Fluoride
Almost no gravity jug removes it, whatever you may have read. Two do.
Most filter jugs cannot do thisFluoride is a very small, very stable ion and activated carbon does essentially nothing to it. This is worth stating plainly because the internet is full of the opposite claim. If removing fluoride is your reason for filtering, the ordinary jug market has almost nothing for you: it takes a specialised medium such as activated alumina or bone char, a strongly selective ion exchange resin, or reverse osmosis. Two jug cartridges make a serious attempt and both are North American and expensive.
How you know you have it
- Not detectable by taste or smell at treatment concentrations
- Whether your supply is fluoridated at all varies enormously — most of the United States and Ireland, parts of England, very little of continental Europe
What works
Clearly Filtered publishes fluoride reduction figures, and ZeroWater's ion exchange resin reduces it as part of stripping dissolved solids generally.
What does not
Every ordinary carbon cartridge. Brita, PUR, Philips, BWT, Laica, Aquaphor and every generic make no fluoride claim, because there is none to make.
Cartridges that reduce fluoride
Ordered by strength of evidence, not by brand. An independently certified claim outranks a lab-tested one, which outranks a manufacturer’s word for it.
Partial reduction only
These reduce fluoride as a side effect of what they are actually designed to do, rather than by targeting it. Real, but not the same claim.
Cartridges that do not
These make no claim here, and that is not a criticism — it is what their manufacturers say. Buying one of these for this problem is the mistake.
Questions
Does a filter jug remove fluoride?
Very few do. Clearly Filtered publishes fluoride reduction figures, and ZeroWater's ion exchange resin reduces it as part of stripping dissolved solids generally.
What does not work: Every ordinary carbon cartridge. Brita, PUR, Philips, BWT, Laica, Aquaphor and every generic make no fluoride claim, because there is none to make.