I wouldn't have called Brita low cost. Anything but. The reason they switched from the cylindrical refill to the rectangular one was to put an end to the che

I wouldn't have called Brita low cost. Anything but. The reason they switched from the cylindrical refill to the rectangular one was to put an end to the cheap third-party cartridges, which had become endemic for the cylindrical ones. Cynical marketing was used to make it sound like a benefit for the consumer. I use an old Brita jug with cheap third-party refills, about 1/2 the price. You can also re-use old cartridges and refill them with activated carbon (google for it, there should be plenty of hits). Not quite as good as a new cartridge, but good enough to remove chlorine and bad tastes. An alternative is reverse-osmosis filtration. Marine aquarists use them as a matter of course as the chemistry, especially water quality, of a home marine aquarium needs to be tightly controlled. You should find that you can get a reverse-osmosis kit aimed at marine aquarists set up for a couple of hundred dollars, much cheaper than a consumer kitchen set up.