GUIDE · COST

The real cost of hauling water jugs.

Filling 5-gallon jugs looks cheap at the station. Add the driving and the lifting, and the picture changes.

The example household.

Two people using about 1.5 gallons a day for drinking, coffee and cooking. That is about 45 gallons a month, or nine 5-gallon jugs.

On a 10-mile round trip, the gas costs more than the water. Combining refills with grocery runs lowers the gas cost, but most families still make dedicated trips.

The cost to your back.

Water weighs about 8.34 pounds per gallon, so a full 5-gallon jug is about 43 pounds with the bottle. Each jug gets lifted about four times: out of the station, into the car, out of the car and onto the dispenser. For nine jugs a month, that is roughly 430 heavy lifts a year.

Workplace safety guidance (the NIOSH lifting equation) treats 51 pounds as the limit for an ideal lift: close to the body, at waist height, no twisting. Reaching into a trunk or hoisting a jug onto a top-loading dispenser is far from ideal. One strained back can cost more than years of water.

The alternative: a countertop RO unit.

A countertop reverse osmosis (RO) unit pushes water through a very fine membrane that holds back dissolved salts and most contaminants. It sits on the counter, needs no plumbing, and name-brand units start around $200. Replacement filters run roughly $50 to $100 a year.

Before you buy.

• Look for NSF/ANSI 58 certification. It is the independent standard that tests whether an RO system removes what it claims.
• NSF/ANSI 372 only certifies lead-free materials.
• Check the price of replacement filters before you buy the unit.
• Read your city's annual water quality report. It is free.

Figures are illustrative estimates based on the assumptions shown. Prices change.