Choosing an Economical Water Filter System for the Home

Often we hear something like this when people approach us about choosing a water filter system for their home: "I want a good system that will do the job but is at the same time economical."

This question takes a little bit of analysis of what you are trying to removed from the water in your home in order to come up with some suggestions.

If you want to eliminate the potential of drugs in your drinking water you will need either reverse osmosis or distillation. Both reverse osmosis and distillation will remove up to 99% of all contaminants as well as minerals from your drinking water. The World Health Organization cautions against drinking water that has been demineralized siting that magnesium, calcium and other minerals in water can help protect against nutritional deficiency. Demineralized water also doesn't taste "right" to most people because it is the minerals that give it taste. So that will be the decision you have to make based on how concerned you are with pharmaceutical residuals in the water (which may or may not be the case in your city).

I generally don't recommend these types of filters unless you have a specific problem that you're trying to eliminate that a good quality carbon/kdf filter just won't handle.

So, drugs aside, that leaves the most common contaminants of Trihalomethanes (chlorinated by-products) which are known to increase your cancer risk and fluoride which causes a number of health risks including increased risk of bone cancer in children.

You have two choices here, a whole house filter or individual filters at the point of dispensing.

To remove fluoride, you will need a filter designed specifically for that purpose (unless you decided on reverse osmosis/distillation). Fluoride is only harmful if ingested so you only need to remove it at the kitchen faucet (or any other place you drink from).

Chlorine by-products can also be absorbed from your shower through your skin and from the steam you inhale. So I'd recommend a shower filter and a bathtub filter if someone in your home loves frequent long hots soaks in the bath.

So, the bottom line, is that you can decided to go several ways:

Reverse Osmosis or Distillation for the whole home which has some draw backs in demineralization of your water but the benefit of removing the potential of pharmaceutical residuals in the water.

Carbon with KDF filters for the whole home (fluoride included if your city adds fluoride) or at point of dispensing.

If you go with point of dispensing, you'll want kitchen and shower filters.

Now the shopping is up to you. We compare water filters by brand and by function at Home Water Filters. For more technical details visit Crystal Quest.