The Best 4 Whole House Water Filters
Investing in a whole-house watering filtration system is a wise thing to do pretty much anywhere you live. It is a well-known fact that the quality of our drinking water is questionable, to say the least.
With one of these systems, you can have pure drinking, cooking, or cleaning water at pretty much every water source in your home. But what does a good filter look like and where can you find it?
Features to Look For
There are several things that can make or break the deal when it comes to whole-house water filters. If you want to get one for your home, you need to pay attention to features like:
- The flow rate is one of the most important aspects. It is measured in gallons per minutes and it is a reflection of the water available all over your household. Each one of your water-consuming sources should have their GPM listed on the product or the manual. Think of it this way: if your water filter isn’t capable of running the total amount of water your household uses in peak hours, then it’s not worth buying.
- The size of the filter is also important because the larger it is, the longer lifespan it will have.
- The port size is also important. You want to look for a system with a port size of one inch.
- The life of the filter is determined by the quality of the sediment. You want filters that can last about 100,000 gallons (preferably 150,000 if you find one at a good price).
Water Filtration Methods
Before you choose a water filter, you might want to know about the different filtration methods so that you can better determine which one would be more suitable for your household:
- Activated carbon filters – They help solve taste and odour problems by eliminating organic contaminants that cause them. Some models are even capable of removing pesticides, solvents, and chlorination by-products. While activated carbon filters can remove different kinds of metals as well, they don’t work that well with dissolved minerals or bacteria.
- Ion exchange units – These treatment devices are efficient in removing calcium and magnesium, but also fluoride, with some units removing barium and radium as well. The problematic thing about these is that if water contains iron bacteria or oxidized iron, the resin loses its water softening ability.
- Reverse osmosis filters – These are highly capable of removing different kinds of dissolved organic and inorganic compounds, with some models being efficient in deducing levels of petrochemical, chloroform, or pesticides.
- UV sterilization – This is a basically a way to disinfect water by using ultraviolet lights. Germs are irradiated because the UV light destroys their reproductive function. Systems that have UV sterilization are highly efficient and natural, because they literally add nothing to the water you consume.
Types of Water Filters
Knowing about the different types of existing filters can make your shopping decision a whole lot easier, because the filter needs to cater to your home’s requirements. Your options include:
- Water filter pitchers – There are basically giant water pitchers that have a filter system which cleanses the water before pouring out into a cup for you to drink. They are very inexpensive and don’t require any installation. They are lightweight and can easily be carried around from one room to another, but you will have to replace the filters on a regular basis.
- Refrigerator filters – They are usually built into the doors of your fridge and supply water through a special faucet that you can access with the doors of the refrigerator closed. They are available in modern refrigerator models and some even have ice making capabilities. These also have filters that require changing regularly.
- Faucet-mounted filters – These are attached to your faucet and come with a system that allows you opt for filtered or unfiltered water. They are less expensive compared to built-in faucet filters but they can limit your water flow considerably.
- Built-in faucet filters – These systems are actually faucets that come with an integrated filter. They do require installation and some of the higher-quality models can be really expensive.
- On-counter filters/under-sink filters – This is another way to divide water filters into categories, depending on where you have to mount them. Both of these types of filters require installation, but the under-sink filters are concealed underneath the counter, out of sight.
- Whole-house water filtration systems – This are performance filters that cleanse the entire water that comes into your home, which includes drinking and bathroom water. This can eliminate a considerable amount of VOCs and can treat hard water, but they are expensive and most of them require plumbing modifications (which also means that you have to call in a professional to install them).
Top 4 Best Whole Home Water Filter Reviews
1. Best Large-Capacity System: Springwell Whole House Water Filter System
The Springwell whole-house water filtration system is the kind of product that delivers more than you hoped for considering that it’s less expensive compared to plenty of other models out there. It promises to remove contaminants that are usually found in tap-water, making it a safer drinking solution, but also one that’s gentler on the skin.
It has a low-maintenance design and aims to remove contaminants that include herbicides, pesticides, PFOA, chloramine, chlorine, and many others. The system is designed with 4 filtering stages that include a flex bed, a KDF bed, a coconut shell carbon bed, and the 5-micron sediment filtration.
It comes with filters that require changing once every 6 to 9 months, but you can buy conveniently-priced packs of two filters each. The filter is designed to prevent drops in water pressure, so make sure you select your number of bathrooms so that you can get recommendations for the best GPM.
Pros:
- No drops in water pressure.
- Low-maintenance design.
- Lifetime warranty coverage.
- Easy to install.
Cons:
- Not compatible with wells.
2. Home Master Whole House Three Stage Water Filtration System
Home Master is here to deliver a three-stage filtration system that most of you are going to love. It works well with city and well water, so you should be covered regardless of your water source. The system can remove up to 95 percent of the contaminants that usually find their way into your water.
It comes with a sediment filter that can hold a lot of dirt to make sure that the water you get is as clean as possible. The coconut shell carbon filter is there to make sure that you can use the filters to clean up about 95,000 gallons of water before a replacement is needed. The system stands out thanks to its capacity of providing you with a great water flow rate but also reduced maintenance frequency.
Pros:
- Purifies about 95,000 gallons of water.
- Low maintenance frequency.
- Massive filter housing.
- Excellent water pressure.
Cons:
- Takes up a lot of space.
3. APEC Top Tier 5-Stage Ultra Safe Reverse Osmosis Drinking Water Filter System
Looking for something not as expensive, but still very efficient? The APEC filters use reverse osmosis to guarantee that your water is contaminant-free. With this system, you can benefit from a 99 percent contaminant purging that will make the water drinkable and good for cooking. The system has a capacity of 50 gallons daily at a pressure of 60 psi.
Aside from the filters being of high-quality, the overall system is designed to have maximum efficiency and usability in mind. Thanks to the quality fittings, you will never have to worry about leaks.
Some of the other features that make these APEX filters amazing include housing wrenches delivered with your system, a versatile feed water adapter, and a durable drain saddle.
Pros:
- Good price.
- Tank ball valve.
- Colored food-grade tubing.
- Housing wrenches included.
Cons:
- Hard to install.
4. SpringWell Water Filter
If you have a large house with about 4 bathrooms, then this is the perfect water filter for your needs. It can filter up to 99.6 percent of the chlorine found in your water, but it is also efficient against a number of other contaminants. It uses a special water filtering system that has a four-stage design meant to remove as many contaminants as possible.
It comes with an installation kit that provides you with everything you need to make sure that you can get the system up and running without having to buy any additional things. You will receive fittings, bypass valves, hose bib assembly, spanner wrench, mounting brackets, o-ring, sediment filter, and pre-filter housing.
Pros:
- Full installation kit.
- Four-stage design.
- Catalytic coconut shell carbon.
- Salt-free system.
Cons:
- Customer service isn’t the greatest
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)FAQ
Are whole house water filters worth it?
Yes they are, especially if you’re using well water. You can end up having a lot of sediments, heavy metals, and microorganisms in water that goes on and inside your body, so having a system that can cleanse the water that runs to your kitchen and bathrooms is super important.
Do whole house water filters affect water pressure?
Most of them do, but it’s quite worth it even so. There are some systems that claim water pressure won’t drop after you’ve installed them, but that’s rarely the case, even if the drop is insignificant. Overall, having a filtration system for your water is more worth it than not installing one at all.
Where should a whole house water filter be installed?
Filtrations systems designed for the entire house are usually inside in the main water line, before the water comes inside the house.
Conclusion
A whole-house water filtering system connects to the entire water system of your household in order to make sure that all sources can provide clean and high-quality water.
Some of these systems are easy to install, while some of them might require professional assistance (for instance, if you want to purify water in your garden, then you would have to connect the system elsewhere compared to the spot it connects to for inside the house use).
Whatever the case, make sure that you pay attention to features like flow rate, filter size, and what percentage of contaminants the filter is capable of purifying.