We recently installed a whole house system. We went with the fully loaded Aquasana with all the filters and UV. They run regular promotions, filters are changed every 1-3 years, and the cost is 1k-3k plus licensed instal (a few hundred). We went with the fully loaded based on the contaminants found in DC water, forever chemicals, the fact they they issue a boil water advisory late and with every big rain, plus wanted to not breathe in chemicals in the shower, and have nicer hair, skin etc. which is more frivolous. The tests say it’s working.
We choose the system based on the Duke study:
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/suppl/10.1021/acs.estlett.0c00004/suppl_file/ez0c00004_si_001.pdf
We looked for the parts of the system to take care of the PFAS/PFOAS and DC water contaminants:
https://www.ewg.org/tapwater/system.php?pws=DC0000002
First, we made sure there was no lead pipe into the house. Took care of our other pipes and made sure system was fit to our type of pipe (copper).
Second, we picked the system and the installer. We tested the water. Our system has a bypass so we can choose to filter or not.
Third, we went with fully loaded including UV because we also wanted to not worry about the filter media growing bacteria etc.
There is a recent article with different options and some start at “just” a few hundred. I’m of the opinion the city should have a program to subsidize healthy living for its residents on a sliding scale so all households have access but that’s probably not going to have much support.
https://www.bhg.com/best-whole-house-water-filters-8406113
There are also water pitchers, faucet mounted filters, under counter filters. Zero pitcher will do the job on forever chemicals for example.