Yes, our tap filter is plastic.
Everything a steel filter brand will tell you about that, said honestly by our founder. And the one thing about their own cartridges they never mention.
There is a genre of article going around. A stainless steel filter brand explains why plastic filter housings are dangerous. BPA. Microplastics. "BPA-free is a trap." Studies about polycarbonate bottles. The conclusion is always the same: buy the steel one.
Our filter housing is plastic. So instead of hoping you never read those articles, let me make their case for them, properly, and then tell you the part they leave out.
Everything true about plastic, said plainly
Some plastics do leach. Polycarbonate, the old hard clear bottles and some kettles, can release BPA. Some "BPA-free" plastics substitute chemicals with their own question marks. Cheap plastic scratches, and scratches can harbour bacteria. If a brand made a filter out of the wrong plastic, those articles would be right to come after it.
And the microplastics problem is real, and Australian. A peer-reviewed study found roughly 50 microplastic particles per litre in Australian tap water, and about 72 per litre in Australian bottled water. So no, bottles are not the way out. The famous finding that people may be ingesting a credit card's worth of plastic a week? That analysis came from the University of Newcastle, here in Australia, and much of the intake is drinking water.
Which is why we don't get to say "it's plastic, relax." We get to say what it actually is: high-grade ABS, verified zero BPA, zero lead, food-grade certified under both FDA and EU Regulation 1935/2004, manufactured to EU good manufacturing practice regulation 2023/2006, REACH compliant, meaning no chemicals on the EU's restricted substances-of-very-high-concern list, and RoHS2 compliant. Independently lab tested, and the results published. That's not "BPA-free" as a sticker. That's the paperwork.
And here is the chemistry the scare articles skip. BPA is an ingredient of polycarbonate. ABS is a different polymer entirely; bisphenols are not in its recipe, so there is nothing to leach out. The other villain in those studies, plasticisers, live in flexible plastics. ABS is rigid and doesn't use them. The conditions that make any plastic misbehave are heat, acid and age. Our filter runs cold water only (the lever diverts hot water around it), and the cartridge your water actually touches is replaced every two months. The plastic in contact with your drinking water is never more than a few weeks old.
One more thing about a plastic-housed filter and microplastics: ours was tested by SimpleLab in San Francisco and removes more than 99% of them. One hundred particles per litre in, one or fewer out. That's twice the load of average Australian tap water. If the housing were shedding plastic into your glass, the after-test would show it. It shows the opposite.
Some more ammunition, since we're doing this honestly
Go and read our 1-star reviews. You'll find a handful of customers whose housing cracked, usually under unusually high water pressure. It's plastic; under enough pressure, plastic can crack. A steel brand would love that paragraph.
Here is what happened to every one of those customers: we posted them a replacement, free, from Sydney, usually in their letterbox within days. That's not damage control. It's the product. It's called our Forever Fresh Guarantee: keep a year of refills going and every part, housing, valve, adapter, O-ring, is covered for life. Several of those 1-star reviews are now 5-star reviews, and they say so.
Now the part the steel articles leave out
Go to any stainless steel tap filter's website. Skip the blog. Find the replacement cartridges, the part you'll re-buy for years. Read what the cartridge is made of.
It's plastic. Usually described as "food-grade, BPA-free material", which is the exact material their article spent two thousand words warning you about. The steel is the outer shell. The thing the water actually flows through, the thing that touches every drop you drink, the thing you replace over and over: plastic, on their filter and ours alike.
The shell doesn't filter anything, whatever it's made of. So the honest comparison was never steel versus plastic. It's cartridge versus cartridge. And that you can only judge one way.
Show me the water
We sent our filter to four independent laboratories. They tested the water coming out against the water going in, over 100 contaminants, published in full, before and after:
- 93% of PFAS (sum of 20 compounds), tested by Laboratorio Echevarne on water deliberately spiked 10 to 30 times above typical Australian tap levels
- Over 99% of microplastics. Yes, a plastic-housed filter, verified to remove microplastics, by SimpleLab in San Francisco
- 98% of chlorine, tested to NSF/ANSI Standard 42
- 70% of fluoride. Not 100%, and we won't pretend otherwise; most carbon filters remove none
- TAP Score: 98/100, SimpleLab's rating against federal guidelines and academic research
The full report is at our lab results page. Every filter sold in Australia could publish this. Ask the ones that don't, steel or otherwise, why a material choice is on the homepage and a lab report is nowhere.
The questions that actually predict your next five years
A shell material answers "what is it made of." It doesn't answer the questions that decide whether you're still happily using a filter in year three.
What does the water test say? Ours: published, four labs. What do refills cost? Ours: $159.99 a year, every two months, one swap, no thinking. What happens when something breaks? Because something always breaks. A valve is a moving part no matter what the body is made of, and threads seize on any material. Ours: the replacement part ships free from Sydney for as long as you're on your refills, for life.
And one more question nobody selling steel wants asked: how much does it weigh? A tap filter doesn't sit on a bench. It hangs off the end of your tap, cantilevered on the aerator thread, all day, every day. Ours weighs 128 grams with the cartridge in, noticeably lighter than the phone in your pocket. Hang a steel body off that same thread and every gram of it is leverage working on your tap spout, around the clock, for years. "Reassuringly heavy" is a lovely quality in a watch. On the end of a tap, it's just load.
If a steel filter answers those questions better than we do, buy the steel filter. Genuinely. But make them answer in numbers, not in material.
Yes, it's plastic
It's also the most thoroughly tested tap filter you can buy in Australia, and the only one that puts its worst reviews and its full lab report in the same article.
One last thing, founder to reader. We could sell you a stainless steel filter too. Believe me, the factories that make them email me daily, asking if I'd like my logo on one. I keep saying no, for every reason in this article. But if you'd like to see what I see, browse them here. You'll notice they look remarkably alike, whatever name ends up on the box. Have a look at the prices while you're there, too.
Questions we actually get
Does a plastic filter housing leach chemicals into the water?
Not this one. The housing is high-grade ABS: verified zero BPA, zero lead, food-grade certified (FDA and EU), REACH and RoHS2 compliant. Bisphenols are not part of ABS chemistry, and rigid ABS uses no plasticisers, so the leaching pathways from the scare studies don't exist here. The lab proof: water leaving the filter carries one or fewer microplastic particles per litre.
But stainless steel looks better?
On a product page, maybe. On your tap, ours is a compact 128 gram chrome unit that matches the tapware it's screwed onto, and chrome ABS never develops the water spots a steel surface collects next to a sink. Looks are yours to judge; just judge them on a tap, not in a photo studio.
Doesn't stainless steel last longer?
A material is not a warranty. What ends a filter's life is the valve, the threads and the seals: moving parts and wear parts, whatever the body is made of. Ours are covered for life under our Forever Fresh Guarantee, with replacement parts shipped free from Sydney, as long as you keep a year of refills going. If steel truly lasted longer, steel brands would put a longer guarantee in writing. Check what they actually offer.
Can a plastic filter really remove microplastics?
Yes, and it's independently verified. SimpleLab in San Francisco tested water loaded with 100 microplastic particles per litre, about twice the average of Australian tap water. One or fewer particles per litre came out the other side: over 99% removal.
What are stainless steel filter cartridges made of?
Plastic. The steel is the outer shell; the replacement cartridge the water actually flows through is typically described as food-grade, BPA-free material, on their filters and ours alike. The honest comparison is cartridge versus cartridge, which is why we publish full lab results for ours.
What happens if the housing cracks or a part breaks?
We post you the replacement part free from Sydney, usually within days: housing, valve, adapter or O-ring. Under Forever Fresh Guarantee, anyone with a current year of refills is covered for life. Everyone else gets a 2-year warranty as standard, and every order starts with a 60-day home trial with free returns.
60-day home trial. Free shipping. Screws on in 60 seconds.