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A Designey Stainless Steel Water Filtration Unit

Rorra's designers are an aesthetic step ahead

By Rain Noe - March 25

in Object Culture

Britas and other popular water filtration systems are often made of plastic. For those who prefer metal, there are stainless steel offerings from Berkey and Boroux, shown below.

Well-considered industrial design is about the transitions. The equatorial seam on both the Berkey and Boroux units is probably cost-effective, but lends these units an institutional look. In contrast, a startup called Rorra produces a more designey stainless steel offering:

Rorra's more flowing form gives you the impression the designer(s) sweated the details. To me it's a lot easier on the eyes.

There are a couple of caveats with the Rorra. One is that it requires four AAA batteries. These do not power the filtration—the unit is gravity-fed, as are the competitors'—but provide the juice for the filter replacement notification light.

Which leads us to the second caveat. All water filtration systems require the user to periodically replace the filter. And the filters for these three manufacturers are proprietary, meaning if they go out of business, you've now got a worthless stainless steel artifact. Berkey has been around for over 30 years, providing some peace of mind as to their longevity. Boroux is a bit newer, having launched around 2016. Rorra, the newcomer, came on the market in 2020. With any luck their offering's better looks will lead to market longevity, but anytime you buy something from a new company that requires replacement parts, you are taking a gamble.

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Michael Ayukawa

2 days ago

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Sadly it doesn't seem to address the challenge of knowing the level of filtered water. The gravity filters are slow (hours) and without a means to easily check you can either run dry or overflowing. I resorted to installing an aftermarket level tube to my more pedestrian filter unit.

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Anthony Towers

2 days ago

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Brita also make glass jugs, which I prefer over plastic or steel.

It's only the wife that uses it though, there is nothing wrong with our tap water!

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Ian Campbell

2 days ago

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The filters on the Berkey and Boroux will work in each others containers. We've had the Berkey since 2017, and its been great. The filters do also need to be periodically cleaned (usually about once a month). they are expensive, but the water is exceptionally clean.

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Michael DiTullo

3 days ago

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that is pretty nice looking!

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