Let’s talk about water — specifically, the surprisingly stressful business of drinking it. For years I’ve been caught in a bit of a standoff. I gave up plastic bottles once I fell down the microplastics rabbit hole (the thought of quietly sipping tiny plastic particles with every “healthy” bottle of water? No, thank you). But I live in London, which rules out the tap — hard, heavily chlorinated, and with a taste I’ve simply never made peace with. So there I was, hydration’s most indecisive woman, until the Sans purifier arrived and settled the argument for good.
I’ll be honest, I expected “fine.” What I got was water so crisp and clean it genuinely made me realise what I’d been putting up with. It’s lovely — the sort of water you actually want to reach for, which, coming from someone who used to treat drinking water as a chore, is no small thing.
Now for the science, because this is where Sans earns its keep. It isn’t a jug filter with delusions of grandeur — it’s a four-stage system built around reverse osmosis, the same principle used in lab and medical-grade purification. In short: water is pushed at pressure through an ultra-fine membrane with pores down to around 0.0001 microns. Water molecules slip through; almost everything else — dissolved contaminants right down at the molecular level — does not.
Which brings us to the good part: what it actually removes. Independently tested, Sans strips out 99.9% of microplastics (the whole reason I’m here), plus fluoride and nitrates at the same rate, over 99% of lead, and nearly 99% of PFOA and PFOS — the notorious “forever chemicals” that are increasingly turning up in tap water and are famously stubborn to filter. A pre-filter and VOC carbon stage banish that tell-tale London chlorine taste, and a final UV-C stage sanitises against bacteria and viruses. Comprehensive doesn’t quite cover it.
If you’re the type who won’t touch bottled water but can’t stomach the tap, consider your dilemma officially solved. It’s become one of those quiet luxuries I can’t imagine giving up. Crisp, clean, and refreshingly free of things that shouldn’t be in your glass — Femme Tech approved.
Shop Sans water filter here.
