Whole House Water Filters

How to Choose a Whole House Water Filter

Water filters are one of the most common objects one can find in a household. Even if the tap water in the house is perfectly safe to drink, a small activate carbon filter will give even the most anxious and healthy residents peace of mind. However, if you live in an area where the water system has been deemed unsafe by the EPA or the water pipes in your house have clearly seen better days; you must consider getting yourself a serious water filtration system.

The most reliable option is a whole house water filter, which will not only make the tap water safe to drink but clarify the liquid in every water dispenser in your house. With this system, you won’t have to worry about rusty red water pouring out from your shower head. Keep in mind that these filters are much harder to choose, install, and maintain. Here are a few things you need to know before making that all-important choice.

Whole House Water Filter: Basics

In contrast to the small portable water filters, a whole house water filtration system is a much more serious and efficient device. While small filters can be installed under the sink, a whole house water filtration system is installed at the main water line, right where the water enters the house. It connects to the main water pipe before it gets split between all the water dispensers, meaning a whole house water filtration system clarifies the water before it even reaches your home. As a result, every source of water, every tap, and shower will pour out crystal clear water.

Yet, why does one need to install a whole house water filtration system to get filtered water in the shower? We aren’t drinking it, aren’t we? Of course, not, that is unless you desperately need a mouthful of water. However, contaminated water can cause you harm even when you don’t drink it. In fact, if the water has been contaminated with chemicals, there is a high chance it can become airborne when dispersed through the shower, laundry, and even the dishwasher. It gets particularly dangerous when poured through the hot water channel, as heat makes the bacteria spread faster. Imagine all the pollutants you could be inhaling every day!

Our Portfolio: Whole House Filters

If you can sense a weird smell, or the water gets brown or red, it is a clear sign you need a whole house water filter. Yet, it might get really confusing if you’ve never had to deal with this kind of filter before. Obviously, you can simply search for whole house water filtration system reviews online. While reviews can give you a better understanding of which device works best, you can’t know which system will work best for your house. Finding the best whole house water filtration system can be a tricky endeavor, as you need to make sure it fits perfectly with the house water system and the type of pipes. Besides, there are so many different types of these filters out there!

How to Choose a Whole House Water Filter?

The key to finding the perfect whole house water filter system is to learn what types of contaminants are in your water, and thus, it’s quality. The presence of some pollutants can be determined by the smell, color, or taste of the water. Others are completely invisible. In fact, as the water travels miles and miles through the metal pipes from its point of origin, it might gather a crazy number of contaminants, which are invisible to the naked eye. Some of the most common ones are copper, lead, aluminum, ammonia, and chlorine; not to mention the infinite number of bacteria and viruses! The full list of waterborne pollutants has been provided by the Water Quality Association.

The easiest way to determine what pollutants are present in your water system is to request the water analysis report from your municipality. If you have discovered that your water doesn’t meet EPA standards, you might find yourself anxiously browsing reviews of whole house water filtration systems for the home, to find the one and only filter that fixes all of your problems.

Yet, not every household depends on a city-wide water system but uses private well water instead. In this case, the report findings would be useless. When dealing with well water, you need to remember that you are most likely dealing with different types of contaminants like sediment and iron. In this case, before purchasing anything, you’ll need to request an individual water analysis to identify what impurities you are dealing with and find a suitable whole house water filtration system for well water for your home. Which leads us to the most important questions, what kind of whole house water filter system do you need?

Different Types of Water Filtration Systems

Similar to drinking/tap water filters, whole house water filters use different filtration cores. The most popular and efficient options are carbon, reverse osmosis, and brand new next-generation filters.

Carbon Filters

One of the most popular and affordable options is the carbon-based, whole house water filtration system. These filters, hence the name, utilize a carbon media filter which absorbs the contaminants or traps the pollutants in the pores created on the surface. Yet, the majority of high-quality whole house carbon water filters use a three-step system to ensure the purity and safety of the water:

• Pre-Filter: removes the more substantial particles and contaminants
• Copper-Zinc Blend: eliminates the traces of heavy metals in the stream (such as lead, nickel, mercury)
• Activated Carbon Filter: clears out the organic pollutants

Our Portfolio: Whole House Filters

Carbon filters last for ages and will clean at least 300,000 gallons of water before you need to replace them. Meaning, it will last a family of four for at least three years, and smaller households for even longer! However, there is one significant downside: it does not remove chloramines. Chloramines are popular disinfectants and are used by at least 20% of the water companies. Thus, if your water analysis report states it has identified the presence of chloramines in the water, you’ll need to get an extra drinking water filter.

Reverse Osmosis (RO) Whole House Filters

Carbon filters may be affordable and reliable, but they don’t provide the same level of efficiency as the whole house reverse osmosis water filters. Yet, as it usually goes, high-quality comes at a rather high price for both purchasing and maintenance. If the average price for carbon filters Is about $400, the RO filters come with a $4000 price tag. As you will see, in the majority of whole house water filtration system reviews, the RO systems follow these five filtration steps:

• Sediment Filter: removes dirt, dust and other large contaminants
• Activated Carbon Filter: eliminates chlorine, weird tastes, and odors
• Carbon Block: improves the effect of the previous stage and further clarifies the water
• RO Membrane: removes the rest of the contaminants
• Inline Carbon Filter: perfect the odor, color and taste

The whole home reverse osmosis system is the best whole house water filtration system in terms of water quality. Most RO systems are also able to work under low water pressure. However, they are a handful to install and maintain. They also produce a lot of wastewater in the process, which is not exactly environmentally friendly. Plus, such an advanced filtration system also filters out healthful minerals from the water.

Next-Generation Technology Whole House Filters

Lastly, the most advanced and efficient whole house filtration system on the list is the one implementing next-generation technology. These filters operate like the RO options and use advanced pure granule carbon filters. They cost slightly more than classic carbon filters but can eliminate more than 220 pollutants from the water. In addition, they are way more compact and produce less wastewater compared to the RO filters, and do not eliminate minerals from the water.

Despite the pros and cons of each filtration system, there is no universal option that will fit every house. As water systems across the country, counties and neighborhoods differ drastically; every household might need a different water filtration system. That is why it’s so important to test the water quality. It allows you to determine which type of filter will be able to eliminate the specific contaminants present in your water system. Yet, if you are still questioning which filter to choose, High Water Standard offers a full range of consultant services; from helping you to select the perfect whole house water filtration system, to its installation.

Installation of Whole House Water Filtration System

As soon as you’ve successfully chosen the best whole house water filtration system, it’s time to get this thing installed. Otherwise, it’ll be completely useless. Whole house water filter installation instructions are widely available through whole house water filtration system reviews, forums, and websites. However, if you don’t want to screw up, request a specialist from High Water Standard, or carefully read our instructions on how to install a whole house water filter.

• Shut off the water supply to your house
• Before installing the filter itself, you need to determine where to install a whole house water filter. It should be easily accessible, as you will need to change the parts (like carbon blocks or sediment filters)
• Install the new shutoff valve in the pipe
• Assemble the filtering system
• Cut the pipe and install the filtering system in the appropriate hole, and then tighten the nuts.

Our Portfolio: Whole House Filters

For more detailed information on the filter installation, you can always browse the Internet for whole house water filtration systems for home reviews, or simply reach out to us!

Conclusion

Clean water in the house is the key to your and your family’s health. There is nothing more important, after all. If you’ve learned that the water in your household is contaminated with bacteria, viruses, chlorine, and other dangerous impurities, you should immediately look into ways to clarify it. Yet, in the case of severe contamination, one should not only worry about the drinking water, but the water in every dispenser in the house. The only way to ensure your safety is to install a whole house water filtration system.

When it comes to choosing the filtration system, one might be tempted to read through the whole house water filtration system reviews to see which one they like best. Yet, to find the best whole house water filtration system, one needs to learn what types of contaminants hide in the water. You can either request the report from the EPA, your municipality, or simply browse the Internet. Don’t forget that if you are using a private well, you’ll need a particular whole house water filtration system for well water.

As soon as you’ve discovered what you’re dealing with, you’ll know the appropriate water filtration system, which will be able to eliminate exactly those impurities in the water. The most efficient ones are carbon-based, reverse osmosis, and next-generation filters. Despite a variety of reviews and opinions on whole house water filtration systems for the home, each of them might be ideal for you, depending on your water quality.

Yet, choosing the filter isn’t the most challenging task – installation and treatment of the whole house water filtration system is a way trickier endeavor! But fear not! High Water Standard offers high-quality installation, repair, and maintenance services, taking this complex task off your hands. We provide water filter services in the greater New York City area.