Millions of Americans are consuming unsafe water. Unsafe water can harm your body, hair, and skin and even destroy your appliances over time. The right water filtration system can solve this problem for your household. 

With the variety of water filtration systems in the market, you almost need to be a water expert to choose the right system for the specific situation in your home. 

Our goal is to simplify this process for you in this article and turn it into an affordable DIY project. Here are the steps you need to follow to find the right filtration system for you:

• Step 1: Know where your water is coming from
• Step 2: Determine your water usage
• Step 3: Identify the issues with your water
• Step 4: Learn about different types of filtration methods
• Step 5: Choose the flow rate necessary for your house or office

Step 1: Know where your water is coming from

Knowing where your water is sourced from, is the first and the most important step to narrowing down your option for the best water filtration system for you.

City Water

With at least 70% of US residents using city or municipal water, it is by far the most common water source. The biggest concern of city water users is chemicals such as arsenic, chromium, and chlorine. 

By using activated carbon filters you can remove chlorine from your city or municipal water. Like chlorine, many other organic compounds are also captured by activated carbon filters.

Well Water

According to U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) More than 43 million people, about 15 percent of the U.S. population, rely on private domestic wells as their source of drinking water in their houses. The quality and safety of water from domestic wells are not regulated by the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act or, in most cases, by state laws. Instead, individual homeowners are responsible for maintaining their domestic well systems and for monitoring water quality.

Usually, the main concern of well water users is bacteria. Dangerous pathogens such as E coli and Salmonella are among the common bacteria that can be present in well water. In addition, viruses and parasites can also be lurking in wells. To eliminate all microorganisms an Ultraviolet sterilization system is required. High-power UV bulbs remove 99.99% of all germs in your water. Among other common issues are sediment and odors/taste. A triple filtration system captures all the sediment and also removes weird tastes and unpleasant odors with the power of activated carbon. 

Spring, lake or rainwater

When you do not know the source or journey of the harvested water, you are exposed to an unknown amount of contaminants. With a carbon and sediment filters combination working together with a UV sterilizer you can make sure your water will be free from most unknown contaminants and microorganisms.

Step 2: Determine your water usage

Whole House

A whole house system will provide clean, sanitized water to use in showers, bathrooms, appliances, and more. This system are designed to work together with several filtration methods to remove a wide variety of contaminants while maintaining a high flow to meet the demands of your household

Drinking

Whole house systems are not meant to produce drinking water,  for that you will need a reverse osmosis system. A reverse osmosis system filters when pressure pushes the tap water through a semipermeable membrane that allows relatively small water molecules, but not larger molecules such as dissolved minerals, sediment, and many contaminants. This ensures you will get safe, good-tasting, drinking water whenever you need it!

RV/Mobile Home

Size is often important when choosing the right water filtration system, that's why there exist compact systems that provide filtration at a lower flow rate. Reverse Osmosis systems are a great option for amazing filtration at  small size.

Irrigation

A complete whole house system is commonly used for irrigation due to the high flow rate and sterilized water, ideal for vegetable and fruit growing! We have a handy guide on water filtration for Hydroponics farming.

Step 3: Identify the issues with your water

Step 4: Learn about different types of filtration methods

Sediment Filters

These can be made from yarn, polypropylene, and other materials. Their main job is to capture sediment particles and debris present in water. Sediment filters have different micron sizes to cater to the type of sediment you have. 20 and 5-micron filters are great to capture regular-size sediment particles like sand or dirt while a 1 Micron filter is specially made for finer sediment such as silt.

Activated Carbon Filters

The high adsorption capacity of activated carbon, makes it an amazing filtering element. Carbon filters remove chlorine and sulfur compounds as well as many other organic solvents and herbicides to provide odorless, great-tasting water. There are 2 types of carbon filters: Granulated and solid. The main difference is that solid carbon filters have more effective filtration and longer lifespan.

Ultraviolet Light filtration

The high energy from UV bulbs make it an ideal sterilizing method. Eliminating 99.99$ of all microorganisms without leaving any harmful by-products is the reason why many choose to install an ultraviolet system. Maintenance is usually very low, requiring a bulb change once a year. The ideal choice for users of well water that need peace of mind knowing their water is properly purified.

Step 5: Choose flow rate according to the size of your home or office

The capacity of the system you choose should be able to match the demand of your home. To decide the right capacity you will need to look at the size of your home and the number of people living in it. Flow rate is measured in gallons per minute (GPM) 

Tips to save money

• A sediment pre-filter can help extend the lifespan of your main filters by taking the bulk of the sediment content in your water.
• Choosing a bigger system (20”) means the larger filters will have a longer lifespan than the smaller filters(10”)

            Still not sure which system to pick?