The water really tasted better. I especially like to take it on vacation where you don't always know where you will be getting your water. The two downfalls are trying to get the water sucked up through the straw and when you need ice cubes, you cannot put the ice cubes and water in and then put the filter/straw in as the ice cubes get in between the bottom of the bottle and the filter and you can't get the the top screwed on. I have to put water in the bottle and then put the filter straw assembly in and then try to squeeze ice cubes in without them falling below the filter. It would be better to put the filter below the lid and the straw below the filter. (I may have to see if this would work.)