Everyone knows that tap water tastes horrible. That is, of course, unless all you drink is tap water and you get used to the taste. For everyone else, the choices are drinking bottled water or filtered water from your own water lines (or tap). Julie from Inspired Water sent me some links to a fairly new tap water filtration pitcher but before I mention any more about it, I'll let you in on some of my experience.

Home Water Filtration Systems

When I bought my previous house in 1994, the first thing I did was to have a full-home water filtration installed. The cost was over $3,000, but that cost included a large multiple stage filter (motorized, it used salt to clean the filters) in the garage, a reverse osmosis unit under the kitchen sink and all parts and labor.

The water supply to the garden hoses, to the laundry room, to the bathrooms (we had three) and to the kitchen sink were all filtered by the unit in the garage. The reverse osmosis unit under the sink was fed the same filtered water. There were two faucets on the sink. One was for the regular, filtered tap water and the other was a smaller faucet for the pure drinking water produced by the reverse osmosis unit.

The filtering unit in the garage would not need to be replaced for 15 years – we sold our house at the 12-year mark. Certain filters in the reverse osmosis filter had to be replaced yearly. I estimate the cost of the filter replacements and the salt pellets (which lasted about a month) to be around $200 a year.

Now that I live in the Philippines, my choices are limited. I'm stuck using bottled water from a water dispenser and I can tell the difference in the showers and toilets. The tap water here is extremely hard. I only drink bottled water and use it for both coffee and tea. I would like more choices, but the other choices aren't affordable to someone like me on a fixed income. Not only that, but availability is an issue. Replacement parts and supplies may or not be obtainable locally.

Kitchen Sink Filtration Systems

When filtering water at the kitchen sink only (as opposed to a full-house system), there are two options. One is a filtering unit that attaches to the faucet and the other is a filtering pitcher you hold under the faucet. Either option is better than plain tap water.

With the on-the-faucet option, you have to consciously change the settings to get filtered water or regular tap water. This is what my older son uses in his kitchen. I can't count how many times people have forgotten to turn the knob to off before washing dishes or washing their hands.

With a filtering pitcher, you don't have to remember to change anything (other than the filter in the pitcher when it needs to be replaced). Filtering pitchers are also relatively inexpensive compared to all other options. The water-purifying pitcher by Mavea is what Julie wrote me about. She provided a link to a Time magazine article, "Thinking Big", which basically reviews the pitcher. She also sent me a link to a YouTube video about a tea challenge comparing tap water to the Mavea water-purifying pitcher and here it is:

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DeLonghi is an Italy-based small appliance manufacturer which expanded in a big way in 2001. It's probably more accurately spelled "De' Longhi", but search engines probably wouldn't put the two words together as they should. I've been asleep at the wheel or something because I just recently heard of the company for the first time, unlike brands such as Mr. Coffee or Cuisinart. Still, the DeLonghi coffee makers offer at least one unique feature which should be mentioned.

The DeLonghi DCF212T Coffee Maker

This particular model (and other models may have it, but I haven't checked) has a patented system which allows you to easily access the water tank and coffee filter from the front. The company claims you will "never move your coffee maker" again. They have obviously never met my wife. She moves everything that can possibly be moved.

I don't know how many other coffee manufacturers, and I'm sure I'll come across others, produce coffee makers with "permanent filters", but DeLonghi boasts of it for this model. This is actually something I would appreciate since I use bottled water for my coffee. I'm not really into being "green" and have nothing against the paper filters, but less trash is less trash.

As far as price goes, I see it advertised for prices from $40 to $49.95. There's not much wiggle room there and I'm wondering that, if I find this particular model locally, would I be able to get the price lower than $40. Inquiring minds want to know – since my wife is already home for good, at least I don't have to do the haggling myself.

It's too hot to drink coffee after breakfast-time right now, so shopping can wait for a week or three. Hopefully, I'll know exactly what I want when we start looking for a new coffee maker by the time we actually get out of the house.

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Time isn't on my side in some ways. A few months have passed since I mentioned I was going to save myself some money by buying a coffee maker. Frankly, I just haven't had the the desire to go out and look for one, haggle over the price and be done with it. Since my wife will be joining me in about a week, after more than a year-long separation, I think I'll just wait and let her do the haggling. In the meantime, I'm going to do some virtual shopping to see what the prices should be as opposed to what the vendors want to charge me.

I'm going to start with the Cuisinart models because it's one of the brands I'm most familiar with. Now, when it comes to virtual shopping, time IS on my side since I don't actually have to go anywhere.

The Cuisinart DCC-1150 Coffee Maker

I don't know about other people, but the first thing I look at is the price. Is it within my target price range? If it is, I'll continue to read. If it isn't, I'll move on to something else. My target price range is between $50 and $100 — anything lower is probably too cheaply made and anything higher is probably not worth the extra expense. I found this particular model, the DCC-1150, at Cuisinart's site for $79.95, so it's within my price range. Knowing that prices can vary greatly, I looked around and found the same model selling at other places for as low as $58.99 (a little more than $20 less than the manufacturer's suggested price). If you add the 12 percent VAT tax I have to pay locally, the lower price is still lower than the suggested price.

This particular model has a 10-cup stainless steel thermal carafe, a plus against the humidity and salt air of the Philippines. It comes in either black or white (I prefer black) and has all the features you'd expect from a coffee maker in this price range. One of the coffee maker accessories I can probably do without when it comes to this particular model is the charcoal water filter. I have bottled water brought in weekly, so any decent filter will probably do the trick to get some amazing mugs of coffee. I can probably get the rest of the accessories at the same place I buy the coffee maker.

Regardless of which Cuisinart model I choose, if I choose a Cuisinart model, I know I can find exactly what I'm looking for in terms of price and usability. I've been told by some of the local merchants that I can find that brand, among others, at any of the SM Malls. I hope I don't have to go that far, but with my wife around once again, it's a given that I'll be traveling more often and further from home than I have the desire to do.

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I'm preparing to buy a new coffee maker in order to save money on my electric bill. That may sound a bit strange from a person who's been drinking instant coffee for more than three years already. How could I possibly save money by buying a coffee maker that requires electricity in order to operate? Believe it or not, the hot water dispenser that I use to make hot coffee uses more electricity than a coffee maker ever will.

My Electric Bill

There are two items at my house that are sucking up the juice: My hot water dispenser and my hot water tank. The reason is because the heating elements are constantly on (unless I'm a victim of yet another weekly power outage).

I know these two items are the primary culprits because the only other things I have on constantly in my house is my refrigerator and my PC. When I bought the hot water dispenser, my electric bill jumped up by about $20 USD per month. That's just too expensive, in my opinion, for the convenience of a ready supply of hot drinking water.

There is one other way to heat the bottled water and that's by using the microwave oven, but that kind of defeats the money-saving idea. The tap water gets pretty hot, if I let it run for a couple of minutes, but there's no telling what kind of nasties are in it along with the water. No thanks, but I prefer the safety of the bottled water I buy (at about $4.00/200 pesos for 25 gallons, I might add).

Sorry, but I won't sacrifice a hot shower for anything. Not even to save a few more bucks.

Which Coffee Maker or Coffee Maker Brand

There is one other reason I want to buy a new coffee maker: I'm tired of drinking instant coffee. I'm tired of making it by the cup and I'm tired of forgetting how many spoons I put in (when interrupted by relatives) the cup. Not only that, but a couple of in-laws leech instant coffee from me on a regular basis.

A small, 4-cup coffee maker just won't do. I can polish that off within an hour of waking up in the morning. I don't fancy myself making more than two 8 or 12-cup pots of coffee per day. With carafes of those sizes, my in-laws can steal some of my coffee each day and it won't interfere with my daily routine.

Now, I live in the Philippines. I've been to most of the stores where coffee makers are sold and I've seen some Japanese brands as well as American brands, but I didn't see any Mr. Coffee. It doesn't matter, because I prefer buying a Cuisinart coffee maker and I think that's a brand I spotted at the SM Mall in San Fernando, Pampanga the last time I was there. I probably wouldn't have to go that far again (about 50 kilometers) and can probably find one locally, but I doubt the local stores carry Cuisinart coffee maker accessories such as replacement lids and filters.

Back in 1988, I gave a Cuisinart coffee maker to a fellow US Marine at Christmas time because he drank more "lifer juice" than I ever did. When I left that base in 1992, he was still using it and it still worked like it did when it was new. In contrast, I had a GE coffee maker that bit the dust within four months during that same period. I don't remember what brand I bought to replace it with, but I spent more money on it than I probably should have.

Checking Review Sites and Prices

I wouldn't be doing this if I was in the US. In the Philippines, however, I have to check prices before going on any kind of specific shopping run because I know what gimmicks the sales people pull. One of my nephews worked at a local appliance store and the way the sales associates made more than their paltry wage was to jack up the prices (no prices tags on the items).

To be forewarned is to be forearmed, or something like that. So I headed over to TestFreaks, a site I'm already familiar with, and checked out the Cuisinart coffee makers. After selecting the model I want, the Cuisinart DTC-975 (because of the thermal carafe), I headed over to PriceGrabber.com to get a feel for the median price. It appears I can expect to pay between $60 and $90 USD for it.

The Filipino Art of Haggling

I don't know if I'll be able to get that exact coffee maker model. It depends on import stocks. I'll still get a similar model, with a thermal carafe, for around the same price or even less. I learned the Filipino art of haggling from my wife and I'm getting pretty good at it.

The secret is to buy multiple items. When I do that, and haggle along the way, I usually get the prices knocked down for each item. I live on a fixed income and every dollar (or peso) counts. As the expression goes, a penny saved is a penny earned.

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