Ask Lemmy

Get a water test done first to see what it is you need to target. Not all filters are the same.

You might be fine with a simple 2-stage filter for the home, and an RO filter at your kitchen sink/fridge for your drinking water and ice cubes.

It's not a scam if your town/well water is shitty or causes issues.

I don't have one, but many restaurants in my city have them because the city water is hard, and will destroy pipes and equipment. Like, if you ran an espresso machine in my city w/o a filter the machine would clog every other week from mineral build up. So in terms of lowing your plumber and equipment bills it's a very good investment. Often in my city water heater tanks, for example, will last 5-10 years instead of like 20. Also, a lot of people find the hard water in my city unpalatable.

The info about your water should be available through your town or city. The water in my city isn't treated because it's perfectly safe and clean, it just has high mineral content. I have lived in places where the water was treated with softeners because it was too hard, and that has other drawbacks.

If I was building a new home in my same town, I would totally install one because it would pay for itself in the long run. I use a Brita filter and that's good enough for me to clean up the taste, and I do call a plumber to flush my pipes and all that every couple of years to prevent the build up that eats away at them, so that is an ongoing cost I have to eat. And retrofitting a filter system would be stupidly expensive for my building.

Get an under-sink RO system. 6 stage is the sweet spot imo.

Water went from 750 TDS to 40, and that's with minerals readded with a mineral adding filter. Tastes as good or better than bottled water to me.

If you have hard water, it's true that water softeners can help with other issues in the house (scaling of faucets, dishwasher cleaning I effectively), and possibly if your family has skin issues from showering in it. I thought about it but for simplicity, we're foregoing for now.

The first thing to do is to pull the water report for your area. For the US, most can be found here. Tap water database.

Prepare yourself because most drinking water has some serious contaminants.

When I learned this, I was stunned. It had never crossed my mind that we would allow one of our most precious resources to be contaminated.

You will see a bunch of people chiming in about how the water is safe, but a few things to note.

There are contaminants in a lot of drinking water that they simply dont regulate. So there can be excessive levels of toxic things in your water but its still identified as safe.

Also what is considered safe levels of contaminants can vary wildly.

The EPA guidelines are factoring in the cost and feasibily of removing contaminants, not just the science.

As far as (carbon based) whole house systems, they can remove chlorine and handle lower levels of PFAS, but beyond that you need to focus on point of use filters. These are typically located under sinks and or refrigerators where you use water for drinking and cooking.

Lastly you have to be very careful when selecting filters. Many vendors will not list NSF certifications. Its also highly advised to request a performance data sheet from the vendors you are considering.

Best of luck.

city water here.

I installed a modest three stage filter last year.

first stage is particulate, second stage is active carbon, third stage is UV.

we have aging pipes in the area so main breaks happen at least twice a year, not to mention the possibility of lead pipes.

no filter will get you to absolute zero, but the levels of harmful chemicals and biological matter that get through after a good filter will be negligible.

just because you trust your water today, doesn't mean you can trust it tomorrow.

The problem with removing chlorine at the home water source is that you then have nothing preventing bacterial and fungal growth in your pipes and water faucets.

You just need an under sink carbon water filter for drinking or cooking water.

Yes I've used them. They are worth it. What the EPA says is safe still has stuff you should probably remove.

https://www.ewg.org/tapwater/

Not to mention that treatment plants are not infallible.

We have one :3 well 2 kinds of water filters, technically, but one is the big kind of water treatment thing im imagining you're referring to.

But that's because we get water from our own well, so if we didn't have water filtration systems our water would actually just be brown and taste of iron ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

Put it together yourself and it's cheap af. The whole system package is the scam.

Not a water treatment system as those being described in the thread but I have installed and used a water filter in my house to prevent sand and metal deposits to enter my home pipes, as the main is a very old galvanized tube.

It cost around 60€ and the instalation is pretty straigh forward if you are at ease with tools. The kit was composed of a stainless steel cartridge and a clear filter housing. A cartridge lasts about 2 years, more if routinely cleaned, and I had the option of cheaper fabric-like filters, discardable.

The results, for me personally, besides removing the solids, were negligeable but my partner is a water taster and was constantly stating the water tasted better after I installed the filter.

I went to a few stores, asking questions and comparing answers and solutions. I was not in need of a complex system but regardless I was presented with very exaggerated solutions and more basic and down to earth approaches. A serious hurdle I had to face was insisting that the system had to be easily instalable and maintainable by myself; most people tried to convince me to have everything installed by a plumber, no matter how simple the solution was.

You have to be specific to answer properly. Where do you live (how is your water) and what treatment/filtration are you considering.

Lots of folks on well water have hard water, bad tasting, etc... Other may have lead, or other pollutants.

The truth of the matter is you should get your water tested at an independant lab. Based on the results, you can tailor a system to your needs, if any.

It’s more about removing the chlorine and microplastics than anything

Yeah that's a scam for boomers

If your water is good, don't bother. You're getting way more microplastics from driving with your windows down than a municipal source. I lived in Orlando for a little where they used wayyyy too much chlorine, but a cheep faucet filter made it serviceable.

After college, I had a Brita pitcher. The filtered water tasted noticeably better than it did straight from the faucet. When I lived in another state, I connected a filter to my sink. That was even more of an improvement.

I don’t blame you for being cautious. There’s so much bullshit out there, and it seems like everyone is trying to sell you crap for as much money as possible. In my experience, though, water filters work well and are not a scam.

Get your water tested. That will tell you what’s in YOUR water - including the city treatment, city supply pipes, and even the pipes running into your home. Do your research based off the values you see in those results.

If you do thinks it’s worth getting a filter, install one in the kitchen. That’s where you get your drinking and cooking water from. Not much sense in buying a huge system to treat the water that goes into your shower or toilet or waters your garden.

so like reverse osmossis?

If you are just worried about microplastics and chemicals you probably don't need an expensive whole house system. You can buy a much cheaper system that you install to one faucet and use that faucet as your drinking/cooking water and not worry about treating the water that will be used to wash your clothes.

If her primary concern is drinking water, you can get an under sink RO filter for a couple hundred. They're very easy to install yourself. I've even helped a friend install one connected to their fridge so that the fridge dispenser would taste better. We are on city water that tests well except for microplastics and it sometimes tastes a little bit like soil or musty. The RO systems come with a particulate filter, carbon stage, Reverse Osmosis membrane, and a remineralization stage. RO is the only way to effectively remove microplastics.

Personally, I would consider having a particulate filter and maybe water softener for the whole house. Neither of those should be crazy expensive. The water softener is only if your city water tests hard or if you have mineral buildup on your shower heads or in your dishwasher. If you've done any plumbing work, a particulate filter is pretty easy and affordable to install yourself.

Reverse osmosis for the whole house is simply unnecessary. Install one yourself at the location your family gets their drinking/cooking water.

https://www.mcmaster.com/product/4361K71

This unit from mcmaster carr is what I use. Please be aware that chlorine does damage the RO membrane, so it is important to replace the first two filter stages approximately every 6 months. The fourth stage is recommended to be replaced yearly and the RO stage is supposed to be good for 2 yrs.

https://www.mcmaster.com/4361K81/ https://www.mcmaster.com/4361K82/ https://www.mcmaster.com/4361K83/ https://www.mcmaster.com/4361K84/

Express Water also has some decent under sink and counter top options.

Removing chlorine for the whole home requires a large activated carbon filter. They're pretty expensive and the media gets saturated and has to be replaced every so often to keep absorbing chlorine. I would only do this if your wife has extremely sensitive skin that is getting irritated from your tap water.

Oh and Reverse Osmosis systems waste more water than they clean without expensive recirculating pumps and controllers. That's acceptable for a couple gallons of drinking water a day, but would be very wasteful and expensive in a whole-house system.

The water in my house tastes like crap. We used to buy gallon jugs of water not for health reasons but because of the taste. I bought a reverse osmosis system and I love it.

It wastes water to cycle (less than most) but still not great and it takes cartridges, but to me it's still with it. I mean is it better to waste water or put plastic jugs in the landfill? The cartridges last a long time. So to me, the scam is worth it. One of the best things I've ever bought.

I have heard of some using calcium removal devices for their pipes, called Ion-Exchange Water Softeners

They use beads with an electrical charge, in an attempt to reduce calcium in the water. Meaning less buildup(cleaning) in the shower etc

But you gotta replace these beads every few months or whatever. Its also quite expensive.

Reducing the calcium if you drink it, can affect the taste a bit. Not sure how much or if its good/bad

As for regular “filters” im unsure they do anything.

And dont get anything that talks about water ph levels.. that is bullshit

A good reverse osmosis filter system is cheap (maybe $400-500 with installation and extra filters for a fancy system), and can improve even the best municipal water sources.

Recommend against getting one that is too expensive, avoid softener systems.

They will eventually break, when the softener specifically breaks it can be a very expensive water bill. I eventually got to throw it out and just install a filter system under the kitchen sink enabling a singular faucet for drinking water.

We have a salt water system, came with the house, system was about 2k in today’s dollars. buy like $15 of salt every quarter, works great and saves the plumbing

Only water treatment I had in my previous home was a water softener and basic charcoal filters.

Filter should take care of microplastics, letting it sit to off-gas should take care of the chlorine taste. The super tiny amount of chlorine in treated water isn't going to hurt you.

I have a full reverse osmosis system at home. On city water. Installed it when my ice cubes melted and left some sandy sludge at the bottom of the glass. I use it to make crystal clear ice and to fill up the aquarium with safe water. Also, for drinking water in the spring when the water smells like dead fish for some reason.

We had a guy out who specialized in this stuff and he said to install the RO system to the fridge and a tap and leave the toilet water as it comes from the city. Installed it myself for cheap when the system went on closeout.