Butterfly brand Stainless Steel Water Purifier Review

When we were scouting for a home water filter, we came across Butterfly Brand's Stainless steel gravity water filter. It seemed to suit our requirements because of following reasons

- We didn't want a water filter that needed extensive maintenance, fitting and servicing. Butterfly water filter was fairly portable

- Our requirement was minimum. We didn't want multi stage filters as water was not hard or too impure. We only wanted to get rid of any dissolved impurities such as mud.

- We didn't want to spend a lot and were looking for a solution under 2000 INR

We had to chose between portable water filters from Kent, Tata Swatch, Pureit etc and branded/non-branded stainless steel water filter with candles. Pros and cons as below.

#	Factor	Stainless Steel Purifier	Plastic/Glass Purifier
1	Cost	1400+ depending on size & brand	1600+ depending on brand and features
2	Maintenance	Low (80-90 Rs per candle, once every 6-9 months)	About INR 300 per filter, replace4-6 months
3	Durability	Said to be High	Said to be delicate due to plastic/glass
4	Convenience	Poor- Can’t see water level Water seepage	Can see water level, no overflow/seepage
5	Speed of filtering	Slow- 4-6hours for 7-8 liters	Relatively faster
6	Storage capacity	About 6 litres in 16 litre unit	Depends on brand and design
7	Potential Issues	Tap problem Cracks/bend in steel drum	Crack/damage, tap leakage, other mechanical issues
8	Warranty	1 year for material defects	None. Serviceable

The shopkeeper we visited showed us both a pureit unit made of plastic and butterfly stainless still gravity based unit.

Problems with Butterfly Gravity based stainless steel water filter

1. Effective capacity is about 6 liters in a 16 litre unit. While they advertise 16 litres, it is because of two 8 litre drums- bottom 8 litre is purified water and top 8 litre is input water that needs to be purified. Only bottom 8 litre is consumable. Even in that, since tap is an inch above the base, about 2 litres can't be used. So effectively you will get 6 litres of usable pure water at any time.
2. Not leak proof. If you add more water in upper drum when bottom drum is full, the filtering doesn't stop. Excess water will flow out through the gaps between the two drums. Butterfly should make it water tight.
3. Slow filtering. If you are in a hurry to get purified water then stainless steel gravity based water purifier is not for you. It takes 6 hours+ to filter 8 litres, or just about 1 litre per hour. If you are in a hurry or need large quantity of water quickly (like for cooking), you will have to get a different design/model.
4. Tap not good. Tap has two positions- press down and flip up. Flip up was supposed to be for long duration drop while press down is for quick release (like 1 cup water). In our unit the flip up releases water very slowly.

And then there's lots of manual effort required to maintain a stainless steel gravity water purifier

- Since there's no transparent container or any indicator, knowing water level is a challenge.

- Have to manually inspect water quantity and top up upper container regularly

- Since filtering is a slow process, need to anticipate our usage and top up few hours in advance. It won't work in a hurry.

- If it falls down the drums may deform and may not fit perfectly.

- Stainless steel doesn't get rusted, but there have been some complaints of rust/crack in some online reviews.

But then there're some advantages too

- Portable- No installation needed, can be moved easily anywhere

- Fairly durable and well built compared to plastic units

- Later in case you don't feel like using it as water filter, it can possibly be used to store some grains or other household materials

- Better scrap value because of steel compared to plastic units

- Cheaper to maintain- candles are cheaper and easily available compared to custom & expensive filters needed for Kent/Tata Swatch/PureIT branded water filters

I think this problem will exist with almost all types of gravity water purifiers.

Related: Water Purifier Buy vs Rent Analysis *