> I've used them for years, though the effect on taste might be a placebo Personal anecdote that it may not be placebo: I find the tap water where I live (No

> I've used them for years, though the effect on taste might be a placebo Personal anecdote that it may not be placebo: I find the tap water where I live (Northern part of NL) pretty delicious. In fact I can hardly distinguish it from most non-carbonated bottled water, it's just clean with no particular flavour I would recognize (though maybe I'm used to it). When I visited the US (NY and New England area) I found the chlorine taste quite noticeable, also a slight dusty/earthy flavour (I didn't complain, and it was a hot summer). However, one of the people we were staying with brought one of those plastic jug/caraffes with a built-in filter (probably charcoal), which she filled with tap water. I really didn't expect it to make much of a difference, because how was a tiny filter going to take chlorine molecules (not ions, right?) and that dusty flavour out of the water, that quickly, just by pouring through? (apparently I have no idea how these filters actually work, and a little voice in the back of my head dismissed it as some weird health fad thing) Well, I was taught :-) I was pleasantly surprised when I found that the filtered water tasted "clean", pretty much just like it tastes back home. But since I really didn't expect it to taste much different than straight out of the tap, actually half-expecting the filter might make it a bit more "stale" (assuming it would mostly take out some of the CO2 and O2 gases), I doubt that could be placebo, wouldn't you agree? On the other hand, placebo effect can be really weird, in your head, even if you really believe it's not affecting you, so I'm not going to presume there was no placebo going on. I also didn't think to try a double-blind test or something, instead happily enjoying the refreshing filtered water during a hot summer :-)