A Water-Drinking System For Home Owners
What comes out of your home’s tap is water that has traveled miles through pipes and aquifers before arriving in your glass. To ensure it’s safe to drink, you should install a drinking water system that eliminates chemicals from your household’s water.
The best filter type depends on what is in your water. Carbon filters are good for reducing chlorine and basic nontoxic substances, while minerals and heavy metals require reverse osmosis.
Aquasana AQ-5200
Aquasana’s under-sink system uses two proprietary filters to purify water before it reaches your sink, reducing up to 99% of 78 contaminants including lead, chlorine, and microplastics. It’s also certified to NSF/ANSI standards 42, 53, and 401 (the latter protects against emerging contaminants like pharmaceuticals). This is more than three times as powerful as leading jug-type filter systems and is designed to last for six months or 500 gallons of use.
Installation can be relatively simple if you already have an extra hole in your sink; otherwise, it requires drilling or punching to add a new faucet and a T valve. The manufacturer provides a five-minute video on the process, but if you’re not comfortable with it, it’s best to hire someone for help. The system is also fairly compact, so it won’t take up much space under your sink.
The AQ-5200’s 0.5 gallons per minute and 500-gallon capacity is on the low end of the spectrum relative to other under-sink systems, but that may be acceptable for households that don’t drink a lot of water or don’t need to cook with it. Its other drawbacks water-drinking system for home include a higher upfront cost than the top pick and a slightly shorter lifespan compared to some competitors. Like our upgrade pick, the AQ-5300+ Max Flow, it also features a prefilter to reduce rust and sediment.
iSpring Three-Stage Whole House Water Filtration System
This whole-home water filtration system is a good choice for people who want to protect their family’s health and the environment from dangerous contaminants. It filters chlorine, sediment, bacteria, heavy metals and chemicals that create color, foul taste or odor in drinking water. It is also designed to remove rust, pesticides, industrial solvents and other contaminants found in well water. It’s not a water softener and may need to be paired with one for home owners on hard water supplies, but it is certified by NSF and comes with long-lasting filters that last 100,000 gallons.
Its three-stage filtration system starts with a high capacity polypropylene sediment filter for fewer clogs and lower water pressure loss, followed by a coconut shell carbon block filter that reduces chlorine, herbicides, pesticides and industrial solvents, and a second iron and manganese filter. It also removes rust, dirt, sand, silt, cloudiness and volatile organic compounds from the water.
It’s important to test your home water before choosing a water-filtration system. Home testing kits are available in some hardware stores, but you’ll get the most accurate results if you have a professional test your water. You’ll need to know the type of contaminants you’re dealing with in order to choose the right type of filtration for your home, says Ethan Bennett, senior technical advisor at Colorado contractor Sanders & Johnson.
Rhino Whole House Water Filtration System
The Aquasana Rhino Whole House Water Filtration System is one of the most comprehensive systems on the market. It’s low maintenance, and its parts are all certified to work well together. It includes a sediment pre-filter, a filtration cylinder, a water softener cylinder, and activated carbon filters. It also has a UV sterilizer, which kills bacteria and viruses in the water.
It’s the best option for people who want to filter their entire home’s water. It protects against bacterial contamination and local water-drinking system for home supplier pollutants that often affect private well water. It’s intelligently engineered to maximize potent filtration media and lasts for ten years or a million gallons. It also uses an upflow design, which increases the amount of water that comes in contact with the contaminant-grabbing media.
This system is perfect for people who are on a budget and are looking for an affordable way to improve their home’s water quality. It’s a great alternative to the Aquasana Rhino EQ-1000, as it offers similar filtration capabilities and is also certified to reduce chlorine in water by 97%.
It provides benefits throughout your entire home, including healthier skin and hair. Cooking with filtered water will produce stronger flavors and quicker cooking times, while bathing in it will reduce your exposure to harsh chemicals that can damage your skin. It even helps prevent hard water scale, which can cause expensive damage to your appliances and pipes.
Aquasana Single Faucet Water Filtration System
The AQ-5300 is the most comprehensive under-sink filter we tested, and it’s well worth the cost for households that drink a lot of water or cook with it. It also filters a greater volume of water than any other single-faucet model we reviewed, and its filters can handle more than 1,000 gallons before needing replacement.
However, if you have sediment-rich tap water, or a past history of pitchers becoming clogged before their projected lifespan, the cheaper and similarly capable Aquasana Claryum Direct Connect may be more appropriate for your household. It adds a sediment prefilter and is one of only a few filters certified for PFOA and PFOS, the “forever chemicals” that have turned up in many US cities.
It also removes 15x more contaminants than any pitcher, including lead, asbestos, VOCs, pharmaceuticals, microplastics, pesticides, and chlorine and chloramines. And because it plumbs directly into your existing faucet, the system is especially good for renters (who may be forbidden from altering their dwelling) or people who can’t install a dedicated filter-faucet attachment.
The AO-US-200 differs from the AQ-5200 in two important ways: it’s exclusive to Lowe’s, and its faucet comes in a single finish (brushed nickel) rather than multiple options like the AQ-5200’s polished chrome and oiled bronze. Otherwise, it offers the same exceptional certifications and high-quality metal hardware as our top pick. It’s also compact, and its replacement filters cost about $60 for a set or $120 a year on Aquasana’s recommended six-month cycle.