a lot of the time despite drinking enough water. Those electrolyte tablets cost £5 per tube and I would go through a tube per week. That’s £260 per year. Hence I was on the hunt for a water filter that could also add electrolytes to the water to help me save money without having to give up the electrolytes.
I also love the fact that the filtered water would be alkaline. I’ve heard of so many people talking about the health benefits of drinking alkaline water and alkaline diet. So I thought it doesn’t hurt to give it a go and see whether I’ll notice a difference.
Protect our planet
You may already know, that I’ve become more interested in living sustainably since about 2 years. You can find out more about My eco journey & how going eco has saved me money here.
Since becoming more and more aware of the negative effects of some of our daily habits have on the environment, I try to make small adjustments to my lifestyle, which I feel comfortable with but still have a positive impact on our planet. In the past, I’ve never really thought about the consequences some choices could have on wild life and climate.
You’ve probably guessed it that I don’t drink tap water straight from the tap. Hence I used to drink bottled mineral water only, until I got the Brita Carafe water filter jug as a birthday present back in 2020. I’ve always found the chemical smell and taste, such as chlorine in drinking water very off putting. I just wanted water to taste and smell of nothing.
If you’ve read my Brita Carafe review, you know I used to go through 14 2 litre plastic bottles of water per week. That equated to 728 PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic bottles thrown away per year! That’s a crazy amount of plastics! I did recycle them, but they still added a huge amount to my carbon footprint. After I started using the Brita filter my carbon footprint has reduced my a huge amount, but I did wonder whether I could do even better. Then I’ve found and bought the Phox water filter, which claims to be worlds most eco-friendly water filter! I strongly believe we all can make a positive impact on the world and I encourage you to join me!
Save money
Before using any water filters, I used to buy bottled mineral water from Aldi at £0.17 per 2L bottle. We still consume about 4 to 5 litres of water pay day. In the past that would have cost me £0.34 per day. In a year I used to pay £124.10 for mineral water only! When I started using the Brita filter from 2020, it saved me £85.60. However since using the O.R.S. Hydration tablets, which have been endorsed by the World Health Organisation (WHO), it’s buring holes in my pocket. By buying the Phox filter to replace the Brita water filter, I’m able to ditch the O.R.S. electrolyte tablets and still enjoy electrolyte enriched filtered water and save money at the same time. The Phox water filter jug is the only water filter that I could find that was able to add electrolytes to the water as it filtered.
Making life easier
I love having a water filter, because it saves me the hassle of carrying the heavy water bottles from the shops to the car and from the car into the house.
As I’m writing this, I remember my final year dissertation for my Biomedical Science Degree at London Metropolitan University. I was lucky enough that I had Dr. Sarah Atchia as a supervisor, who let me create my own experiment for the dissertation. For my project I was comparing the effectiveness of different branded water filters. I was comparing 5 different branded water filter to see, which one was the best at filtering out bacteria, an ions and cat ions. At the time the Brita filters performed the best. However now more than 10 years since my degree, technology has moved forward and there may be brands that may outperform Brita.
What is a Phox water filter?
The Phox water filter jug is currently the world’s most eco-friendly water filter. It’s the first water filter with a refillable cartridge, hence there is no need to throw any plastic away. This makes the Phox water filter a zero waste water filter.
Reducing carbon foot print
The Brita Carafe water filter that I had before, doesn’t create as much plastic waste compared to drinking bottled water and other water filters such as the bigger Brita water filters that use the Brita Maxtra water filter cartridges. Before used any water filters I had a carbon footprint of 242kg per year from buying mineral water bottles and reduced it greatly by using the Brita filter that my best friend got me. This is because the Brita Carafe water filter jug uses the Brita MicroDisc filters, which does not contain any plastic as there is no plastic casing. However the disc itself comes in a plastic wrapper. I believe that Brita could have used paper based wrappers instead, to make the carafe water filter even more environmentally friendly. Why add more plastic to landfills unnecessary when it can be easily avoided, right ?
The Phox water filter jug has a reusable filter cartridge. Plus the refill for the Phox filter cartridge comes in an eco rice paper pouch, which comes in a cardboard packaging that easily fits through the letterbox. Therefore zero plastic waste is created. So if you do order the refills, you won’t have to be at home waiting for the parcel incase you miss the delivery. This makes reordering the filter refills hassle free.
The choice is yours!
The beauty with Phox is that you have the choice of 2 different refill pack types. One is the Clean Refill Pack and the other is the Alkaline Refill Pack. As you can see, I’ve opted for the Alkaline Refill pack because I wanted my water to contain magnesium and sodium which are the electrolytes and filtered to a pH between 8-9.
What is the Phox Refill made of and what does it do?
As mentioned above you’ll have the choice between the Alkaline Refill and Clean Refill. There are some differences between the refill packs.
Phox Clean Refill Pack
The Phox Clean Refill pack contains coconut shell activated carbon and ion exchange resin. The Coconut shell activated carbon absorbs mercury, heavy metals and pesticides. Whereas the ion exchange resin softens the water by reducing hardness and limescale.
Phox Alkaline Refill Pack
The Phox Alkaline Refill pack contains everything that the Clean Refill pack. The only difference is that this pack also contains electrolytes. These electrolytes add magnesium and sodium to the filtered water for better hydration. This pack also filters the water to pH 8-9. Drinking Electrolyte enriched alkaline water can help with acid reflux and aid sports recovery.
How much money can I save?
I’ve worked out in the past that I was spending £124.10 per year just on bottled mineral water, before using the Brita filter. When I started using the Brita filter it cut the cost down to £38.50 per year. However I’ve been adding electrolytes to my water by adding O.R.S. Hydration tablets for about a year. Since I go through one tube a week of those electrolytes, I’ve worked out the tablets alone have cost me £260 per year. That works out just under £300 a year to have my water enriched with electrolytes once I’ve added the cost of tap water and Brita filter MicroDiscs.
To compare the cost of how much it would cost me now with the Phox water filter per year vs bottled water and the Brita filtered water, I’ve decided to make a comparison table.
Cost of bottled water vs. Brita filtered water vs. Phox filtered water per year
| Bottled water | Brita water filter carafe | Brita water filter carafe with O.R.S. Hydration tablets | Phox water filter jug | |
| 1456 litres of water | £124.10 | £3.32 (from the tap) | £3.32 (from the tap) | £3.32 (from the tap) |
| 10 Brita filter MicroDiscs | N/A | £35 | £35 | N/A |
| Phox Alkaline Refill Pack 12 Months | N/A | N/A | N/A | £50 |
| O.R.S. Hydration Tablets 52 tubes | N/A | N/A | £260 | N/A |
| Total Cost | £124.10 | £38.32 | £298.32 | £53.32 |
As you can see the cost to have a water filter is a lot cheaper than buying bottled water. In the past I’ve saved £85.6 per year switching from bottled mineral water to using the more eco-friendly and cost effective Brita water filter carafe. However when I’ve started using hydration tablets daily, it added a whole £260 a year to my annual expenses. Hence I was after a water filter that could add electrolytes as it filtered the tap water to help me and my little girl hydrate better and recover from exercise more quickly.
By purchasing the Phox water filter and ditching the hydration tablets, I’m still enjoying electrolyte enriched water but for a fraction of the price! The water filter switch is saving me £245 per year!
Smell and taste of water
Before I gave away the Brita Carafe water filter, I’ve decided to do a side by side water taste and smell test with my other half Oliver and my little princess Yasmin. Visually we couldn’t see much difference between the Brita filtered water and the Phox filtered water. However the Phox water seemed to be a little bit clearer. When it came to the smell test, both waters had no smell thanks to the coconut shell activated carbon both filtered contain. I just can’t stand the smell and taste of chemicals such as chlorine in the tap water. So both filters done a good job when it came to removing the smell. Where we’ve really noticed the difference is when we’ve done the taste test. Oliver and I instantly noticed the Phox filtered water is much easier to drink compared to Brita filtered water. It felt a lot light and smoother for some reason. Because the Phox filter made such a huge difference, we’ve decided to boil the filtered water and make tea to see whether it made a difference then too. We’ve noticed that the tea was also a lot lighter and easier to drink as it felt so smooth. Since we always boil the kettle with Phox filtered water.
My conclusion
The Phox Water filter is definitely one of the best purchases I’ve ever made! I also love how all their packaging is eco-friendly. They use cardboard and eco rice paper for their packaging only which all is recyclable.
The reusable water filter cartridge is an awesome idea that, also makes the filter environmentally friendly as well as budget friendly! I’m very impressed that Phox uses glass for the jar instead of plastic, which majority of water filter brands use. It looks stylish in my kitchen and most importantly to does what exactly what I wanted by adding the electrolytes and improves the taste of tap water. I highly recommend the world’s most eco-friendly water filter Phox!
You can purchase the Phox water filter from Amazon for £39.99 which comes with 3 months supply of Alkaline or Clean pack.
Let me know what you think of the Phox water filter and whether you would get one or not in the comment section below.
I am also using an EcoEgg to replace washing powder as it is a lot more greener plus saves you a fortune every year! Find out about more about the EcoEgg here.
