Looking for a better solution than tap water

I know that collecting rain water to water indoor plants is the best option, compared to tap water. I am considering looking for alternatives to rainwater. I have been using bottled still mineral water in recent months.
Is a Britax filter jug a good alternative? Are there any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance. In fact, thank you for all your suggestions to my posts this year.
Best wishes and happy 2026 growing!

Bryan Happy Days

PS: My plant project ( Facebook group: Charityplantsevesham has once again been a great success this year. The project itself will have raised around £1400 for Birmingham Childrens Hospital and Cotswold Riding for the Disabled. When pooled with my wife's crafts fundraising we are set to donate over £4000 to the two charities in January!)

 

I use a Vyair reverse osmosis filter when I run out of rainwater for my blueberries.
The company is no longer trading, but I'm sure you can find similar units elsewhere.
Mine cost £45 about 10 years ago and I still use it yearly.
It's not very eco-friendly as for about 4 gallons of tap water, you'll get about 1 gallon or so of RO water, the rest goes to waste, but I use it to water other plants, so it's not really wasted.

 

I use a Brita water filter but any filtered water would be better than unfiltered tap water, as long as you change the filter regularly. The few houseplants that I have are easy growers like a palm and various succulents and they're fine. I don't get any mineral deposits on the soil surface which might occur with unfiltered water. There are cheaper universal water filters that you can get from a supermarket or online.

 

When I boil an Egg I save the water and use it for all my indoor plants
and starting off seeds in my indoor Growhouse.

 

We use a Brita filter jug for water that's going into the kettle and it does stop the kettle from getting limescale (kettles last longer and don't need descaling). I don't know whether it would also take out minerals that plants need though. I generally use straight tap water for my houseplants and it doesn't seem to do any harm.

 

If you have a tumble dryer that collects water in a container the water that it collects is distilled.

 

Plants would obtain minerals from fresh compost or feed rather than tap water. I've never had to descale a kettle here when using filtered water. The water's not hard or soft, just a slight chemical aroma straight out of the tap!

 

The only veg I actually boil is beetroot and I use that to water plants indoors or in the GH. I use a steamer for other veg and I use that water for plants too. Other than that, it is always rainwater. Not had any problems with this regime over the years.

 

I just use tap water on container plants when the rainwater runs out, which it does frequently during summer.
If you are worried about chlorine just let it stand for 24hrs, brings it to room temperature as well.

I'm in a hard water area but never found the need to descale anything other than the coffee machine that brings up a warning light for some reason, probably just based on how many times its been used.

 

We have ro filter for drinking water, I use it for watering houseplants too.

 

If you are in a hard water area, then a Brita or a cheaper Aqua Optima filter jug should work ok as they remove chlorine plus other nasties and reduce limescale.
However would suggest for the best water with these filters also use the soft water treatment as well, though only for watering plants.

If in a soft water area then probalby just using one of these types of treatment which neutralises chlorine almost instantly, but importanly also Chloramines which standard carbon will not do.
Amazon.co.uk

Chloramines are used by many water companies, refer to your local water company site to check yours.

"Chloramines are disinfection byproducts formed from chlorine reacting with ammonia or nitrogenous compounds, used in water treatment for long-lasting residual disinfection"

 

I originally got the water filter jug when our tap water started to have a noticeable chlorine taste. When I asked Yorkshire Water whether there was anything they could do, they said it was because they'd changed how they treated it "to make it safer". The fact that the filter also removes the type of hardness that furs up the kettle was a happy side-effect.

 

Filtered water definitely tastes better than unfiltered water, but that won’t be a concern for houseplants .