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The hardest part about moving on from New York City mid-pandemic didn’t turn out to be leaving behind my beloved apartment, friends, or the fresh mozzarella pie from our neighborhood spot. It was the water. Specifically, going from NYC’s pizza-perfect tap to a rural well system that tastes like it might have been piped in from the bottom of a fish tank. Welcome to the Hudson Valley, where the air is clean, the views are sublime, and the well water? Iron-heavy, faintly metallic, and seriously un-chuggable.
Since then, we’ve run annual water quality tests and everything has checked out so far; our well water isn’t dangerous. But it’s objectively unpleasant—on the nose, palate, and skin. We’ve worked our way through a cocktail of fixes: a whole-house softening system (requiring heroic quantities of salts), carbon and UV filters, a Jolie filter in the shower, and, most recently, a Canopy Baby Bath filter for our toddler.
Still, the water from our kitchen tap didn’t entice me to drink it. We invested in a Big Berkey, but found it challenging to clean and later realized it doesn’t filter out microplastics as effectively as we wanted. We then switched to a PUR Countertop Water Filter Dispenser while debating our next steps, and then the Rorra System launched.
Rorra Countertop System
First Sips
I discovered Rorra after half-plotting to move back to Brooklyn for the tap alone. The pitch was strong: countertop filtration, no single-use plastic, sleek stainless design, and a subscription model that means I’ll never have to remember to change a filter again (if it’s not in my calendar, I absolutely will not remember). Rorra promises to remove lead, forever chemicals, microplastics, and 50+ other contaminants, backed by the U.S. National Science Foundation’s accredited labs.
Out of the box, it looks like something from a craft brewery—all heavy-duty and clean lines. It installs in about five minutes sans tools and can attach to your existing faucet via an adapter, though my family opts to pour in water to refill. Every time I fill my glass, it feels like I’ve clocked out of work and am pouring myself a beer. Even better: my toddler is obsessed with it.
At $449 upfront for the Countertop System + Filter Subscription (which lasts for roughly 90 days of usage), Rorra isn’t the cheapest option—but if you care about taste, design, sustainability, and your own hydration habits, it’s worth every sip.
The Taste Test
It’s hard to describe the sensation of drinking water that doesn’t make you question what you’re ingesting, but here it is in short: clean, crisp, and delicious. The texture of our H2O no longer felt viscous or gravelly. For a moment, I was almost transported back to my Brooklyn kitchen. My husband notices it, our guests comment on it. And I find myself enjoying more water because it actually tastes like something I want to drink.
What Sets Rorra Apart
Beyond how it makes our water taste, there are four other reasons I’m fully converted to Rorra.
No plastic waste: The system is made entirely of stainless steel and uses recyclable filter cartridges. Small colored lights indicate when the system is filtering or if it’s time to change filters, replacing those Brita remember-to-change-me-in-November stickers.
The filter subscription: Rorra sends new filters on a schedule, which means no calendar reminders, no guesswork, and no oldies sitting sad and forgotten.
Excellent customer service: I had questions during setup and the team replied within hours; they were friendly, helpful, and not-at-all-robotic.
Good looks: Out of several filter systems I’ve tried over the years, Rorra is by far the best looking. It blends in with our kitchen vibe (rustic minimalism meets toddler chaos) without drawing all of the attention.
The Last Drop
Is Rorra going to turn your well water into glorious NYC tap? Not exactly. But it comes pretty close, without needing to schlep 40-pound salt bags to the basement or spend a Saturday flushing a UV system. It’s a low-maintenance, high-design, and surprisingly fun solution to a very unsexy problem. And because it holds two-and-a-half gallons at a time, my family has never once run out of filtered water when we need it.