I've heard of people affected by underground gasoline spills needing whole-house filters but not the average Joe. Can you share your decision-making process?

Hi,
For whole house water filtration, there are larger and more advanced systems available that require a professional installation. There are different types of water filtration systems from on-the-tap faucet filtration systems dispensers and pitchers using carbon filters, to those using reverse osmosis technique.To know more visit the link.
WATER FILTER REVIEWS AND INFORMATION

We have a whole house cartridge filter, and a charcoal filter on our main water line. I have to change the cartridge every six months, and the charcoal filter once a year (I think, have not changed it yet). We also have reverse osmosis on our sink. It's a separate filter. We had our water tested, and were not happy with the levels of chlorine and other contaminants. RO is the only thing that removes pharmaceuticals. It is NOT recommended for filtering in general, as it wastes a lot of water. We use it only on one faucet in the kitchen only for drinking water. We drink a lot of water, so it's very useful. We paid about $500 for ours, bought online from Amazon. It cost about $300 to install it, however, and it broke a couple of times, so I've had to pay the plumber even more money to fix it. The inline filters are not expensive, and installation was a couple hundred dollars, I think. We have VERY rusty water coming in from the street, so this filter is absolutely necessary for us. Our laundry was getting yellow from all the rust in the water. Now it's still rusty at times if we have not run the water for a while, but mostly the water is clear.

Not sure which PP recommended a whole house reverse osmosis system. We have a whole house cartridge filter because WSSC has high iron and chlorine content. Filter housing was about $50 and the filters are about $25, replaced every 6 months. Works great to reduce sediment and taste, and makes cleaning our washing machine a snap. We also have a reverse osmosis tap in our wet bar area for drinking water. That's a little more expensive, but less than bottled water.

Anonymous wrote:Wow, some bad advice from PP.

You don't want to do reverse osmosis in your home -- it's extremely wasteful when used in residences (wastes up to 90% of the total water going into the system) and it removes beneficial minerals, AND it makes water acidic. It's bad for your water bill, bad for the environment, and bad for your health.

Whole house filters are great for removing excess chlorine (which can irritate eyes, skin, etc). You will not have problems with mold in standing water (where in a house do you have "standing water", anyway? I'm guessing toilets, but those are flushed -- my parents have well water with no chlorine and have never had issues with mold, so I don't know what PP is talking about).

Don't know about the specific ones you linked to, but they look pretty good to me.

OP here. Yeah, the excess chlorine (or chloramine) in our case is the main thing I want to get out, it makes a huge difference for drinking water. Over a 6 yr period I guesstimate the whole house system will cost about twice as much per month $25/mo.) including installation & replacement filters (every 3-6 mo.) and tanks (every 4-6 yrs.), compared to the faucet filter. It's about another $1,300 overall difference so I'm inclined to just go with the same faucet & undersink w/ replaceable filters setup we have now.

Wow, some bad advice from PP.

You don't want to do reverse osmosis in your home -- it's extremely wasteful when used in residences (wastes up to 90% of the total water going into the system) and it removes beneficial minerals, AND it makes water acidic. It's bad for your water bill, bad for the environment, and bad for your health.

Whole house filters are great for removing excess chlorine (which can irritate eyes, skin, etc). You will not have problems with mold in standing water (where in a house do you have "standing water", anyway? I'm guessing toilets, but those are flushed -- my parents have well water with no chlorine and have never had issues with mold, so I don't know what PP is talking about).

Don't know about the specific ones you linked to, but they look pretty good to me.

An in-line particulate filter costs about $100 and will work well for whole-house application. I would only do RO for the whole house if you're on well water. Otherwise a waste of money and potentially problematic, for reasons PP cites.

mom has this and i think its a waste. You really want to do RO for drinking water. You don't need to filter shower water and i think that if you remove the chlorine etc.. you might end up with the potential for moldy standing water

^^^
TYPO: that should read "Aquasana"

We've used an Aqusana faucet & filter for years in the kitchen and it works great (Arlington). Thinking of getting a whole house system when we do some renovation later this year but I see pros & cons including cost, reduced flow perhaps (7 gpm with the whole house filter), etc. If not will go with another kitchen faucet and a couple of shower filters probably.

http://www.aquasana.com/product_detail.php?product_id=27

Anyone have experiences with these?

Or personal first-hand experiences to report (preferably good, but bad , too) with others?

Thanks.

http://www.aquasana.com/product_detail.php?product_id=21

http://www.aquasana.com/product_detail.php?product_id=46