When you’re on the market for a water filtration system, it can be hard to sort through all the options. There are many different water purification methods available, and the sizes and types of units only add to the complexity. But what exactly should you be looking for in a water filtration system?

Water filtration systems range from whole house systems to filtered pitchers that produce better tasting water on demand.

A popular solution is installing a dedicated filtered water faucet for filtering water you use for cooking and drinking. This ensures that you don’t waste the filtered cleaning water used to wash dishes. This water filtration system requires you installing a dedicated faucet, though you may not want to add one to your sink.

If that’s the case, perhaps you want to research systems that can filter all the water going to the sink. If you want all the water in your home filtered, including water used for showers and laundry, then you need a whole-house water filtration system. Note that you may end up with a combination of whole-house water filtration and local filtration, such as when you have a whole house water filter to remove minerals and odors from the water but a faucet filter to remove chlorine for the kitchen sink or shower.

Water filtration systems can reduce a number of contaminants. However, they do not remove every possible contaminant from the water. Conversely, it is a waste to pay more for a water filtration system that removes things from water that aren’t there in the first place. Before you buy a water filtration system, learn what exactly is in your water and decide what you want to reduce or eliminate.

Something that removes the chlorine taste and other chemicals from tap water may not be able to remove bacteria and viruses from your water. If you want to remove metals like lead or industrial pollutants from the water, you need to verify that the water filtration system is able to filter it out. All of this depends on the filters themselves, the design of the system and the water source. For example, you can only remove perchlorates by reverse osmosis and arsenic by distillation. You can learn more about this at Waterfilteranswers.Com.

Read the system’s performance data sheet to see what it actually removes. Then you’ll be able to narrow down the market to the few models and designs that do what you need it to do.

Water filtration systems either use replaceable filters or are filter-less. Filter-less systems still filter the water, but they have a self-cleaning feature to flush the contaminants down the drain. You eliminate the need to clean or replace the filter, but you have to provide a power source and drain for it. You pay more for the system up front and need to ensure it has the right supporting infrastructure, but you get a water filtration system with little to no long-term maintenance. What is right for you depends on your budget and view of system maintenance. If you’re willing to do the maintenance, determine if you need notifications regarding when to change the water filters.

If you want to filter your water, there are many products and systems out there to do just that. You need to do your research to determine what is right for your home.