Vitamin C vs PP-Cotton Shower Filters: Which Does What
Shower filters come in a few styles, and the names can be confusing. Here is a simple guide to the two Ablu uses, PP-cotton and Vitamin C, and how to pick the right one for your shower.
PP-cotton filters
PP-cotton (polypropylene cotton) is a dense, multi-layer cotton-style cartridge that water passes through. It is designed to trap sediment, rust and fine particles, and to help reduce chlorine taste and odour. The cotton changes colour over time as it does its job, which is your cue to swap it. PP-cotton sits inside the Ion Drop Filtered Shower Head, and the replacement cartridges keep it going.
Vitamin C filters
A Vitamin C filter uses vitamin C (ascorbic acid) along with mineral media to reduce chlorine taste and odour as the water flows. Ablu's inline Vitamin C filter screws between your hose and almost any shower head, so it is an easy way to soften the feel of your water without replacing your whole shower head. Many people simply like the fresh, lightly scented feel it gives the water.
Which should you choose?
- Want a complete filtered shower head? Start with the Ion Drop and its PP-cotton cartridges.
- Happy with your current shower head? Add the inline Vitamin C filter in front of it.
- Want both? They work happily together, the inline filter sits before your head, the PP-cotton inside it.
A note on expectations
Both are cosmetic, feel-good upgrades. They reduce chlorine taste and odour and sediment for water that feels softer and leaves skin feeling smoother and hair looking shinier. They are not medical devices and do not treat any condition, the difference you notice is in how your shower feels.
Where each one goes
This is the part that catches people out, so it is worth being plain about it. The PP-cotton cartridge lives inside the shower head, in a housing you unscrew. The Vitamin C filter is a separate unit that screws between your hose and your shower head, so it sits in the water's path before the head rather than in it.
That is why the two are not interchangeable. A pack of PP-cotton cartridges will not fit an inline Vitamin C filter, and an inline filter is not a replacement cartridge for the Ion Drop. If you have the head, the cartridges are the consumable. If you like your existing shower head, the inline unit is the way in.
What each costs to run
The PP-cotton refills come twenty to a box at $27.99, which is about $1.40 a cartridge. At a cartridge every 30 to 60 days, one box covers a single shower head for well over a year.
We do not publish a service life for the Vitamin C filter, and we would rather say that than invent a number. It is used up as water passes through it rather than clogging, so how long it lasts depends on how much you shower. Judge it by whether the water still feels and smells different to unfiltered water.
Scent is the other real difference
PP-cotton is scentless. It is a filter and nothing else. The Vitamin C filters come in nine scents, so there is a light fragrance in the water while you shower. Some people love that and some would rather their shower smelled of nothing at all, which is a genuine reason to pick one over the other and has nothing to do with filtration.
What neither of them does
Neither softens hard water. Softening means removing calcium and magnesium, which takes an ion-exchange softener plumbed into your supply, not a cartridge in a shower head. Neither makes water safe to drink. And neither is a medical or therapeutic device: they change how your shower feels, not how your body works. Any shower filter sold on a promise to treat a skin or scalp condition is making a claim a cosmetic is not permitted to make. For prices, refill costs and which type suits which bathroom, see how to choose a shower filter in New Zealand.
From the range
Ion Drop Filtered Shower Head
A filtered shower head that gives you a stronger, fresher-feeling rinse - with a replaceable PP-cotton filter that helps reduce chlorine taste and odour and fine...
Shop the Ion Drop · $74.99
