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If you’ve wondered whether you really need to install a water filter in your home or whether those devices are really just for water snobs, this episode is for you.
Our host Janet Kraus sits down with Ash Heather, co-founder of Epic Water Filters, to break down what matters most when it comes to our drinking water.
Find out what is found in unfiltered tap water (microplastics, PFAS, and heavy metals … oh my!) and how to make better choices at home. As Janet reminds us, those choices matter: “When we as consumers demand transparency and high certifications, we aren’t just filtering our water, we are filtering out the noise of greenwashing and forcing the industry to do better.”
About Ash Heather
Ash Heather is an experienced entrepreneur and business leader currently serving as managing director and co-founder of Epic Water Filters. With a strong background in the health, wellness, and fitness industry, Ash specializes in business development, entrepreneurship, strategic marketing, and coaching. His expertise centers on scaling mission-driven businesses, building impactful brands, and driving long-term business strategy.
Meet the Host
Janet Kraus: I’m Janet, a serial start-up founder and CEO, twin-girl mom, and wife to a fun and funny guy. I am on a mission to build healthier thinking in young people, stop toxic division, spotlight hopeful climate action, and advocate for safe AI.
Transcript
Janet Kraus: Well, hello and welcome everyone to the Bluedot Living Podcast: Imagine If. I think everybody has long been aware that plastics are a problem. We see it every time we go to the beach, plastics either floating in the water or having already built up on the shore, so we've sort of been brought up to think about plastics as being an environmental problem. But it feels like over the past year and definitely the past several months, there has been a shift to understanding just how bad plastics are for us humans and our health.
Most recently, the Netflix documentary Plastic Detox has, I think, really brought it into the regular common conversation, the neighborhood conversation. And if you haven't checked it out, we did have a chance to interview the director, Louis Psihoyos, and one of the couples, Jesse and Darby, about their journey. So it's just really front and center.
Today we're really excited because we're bringing onto the podcast an ex-finance guy, an Aussie who noticed that plastics were not just a “plastics in the ocean” problem. The access to clean drinking water and how plastics interfered with that was what he noticed. Like any good entrepreneur, he went to his basement to figure out if he, in fact, could solve this problem. Today we're going to get a chance to find out if he solved it or is on the way to. How's that for an intro? Ash Heather, are you ready to join us?
Ash Heather: I'm ready.
Janet Kraus: So Ash, because this is where you start with any good entrepreneurial story, take us back to that “aha” moment where you went, “Wow, wait, something is not right here. Something needs to be done with this access to clean water problem.” Where were you? What was your background? How did you get there?
Ash Heather: Well, at the time I was living in Singapore; we'd been in Singapore for about eight years at that point. I was in finance, as you mentioned, but I'd quit finance at the end of 2011. Then I went and worked for my wife. She owned a wellness center in Singapore, so that really sparked my interest in natural health, which includes drinking clean water.
But a real “aha” moment for me was when we were in Thailand on a holiday and my wife said, “Let's go and clean up that beach.” I was thinking of a beach holiday. We're going to be just lying on the beach, swimming, drinking cocktails — and for the next eight hours, we will clean up the beach. It was quite a big beach in Koh Samui. Most of the trash we cleaned up was empty plastic bottles. There was a problem. You know, a lot of Asian countries especially have an issue where the water coming out of their tap is not very good. So a lot of people buy plastic bottles of water, and then it ends up as trash.
That was a real “aha” moment. I'm thinking, “Geez, do we really have to keep doing this?” Not only in Asia, but around the world. Then the next one was my wife saying that living in Singapore, we should get a water filter to make sure our water is really good. To be honest, Singapore water in general is pretty good out of the tap, but you still really should have a filter. Then looking at the options for filters in Singapore, there weren't many at all. So that got me thinking.
We moved to the U.S. in mid-2014 to Boulder, Colorado. By that time, I didn't really have a job, and my wife and I thought, “You know what? We should do something about this water problem.” It was very naive and idealistic initially.
Janet Kraus: You need to, to be an entrepreneur. You have to. Too much knowledge is not helpful.
Ash Heather: At least we had the idea of Epic. And Epic started, and about a year later, I met my business partner, Joel. He was very interested in drinking clean water, so Epic kind of went from there.
Janet Kraus: As you did your research into what it means to have clean water, what were you striving for? What was the level of filtration you were trying to get to, and what were you trying to get out of water? What makes it clean? What was the level of clean you were going for?
Ash Heather: Well, you know, when I first started thinking about it, it was when we were in Thailand. I'm thinking, “Geez, these people in Southeast Asia, including me, it'd be great if we could drink water out of the tap.” But some of the issues with some of the countries in Asia involve more than just chlorine and lead. We could be talking about parasites in the water, etc. So you really need a high-level filter to get those out.
That's what I was thinking initially, but then moving to the U.S. and seeing Flint, Michigan, was a big one back around 2015 onwards. Then I started to think, “Geez, this is not only developing countries that have a problem; every country's got a problem.” Because, you know, lead obviously is a big issue.
Janet Kraus: Yeah, tell me about the things we're trying to get out of the water. Lead?
Ash Heather: Yeah, I mean, lead is a big one. You know, especially since a lot of the pipe infrastructure in the U.S. and other countries is old. A lot of those pipes are lead, and they're degrading over the years; they need to be replaced. I would say all heavy metals are a problem, as are trace pharmaceuticals, pesticides, and we could talk about fluoride. You know, it's a little controversial. Some people love it in water; some people don't. I personally don't.
Janet Kraus: Do your products filter out fluoride?
Ash Heather: Some do and some don't. We try to give our customers options. Like I say, some people like fluoride in the water; it's not for us to say what's good and what's bad on that one. Other ones, you're pretty clear.
You know, there are others that are pretty clear and, obviously, over the last few years, the big ones have become PFAS and microplastics. We see it from our customer base, and also research, that the two biggest contaminants getting all the media coverage, and what people are scared of right now, are PFAS and microplastics.
Janet Kraus: Has that always been there? Is that different? Is that new? Or are we just more aware of it because we are able to test it differently?
Ash Heather: Yeah, they're not new. It's just more transparency with testing. And you know, that's where things like social media can be quite beneficial. They can spread news fast, and you get people-power that's actually putting pressure on government agencies to go, “OK, what about this PFAS thing and microplastics? This is bad for our long-term health.”
So I think over the last few years, people have become a lot more aware. I think over the years, government agencies were probably not 100% doing their job properly in terms of looking at the contaminants in water. The EPA publishes “healthy” levels of contaminants in water, and once you get above those levels, the water is bad for you, apparently. Those apparently healthy levels are a little controversial, too. That's another story. I don't really want to get into government agencies doing their job, but any long-term exposure to most of these contaminants is not good for your health. Whether you're talking about lead, PFAS, or microplastics, they all have big negatives for long-term health.
Janet Kraus: Well, you make it very clear on the website about transparency. Can you tell us the level that you are striving for and what it is that you do to make sure we know what level of clean we're getting when we use your products? And why have you chosen that as being the right standard?
Ash Heather: Well, you know, like I said, initially we were buying our filters from other filter manufacturers, which is generally what you have to do when you are small and starting up. But for Joel and me, it was always our plan, if we could pull it off, to make our own filters. When you're dealing with something as important as people's health, I think it's pretty important that you're actually making the product yourself rather than outsourcing it.
Whether you're outsourcing it from a manufacturer here or in China or Thailand, wherever, if you're outsourcing it, I think there can be quality control issues. There can be issues with whether this product is consistently good and if we are delivering on all the promises. Whereas at least now, we're making all our filters in-house in Florida, which to us is really exciting. It's been a five-year project.
Janet Kraus: Wow. Congratulations.
Ash Heather: So you know, Epic now is all about that. Since we're making our own filters and we think they're the best in the categories that we play in, our transparency shows we live up to our promises with the quality of our filters. And it's not only us testing in-house; there's a lot of third-party testing and certifications.
NSF certifications are the high bar in the world of water filtration, and making sure your filter delivers on all the promises. Our facility in Florida is NSF-certified. Most of our filters are NSF-certified. Eventually, we want all our filters to be NSF-certified, but it takes a while because we're always developing new filters. You can't just say, “Okay, all our filters are NSF-certified.”
Janet Kraus: So the newer products, the ones that you have more recently launched and are being manufactured, those are the ones that are the highest level, would you say? Are they the standout in the category relative to your competitors?
Ash Heather: I think so, in terms of the contaminant removal and just delivering on promises. You get a lot of filtration companies out there, “fly-by-nighters” sort of thing, especially from overseas. They make a lot of promises, and there's not really any testing to back those promises. A lot of them don't even publish testing.
Janet Kraus: And you publish testing.
Ash Heather: We publish testing. And once you get certified, certification is the highest level of essentially holding you accountable. You'll see a lot of filters out there that aren't NSF-certified. There are other certification bodies like WQA, IAPMO, etc., and some of ours are certified by those bodies. But some companies make crazy promises, like, “We can remove 100% fluoride for a thousand gallons.” I'm thinking, “Yeah, probably not true.” Some contaminants are really hard to get out, and you see these promises and you go, “No, that's impossible.”
Janet Kraus: So this is really helpful because our audience is the average person at home who's trying to make sense of the noise out there and understand what to trust, what's got credibility, and how to get past the greenwashing. So understanding the level of transparency that you go through and the level of certification that your products have met really is helpful.
So I have a question: You started — and I'm going to show people right here — you sent me this, which is one of your newer products. This is an Epic Water pitcher with the filter; that big white thing is the filter. If I'm not mistaken, you started with pitchers and filters, right? That was your starting product line.
Ash Heather: That was our first product. Then we had a few bottles.
Janet Kraus: Yep. So I can get a water bottle that I take on a hike with a filter actually in it.
Ash Heather: Yeah.
Janet Kraus: So pitchers, water bottles, and there's another category.
Ash Heather: Yeah, we have two different under-sink filters.
Janet Kraus: Under-sink as well. And right now, of those three, what do you sell the most of?
Ash Heather: Pitchers. We have two different pitcher filters: the Pure XP, which you've got, and then we have a Nano XP.
Janet Kraus: What's the difference?
Ash Heather: The Pure XP takes fluoride out. The Nano has biological capability for removing biological contaminants, but that's the beauty of the Pure XP; it also removes biological contaminants. I would say the biggest difference is probably that the Pure removes fluoride and the Nano doesn't.
Janet Kraus: OK. All right. So for folks who are looking on the website, if you want your fluoride out of it, you'd get the Pure XP; if you want everything else but fluoride, the Nano.
I wanted to ask, did you always have this lovely wood? I know it's plastic and we want to talk about that in a second, but it has such a beautiful handle.
Ash Heather: Yeah, that handle is bamboo. The pitcher itself is Tritan plastic. That's the highest level plastic you can get — non-leaching Eastman Tritan.
Janet Kraus: Yeah, can you say more on that? I think that's important because I think people are like, “Well, I'm getting a filter in a plastic water pitcher. Is that OK?” Tell me why that's OK, or at today's level, what's possible.
Ash Heather: Yeah, I mean, obviously probably the best thing to be drinking out of is glass. To be honest, I'm seeing a lot of stories now where you can buy filtered water in a glass container and it's got more microplastics in it than the plastic bottle. It's a little tricky, but in terms of us, we try to keep the price point low. We're trying to operate in the category where most people can afford our product, and so plastic Eastman Tritan is the best plastic there is. It allows us to keep the price point a little lower than, say, glass. We are actually bringing out a glass dispenser in a few months' time because a lot of our customers say, “I would love for my filtered water to be in glass.” So a glass dispenser is coming, but it will be more expensive. It's not only the cost of the glass; it's the shipping, logistics, etc., just because it's heavier and more fragile.
Janet Kraus: Totally. So you have that; you allow people different price points. But just so that we really understand: The plastic that you are using is non-leaching, and it's the highest level. Just make clear why this is the best you can do in plastics.
Ash Heather: Well, Eastman Tritan was developed by the Eastman company in the U.S. They had a patent on it for years, and it's the highest level plastic you can get — food-grade plastic. A lot of pitchers you'll see out there are actually made of ABS plastic. They say the ABS is non-leaching, but it's definitely not as high-grade plastic as the Eastman Tritan. All our bottles are Tritan as well. We do have a glass bottle and stainless steel bottles, too, but if it's plastic, it's gotta be Tritan for us.
Janet Kraus: OK, great. And I think one of the things we espouse here at Bluedot Living is progress, not perfection. We would love it if we could eliminate everything. Once you see plastic, you can't unsee it, and you wish you could get rid of everything. And also, we're on a journey to better products. So if you're working with a Tritan plastic pitcher with your filter, it's certainly better than the alternative, which is progress.
Ash Heather: Yeah, totally. It's one step at a time. It has to be because there are big problems out there, and you can't solve them in one day. It's a gradual step. And then you look back even a year later and you go, “Wow, we've made a difference.”
Janet Kraus: Yes. So tell us who you are today. Who is your core customer and why does he or she buy the product? What are they hoping to get, and where usually in your product selection do they start? Do they start with one product and then upgrade?
Ash Heather: That's a good question. Our top cohort is 25- to 30-year-old females. The second top cohort is 25- to 32-year-old males.
Janet Kraus: I'm going to pause for a second because that completely tracks with our data, which is that the millennial and Gen Z groups are going to demand an entirely new set of products. They already are. They're not going to be satisfied because they've been hearing and are aware of and driving the demand. What I find so exciting is that when people drive demand, products get better.
Ash Heather: And for us, you know, we really try to be innovative. I think it just keeps you ahead of your competitors, and the water filtration industry is a little bit old and staid. So we have a little advantage there. I'm the oldest on the team; we've got a pretty young team, and so we listen to their feedback on what they want at their house.
Janet Kraus: I want to pick up on that because one of the things I saw that you didn't tell me about when I first met you is your whole bottle line. Your water bottle line is beautiful and artistic. Tell me a little bit: How do you get all those gorgeous designs?
Ash Heather: We've done some collaborations with various artists and various nonprofits, most of them related to conservation and the environment. So every time we'd sell a bottle, the artist would get a royalty and the nonprofit would get a portion.
Janet Kraus: Oh my God. Love that.
Ash Heather: So that's been pretty cool. But in terms of your original question of the customer journey, where does it start? Most of it starts with a pitcher. The pitcher is our biggest-selling product. Bottles are definitely another starting point, but I guess the idea is with Epic, whether someone starts with a bottle or a pitcher, we want them to stay in the Epic family, and maybe they graduate to an under-sink filter. Later this year we're bringing out a three-stage under-sink filter. The idea is that once people taste that really clean water, they want to stick with Epic.
Janet Kraus: I think personally, just knowing what I know about your brand now, the level of certification, the level of filtration, the fact that the quality is high. I love that you do these partnerships with artists and create highly designed products and that you give back to other nonprofits. There are so many things in your story that I think really resonate.
I'm excited to see what you come up with next because now that I know your product, I feel like I want to tell everybody. And just to second it, I have the filter; I am definitely getting everybody water bottles for Christmas. It's such a no-brainer to me. And I told you this, I have a reverse osmosis system, which by the way, just broke. I would say it's time to get rid of it. Because it's true, you think about the pitcher being great for the water that you drink, but think about all the water that you just turn on every day, whether you're making coffee or tea or using it in cooking. There's a lot of water that you don't think to pull your pitcher out for. And so that under-sink…
Ash Heather: Yeah, to me the under-sink is the most convenient. Obviously we've got them in our kitchen, in our bathrooms, etc. We have a pitcher, too; we take the pitcher when we go traveling, and bottles, too. But everyone's got different living setups. A pitcher works well for some people; an under-sink works well for others. And another thing we're looking at is offering a whole-house unit.
Janet Kraus: Oh, tell me about that. That would be cool. You mean like right at the source of the water's arrival?
Ash Heather: Yeah.
Janet Kraus: Oh, I would do that in a heartbeat. My house at the beach is so filled with iron.
Ash Heather: Yeah, so whole-house is a great thing, but I would even encourage people that have a whole-house unit to still have a point-of-use filter, say, in your kitchen, whether it's under-sink or a pitcher, because the whole-house filters are more for sediment, just getting out the easy contaminants. If you really want to get all the contaminants out, you still need a point-of-use filter.
Janet Kraus: Well, I think of the first one as laundry and shower, and the second one as drinking and ingestion. Right.
Ash Heather: Totally. I mean, that's the funny thing about water, though. I've been thinking about this for a little while. A lot of the water we use might be for watering your garden, which doesn't have to be super clean water. When municipalities are filtering the water and adding chlorine, it's kind of like… the most important stuff is the water that you're either ingesting, like drinking, or what's in your shower or water for cooking. A lot of the other water is flushing toilets and watering the garden. It doesn't have to be super clean. So it's a tricky thing trying to work that out. I don't know the solution, but municipalities spend a lot on filtration, and yet probably only 3% of the water needs to be super clean in terms of coming in contact with your body.
Janet Kraus: Well, talking about super clean or not, one of the things everyone should know is that on your website, down at the bottom, you can actually put your zip code in and find out the quality of the water in your town. And here I am living in a lovely town in Massachusetts, and my water gets an F. An F!
Ash Heather: Oh, that's a worry. Not even a C?
Janet Kraus: Not even a C. An F.
Ash Heather: Well, the only thing to remember, Janet , is that some water filtration systems, like reverse osmosis, especially, waste a lot of water. Some of the older RO systems can waste four gallons to make one good gallon. It’s kind of heartbreaking. People have gotta think about that because water is not only becoming an issue with contaminants in it, it's also just the scarcity. Especially for us in Colorado right now with a massive drought, people have really gotta think about water usage. If you've got a filter that's wasting gallons to make one clean gallon, that's not good.
Janet Kraus: All right, so I have two questions for you as we come to the end of this. First of all, is there anything else I haven't asked you that you really want to make sure our listeners, who are people trying to make small changes, know?
Ash Heather: Don't rely on buying plastic bottles of water. Even if you're buying those five-gallon drums of water that get delivered to your house, don't do that. Plastic bottles and plastic five-gallon drums all have leaching, especially if they're on the back of a truck for a while in hot weather. And it's expensive! You're getting inferior water at quite a high price. So just look at filtration options, because if you price it out over a 12-month period, it's a pretty good value proposition.
Janet Kraus: OK. So if somebody was to make a first step into this, where would you have them start?
Ash Heather: Either get a bottle or a pitcher.
Janet Kraus: Yeah, just taste the difference. You really can taste the difference.
Ash Heather: You do; you get hooked on it. Myself and the Epic team, we've all become water snobs. You go to a restaurant now, and they pour the water for you, and you go, “Ooh, they don't have a filter.”
Janet Kraus: I know!
Ash Heather: Yeah, so you become a water snob, but that's OK.
Janet Kraus: I think that's another marketing ploy: Be a water snob. I love it. OK, because our podcast is called Imagine If, I'd like you to just start the sentence “Imagine if…” and then end it any way you want. It could be about water or anything that's on your mind. What we try to do for our listeners is provide them with a sense of hope and optimism about the future and meaningful actions they can take to shift their world a little bit.
Ash Heather: OK, I don't want this to be too controversial, but imagine if the governments that we voted for actually looked after their constituents rather than looking after themselves and their puppet masters.
Janet Kraus: OK.
Ash Heather: It's a little controversial.
Janet Kraus: I think the notion of being connected to the people that you represent is what democracy is about — for the people, by the people. That's what this country was founded on: the belief that we had a democracy that we could trust in. So thank you for that. I've enjoyed this conversation. I'm really excited; I want to see Epic Water everywhere.
Ash Heather: We appreciate it, Janet. And listen, if you're ever in Florida on the West Coast, you can come and see our facility down there. You could come down and visit and get your next filter replacement straight off the line.
Janet Kraus: Off the line. I love it. All right, Ash. Thank you again for joining us here on the Imagine If podcast.
Victoria Riskin:Thank you for joining us on Imagine If from Bluedot Living. If you want to explore our recipes, products for your home and lifestyle, and read interesting stories, you can find us at bluedotliving.com. And for daily inspiration, you can follow us at Bluedot Living on Instagram. If you enjoyed this conversation, share it and please add your thoughts in the comments on YouTube. I’m Victoria Riskin, and we’ll be back next week with more stories from great people doing amazing things in their little corner of the planet.
