Even though your home’s water has been purified and is certified safe to drink, it may still include toxins harmful to your health. Corrosion in old water pipes causes metals like lead and copper to leak into your water. Chlorine and fluoride, used in water treatment, can make your water taste bad and negatively affect your health.
Fortunately, getting clean and pure drinking water is now easier than ever, even from the comfort of your own home. Filtration technologies for drinking water are becoming more accessible and inexpensive. While a simple filter pitcher may work, an under-sink or whole-house filter system offers far greater convenience by allowing you to draw filtered, clean water directly from your tap.
Small-scale water filtering, such as a filter pitcher, is relatively inexpensive. Larger systems might be costly. Depending on your requirements, you may spend $200 or $4000. We’ll discuss how much water filtration system costs in this post to help you decide which is the better option.
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What is a Whole House Water Filter?
A whole house water filter also referred to as a point-of-entry tap, is a system installed where your main water line enters your home. It can help reduce contaminants such as chlorine, iron, sulfur, and more from your water. Whole house water filters bring cleaner water to every tap in your home. This means you can access filtered water throughout your house when you wash the dishes, make coffee, take a shower, do laundry and brush your teeth.
More than just a water filter for your faucet, a whole home filtration system helps take hard or problem water and turn it into cleaner, safer water that’s better for your entire home and your loved ones.
Your water will be processed through various levels of filtration, depending on which whole house filtration system you choose, to help catch as many contaminants as possible. Generally, a three-stage process occurs, which comprises the following:
The Pre-Filter Stage
This step is for removing bigger particulates and pollutants from your water. Impurities like sediment and silt are common examples. Sediment-filled water can harm your pipes and appliances over time, but this filter can trap these unwelcome contaminants. Make sure you don’t forget about your pre-filter. To keep your filtration system running well, it’s advised that you replace it every 2-3 months.
Activated Carbon Stage
Chlorine and chloramines are reduced at the next step of filtering. Activated carbon binds and eliminates harmful toxins from your water for an added layer of protection.
Post-Filter Stage
The post-filter will pass through any pollutants left in your water. Before your water reaches your taps, this stage helps eliminate any residual sediment and impurities. We suggest switching your post-filter every 6-12 months for best results.
Benefits of a Whole House Water Filtration System
Whole-house filters can preserve your tap washers, hot water systems, and other appliances and remove sediment and chlorine. Less sediment will accumulate, particularly in your hot water system.
Scaling and sediment buildup are significant issues with water heaters and tap washers. These factors may reduce the efficiency of your equipment (while consuming more energy). Furthermore, the accumulation of particles will reduce the functional lifespan of several of your appliances. Unfiltered water contains some chemicals that are known to cause corrosion. This process may eat away at some parts, resulting in higher repair and replacement costs.
In a nutshell, using a whole house filter will save you some money. You extend your faucet washers and water heaters. You increase your energy efficiency. Choosing chlorine-free water benefits you and your family. You’re shielded from the long-term effects of chlorine and chemical byproducts.
What Are the Signs That You Need a Whole House Water Filter?
While some contaminants go undetected, others make their presence in your water known. Water with a problem can leave stains, emit a terrible odor, and even taste bad. The following are indicators that you may require a whole-house water filtration system:
- Your drinking water has a rotten egg odor to it.
- After showering, your skin is dry or itchy
- Your drinking water tastes unpleasant
- Appliances begin to get rusty
- Damaged piping.
However, determining what is in your water simply by looking at it is not always easy. While specific contaminants make your water smell or taste terrible, others, such as the following, can go unnoticed by your senses:
- Arsenic: Exposure to this pollutant, which is odorless and tasteless, can become toxic. Long-term exposure to arsenic has also been related to various skin and health problems.
- Nitrates: This contaminant is colorless, tasteless, and odorless, but it can cause the growth of bacteria in water and enhance carcinogen production in adults.
- Lead is an unseen, odorless, tasteless pollutant that is difficult to detect. Long-term exposure can result in health issues.
- PFOS: These are manufactured compounds that may have gotten into drinking water supplies and are difficult to break down in the environment and the human body.
So, if you don’t know what’s in your water, how can you tell if you need a whole-house water filter? The only way to know if your water has picked up impurities on its path to your house is to test it.
Different Types of Whole House Water Filter and their Costs
1. Whole-house Reverse Osmosis Water Filtration Systems: $300-$5,000+
Reverse osmosis filters your water across a membrane, which can remove practically all contaminants and leave you with absolutely pure water. The disadvantage is that they squander a lot of water, wasting many gallons for every gallon of clean water generated. Reverse osmosis systems can be bought for as little as $250 in under-sink form, but a whole-house RO system should cost at least $1,000, though it might easily cost several times more.
Pros:
If you acquire your drinking water from a private source, such as a well, it could be contaminated with microbes, chemicals, or other contaminants. A reverse osmosis system can remove these hazardous pollutants.
- Dissolved solids, salts, minerals that create hardness, organic compounds, and other contaminants can be removed via reverse osmosis.
- For those who dislike the taste of dissolved mineral solids, R/O systems can improve the flavor of the water.
- Scales will not form in kettles or coffee makers if the water has been treated with a reverse osmosis system.
- Reverse osmosis systems may remove contaminants like chromium, mercury, and nitrates.
- Other than the sound of water emptying into the drain, reverse osmosis systems make no noise.
- There are no additional ions since reverse osmosis systems do not require the use of salt or potassium chloride to generate soft water. This is a wonderful option for folks who are cautious about consuming too much sodium.
Cons:
- Ion-exchange water softeners usually are more expensive than reverse osmosis devices, although distillers are far less expensive.
- Membranes used in the filtration process must be updated regularly.
- To operate, reverse osmosis takes more water than other softening methods.
2. Ultraviolet Purification System Cost ($150-$1000)
A UV water purifier uses germicidal ultraviolet radiation to treat microbiologically hazardous water. It uses UV radiation to break living organisms’ DNA, preventing them from reproducing and spreading disease in the water supply. However, because dirt and debris conceal microscopic bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens from UV radiation, ultraviolet purification systems are most efficient when water is first cleaned by another filter, such as a sediment filter.
On the other hand, UV purification systems can eliminate 99.9% of living organisms when water is pre-filtered, making them an excellent complement to whole-house filtration systems that provide you peace of mind and protect your household water supply.
Pros:
- Chemical-Free: UV filtration does not utilize chemicals to filter your water, unlike some other filtration technologies. UV filtration removes germs by exposing them to ultraviolet light, as the name suggests. Filtering water using chlorine or other chemicals might leave the water with an unpleasant taste or odor. Even if such smells or tastes aren’t indicative of a problem with the water, it’s still not ideal. UV rays leave behind no odors or tastes.
- Energy-Efficient: UV filtration is an energy-efficient option for those concerned about their carbon footprint or looking for a cost-effective way to filter their water. UV filtration takes about the same amount of energy as a 60-watt lamp and effectively kills microorganisms.
- Low Maintenance: One of the primary advantages of UV water filtration is that it requires almost no maintenance. It’s as simple as turning on the UV light and forgetting about it! Just remember to change the UV bulbs every year.
Cons::
- Won’t remove all impurities – requires a secondary purification method to provide a total filtration solution.
3. Water Softeners: $600 – $3,000+
If you have hard water, the most common problem we encounter, a water softener is the answer. A high concentration of dissolved minerals, particularly calcium and magnesium, causes hard water, which can cause havoc in your home.
You most likely have hard water if you have stiff, discolored laundry, soap scum in your shower or powdery dishes. Hard water also creates scale, which clogs pipes, lowers water pressure, and reduces the life of your equipment. Hard water can cause your skin to become dry and irritated and your hair to become dull and frizzy.
If you have hard water in your home, a whole house water softener is an investment that will save you a lot of money in the long run since you won’t have to pay for costly repairs or replacements, such as your water heater, due to scale buildup.
Pros:
The following hard water issues can be solved with the use of a water softener:
- Skin and hair that feels dry
- Sink, toilet, shower, and bathtub stains
- Mineral build-up inside your pipes might cause plumbing pipe damage.
- When bathing or cleaning, you need to use extra soap or detergent to develop a lather.
- Wear and tear on your clothes as a result of the damage.
- Scale can build up your washing machine, dishwasher, water heater, and other hot-water appliances.
Cons:
- You may be afraid to use a water softener if you are on a sodium-reduced diet for health reasons. However, compared to a healthy person’s diet, the amount of sodium added to the water softening process is negligible.
4. Water Heater Filtration System $1,600 – $2,500+
Like any other water filter, a water heater filter removes minerals that could cause scale accumulation inside your water heater. While the minerals that generate scale are not toxic to drink, they can degrade the efficiency and lifespan of your water heater when they travel through it. The filtration system for your water heater is a long tube that is simply connected to the pipe that transports water through your water heater.
When water travels through the filter, minerals and sediments are captured by a chemical, a granular surface, or both. The stripped water flows through the water heater and onto your faucets, but it is cleaner. Like a drinking water filtration system, it is meant to protect your water heater.
Final Thoughts
When it comes to clean water in your home, there are many ways to achieve it. By researching the different types of filtration systems and knowing what potential problems you might have in your water, you can decide which system is suitable for you and your family.
