Product Reviews ➜ Kitchen ➜ Countertop Filters
Countertop Water Filters
The best countertop water filters are proven by certification or independent lab testing to remove contaminants found in tap water, like PFAS, lead, microplastics, chlorine, and pharmaceutical residues. Filtering them out lowers your daily exposure to chemicals linked to hormone disruption, developmental effects, and other health concerns, and it usually makes water taste better too. The catch is that many countertop filters advertise long contaminant lists but are certified for only a few, or only for 20 to 50 gallons before the filter needs replacing. I rank every filter here by how many contaminant groups it’s actually proven to remove, so you can compare them to all types of drinking water filters or see how I score them in my methodology.
By Dr. Meg Christensen | Physician-founder of Interior Medicine, a non-toxic home resource built on her background in medicine, biochemistry, epidemiology, and clinical research.
Updated October 8, 2026
AquaTru Carafe: Best Countertop RO System
The AquaTru carafe is the best reverse osmosis system for countertops. That’s not because they have a long random list of contaminants on their website (as many do). Rather, it’s because it is fully certified to remove 16 groups of contaminants. (See the short list below or my full Drinking Water Filter table for more contaminant removal details and comparisons.) It’s also nice because while the housing is made of plastic, the water is stored in a glass pitcher. That means once it’s been purified (including microplastic removal) it stays in glass until you’re ready to drink it. AquaTru is great from a transparency standpoint; all of their models are tested, certified, and rank highly.
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AquaTru Classic: Best Water Filter Dispenser
AquaTru’s Classic water filter is, like their Carafe, also an RO (reverse osmosis) system. Countertop RO is nice because it just requires a plug instead of plumbing and install. The main differences between this model and their Carafe are that it dispenses water with a button press, doesn’t have the glass pitcher, and the filters last for 600 gallons instead of just 300. It removes nearly the same set of contaminants, with the exception of hexavalent chromium (not a problem in everyone’s tap water; check the Environmental Working Group’s site to see if it’s an issue for your zip code). Overall, this scores higher than the vast majority of any type of drinking water filter available in terms of proven contaminant reduction.
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Culligan ZeroWater: Best Countertop Water Filter for PFAS
Culligan’s ZeroWater filter fits into both their pitcher and dispenser set ups, so choosing between the two just comes down to your preference. It’s an interesting filter! It’s fully NSF certified for fewer things than the first three filters, just 9 groups of contaminants. But what sets it apart is two things: first, they have total PFAS testing done through IAPMO, meaning it can remove 7/7 PFAS, which is more than the traditional 2-types testing (which just covers PFOA and PFOS, 2 of many types of PFAS). While Clearly Filtered also does this, it’s just the one-time report through IAPMO rather than full certification. That level of rigor comes at a trade-off, however: these filters are only certified for 20 gallons! So, they’re good, but you have to replace them often to keep up. They’re relatively affordable, but be prepared depending on how much you use this pitcher!
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Clearly Filtered Countertop Pitcher: Best Pitcher Water Filter
Clearly Filtered uses a combination of true NSF certification and one-time IAPMO testing to prove what their pitcher removes. It’s actually really impressive for a pitcher. Its filter lifetime is less than either of the first two AquaTru options listed (only 100 gallons) and it’s made entirely of plastic. But, it’s also less expensive, very compact, and doesn’t even require a plug. I have one, and it filters very sloooowly, so be prepared for that. It’s a tradeoff for how incredibly thorough it is.
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Boroux: Best Low Plastic Countertop Water Filter Brand
I list countertop water filters from most effective to least, and it is crazy that a low-plastic water filter in this style is ranked so highly and works so well, as you will see if you continue all the way down the page. While Boroux doesn’t have as many certifications as the first four filters listed on this page, it is made with significantly less plastic and has significantly more testing than most of its similarly-styled competition. Comes in a few nice colors as well.
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Aquasana Clean Machine: Most Affordable On-Demand Water Dispenser
The Clean Machine is a small, affordable countertop filter that has real certifications to back it up. It’s made of plastic and dispenses 8 ounces at a time, but is good for small spaces and is truly effective. Aquasana in general is one of the most transparent brands that submits its products for testing and certification and doesn’t overstate what they’re capable of.
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Brita Hub Countertop Dispenser Review
Are Brita filters good? While they don’t clear as many contaminants as some, they are fully certified where it matters and last longer than other similarly sized filters. Their Hub countertop filter for example is NSF certified for 7 contaminant groups including microplastics, chloramine, and pharmaceuticals and lasts for 120 gallons.
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LifeStraw Pitcher: Best Low-Plastic Glass Pitcher Water Filter
Lower plastic, LifeStraw’s countertop water pitcher is mostly made of glass, except for the top part for unfiltered water that holds the filter, and the silicone base. All of their dispensers and pitchers use the same set of 2 filters. You have to replace the small carbon/ion-exchange filter every 40 gallons and the larger microfilter every 264 gallons. They offer a glass pitcher, plastic pitcher, or larger plastic dispenser.
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Ninja HydraSense Countertop Filter Review
SharkNinja’s countertop water filter removes of contaminants per their data sheet on their website. But when I couldn’t find their certifications or test results in IAPMO, WQA, or NSF under any listing name, I emailed to ask. They said they don’t share raw data and won’t point to the IAPMO certification listing. So while this could score higher, until a listing turns up, I’m treating it like one-time testing rather than certification. It has a decent capacity of 120 gallons before needing to replace filters.
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Brita Elite Filter for Countertop Pitchers and Dispensers
Are Brita’s Elite filters good? They filter 6 groups of contaminants and are tested and certified to do it for 120 gallons, so for an inexpensive, easy filter, they’re pretty great. This glass carafe is expensive and beautiful but fits a Brita filter perfectly. More affordable glass pitcher for Brita filter options exist but are hard to find; another low plastic option is to filter your water through Brita’s regular plastic pitcher but store it in your own glass pitcher longer term. Generally speaking, plastic leaches additives when it’s in contact with warmer or acidic liquids (like plastic water bottles left in hot cars) so cold water in a plastic pitcher would coax less out. The filter will still remove important non-plastic-related contaminants for you, and that’s important.
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Waterdrop Countertop On Demand Dispenser Review
Waterdrop’s ED01 countertop dispenser is better than the majority of the brand’s other options because it’s actually tested and certified to remove more than 1 thing! Compare in more detail on my Drinking Water Filters table. FYI, if you see their hundreds of NSF listings, know that those are almost entirely all for their fridge filters and mostly limited in what they remove as well.
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Culligan MaxClear Review
Culligan’s gravity water filter is made with ceramic and carbon filters and has certifications for contaminants, but only for 50 gallons. That said, it’s actually certified, and this marks a sad tipping point in the ratings for this style of low-plastic gravity water filters. The other, similar models remove even less for about the same 50 gallons, have weaker testing without certifications, or don’t have testing at all. I don’t know why the product page says it’s the “only filter certified to filter microplastics, lead and total PFAS.” That isn’t true; there are many filters that do that, listed above. But, this one really does remove those things and it’s rare for other, similar-styled ones to, as you’ll see below. Overall I think this is a good filter for a gravity system.
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ProOne Countertop Water Filter Review
ProOne’s G3.0 filters might be exactly the same thing as Culligan’s MaxClear filters listed above. Culligan bought ProOne, which is being phased out now. They have nearly the exact same specs and are certified. Each filter lasts for 50 gallons; use 2 or 3 in their various sized tanks to make them last longer. Since they’re being phased out, it’s actually a good time to buy their tanks at a discounted rate. The Big+ is compatible with other filters, including Culligan’s and Boroux’s.
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Brita Refillable and Standard Filters
Brita’s refillable filters work equally as well as their standard filters. Both have the same certifications and are tested to 40 gallons for removing three groups of contaminants. See all the contaminant removal comparisons side by side in my Drinking Water Filters table. That’s not as good as their Elite filter or their Hub system, above, but the refillable aspect is a nice touch of sustainability, and they state it reduces plastic waste by 80% over three years.
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British Berkefeld Countertop Gravity System
Tricky! British Berkefeld’s Ultra Sterasyl and Fluoride filters are truly NSF certified to mechanically remove at least 85% of fine particles and microplastics and 99.95% of cysts. But they are not certified for any dissolved contaminant, including lead, PFAS, chlorine and fluoride. Fluoride removal can be certified (ZeroWater’s filter is), so I don’t know why they didn’t pursue fluoride certification for their fluoride-specific filter. As always, you can look up these facts in NSF’s database.
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Rorra Countertop Gravity System Review
Is Rorra’s water filter worth it? It’s made of stainless steel, so it’s certainly a low-plastic water filter. It does have testing, though once you drill into the details, it’s a little less rigorous than it appears on first glance: it did pass a one-time NSF 42 test for chlorine reduction, but doesn’t have full certification as stated on the NSF report (certification is stronger because it requires random audits and continued testing so it’s a higher standard). The other testing is one-time testing done by IAPMO. They did particulate reduction as a stand in for microplastic reduction, which isn’t totally accurate: the particulate reduction test uses a mineral dust which can be more easily removed than microplastics which come in different shapes and interact with media differently. It still probably removes some, it’s nice looking, the filter capacity is longer than ProOne’s or Culligan’s, it filters quickly because it’s not just a carbon or ceramic blob, is made in the US, and is close to plastic free. There are a lot of reasons I like it and if they pursued certification for more contaminants this would jump up quite a bit.
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Berkey
Berkey has such a cult following that if you like them, I probably won’t be able to change your mind. I’ll try anyway! Their original Black Berkey filters can’t be sold in the US anymore. The filters contain silver, which kills microbes, so the EPA classified them as an unregistered pesticide and issued a stop-sale order in 2023. Berkey sued the EPA, and the legal fight still isn’t resolved. The Black Berkey filters never had any NSF certifications either, and Berkey has also faced a consumer class action claiming the Black Berkey filters don’t remove contaminants at the levels advertised. Their newer Phoenix filters are better and have some testing done by two labs in India (not the standard IAPMO, WQA, NSF or even SGS). They ran a PFOA and PFOS test but stopped at 396 gallons, well short of the 2,750 gallons advertised on their site. In general their website greatly overstates what that testing shows they’re actually capable of. Most of the contaminants they list, including fluoride, mercury and arsenic, aren’t in any published report I could find. With their history, these overstatements only add to my distrust.
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Aarke Stainless Steel and Glass Water Filter
The Aarke has the least amount of plastic involved, going as far as offering filtration granules that you can refill the stainless steel insert with, instead of a plastic cartridge. The brand states the granules can remove lead and chlorine for 31.7 gallons, though without outside test data, hard to know how accurate this is and compared to the other filters on this page, isn’t as impressive. But if avoiding plastic cartridges is important to you then this is a decent option that provides some filtration. I include it here not to tear them down; quite the opposite. I think it’s honest and transparent, a good looking glass water filter, and an important part of the plastic-free water filter vs plastic water filter that removes microplastics conversation. I hope someday we can have a plastic free water filter with robust certified proof it removes a wide range of contaminants well.
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APEC Countertop RO Review
While some of APEC’s under-sink RO systems have certification and testing through WQA, their countertop RO model doesn’t. It’s a little tricky; they have the gold WQA logo on the product page, but this is just something you can slap on without any actual certifications for this specific machine. I do not know if it can remove any contaminants or how well. This is just listed as a reminder that marketing is tricky and can look legit. It’s possible this removes contaminants, but when so many water filter brands are doing the testing so they know it works, and to prove to you it works, this doesn’t impress me.
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How Interior Medicine Rates the Best Countertop Water Filters
My Methodology page explains how I evaluate every product on Interior Medicine, including the Health Function Scale I use for each product category. For water filters, those scale requirements come straight from my Drinking Water Filters page.
There, I score every filter on how many contaminant groups it's verified to remove and how strong the evidence is for each one. Each group counts as 1 point when certified by NSF, IAPMO, or WQA, 0.75 when backed by a one-time independent lab test, 0.5 when brand tested, and 0.25 when claimed with no test report. That page has the full scoring method and each filter's complete contaminant list. The Health Function Scale listed below each product on this page is a shorthand for those scores, written out in brief here:
TIER 01
Highest
Water Purification
What qualifies
Verified to remove most of the 19 contaminant groups I track, with nearly every claim certified by NSF, IAPMO, or WQA.Score of 13 or more
Evidence / Info
Certification isn't a one-time test. It includes regular inspections of the manufacturing facility and periodic retesting of the product, which a one-time independent lab test doesn't (NSF).
TIER 02
High
Water Purification
What qualifies
Verified to remove a broad set of contaminant groups, or a longer list backed by a mix of certification and one-time independent lab testing.Score of 7 to 12.99
TIER 03
Moderate
Water Purification
What qualifies
Verified to remove a handful of contaminant groups, or a slightly longer list backed by independent lab testing.Score of 4 to 6.99
TIER 04
Low
Water Purification
What qualifies
Verified to remove two or three contaminant groups, or a few more with weaker evidence, like brand testing or lab testing instead of certification.Score of 2 to 3.99
TIER 05
Lowest
Water Purification
What qualifies
Verified to remove one contaminant group or none, or making claims with little or no evidence behind them. Many filters here are certified for a single group, usually chlorine or total dissolved solids (TDS).Score under 2
Compare all the scored water filters and see the contaminants removed in detail on the Drinking Water Filters page.
Are There Low Plastic Countertop Water Filters?
One advantage that countertop water filters, especially gravity filters or glass pitchers, have over other drinking water filters is that they can afford to be made with less plastic than others.
However, as you can see in the ratings above, they tend to not perform as well. One exception is the Boroux, which ranks 5th overall.
Product Reviews ➜ Kitchen ➜ Countertop Filters