Best Whole-House Water Filter for Every Home

It’s not easy to supply your entire household with pure water, as most of today’s water sources contain some sort of harmful particles. Most of the time they are tiny dirt particles and chemicals that water can pick up from the ground or pipe system. Luckily, you can solve the issue of dirty water with a whole-house water filter.

A whole-house water filter will not only improve the quality of water that you drink but also prolong the lifespan of some devices. For example, water-using household appliances such as water heaters, washing machines, and dishwashers won’t break down due to scale, dirt, rust, etc.

Here are some of the best whole-house water filters that will make your water clean and fresh.

The iSpring WGB320B whole-house water filter removes over 98% of harmful particles from the water. It’s a 3-stage filter with a polypropylene (PP) sediment filter in the first stage, which removes dirt and larger particles from the water. This prevents clogging and pressure loss.

The other two stages are 5-micron coconut shell carbon block filters. These carbon block filters are dense and compact, which should improve their effectiveness and lifespan. Their main purpose is to remove harmless chemicals from the water. They effectively take out chlorine, herbicides, pesticides, industrial chemicals, etc.

Once you install this filter to your main water supply, you’ll have higher quality water flowing from every outlet in your home. The filter lives are rated at 100,000 gallons of water or approximately one year of clean water for a family of four.

Note that this is not a water softener and won’t take care of hard water. Also, the pressure relief valves on the filter may become loose during shipping, and you’d have to manually tighten them to prevent leaking.

Pros

• Removes 98% of harmful particles
• 3 stages of filtration
• Relatively easy to install
• Long-lasting filter cartridges

Cons

• A bit expensive
• Pressure-relief valves may leak if you don’t tighten them

The Home Master comes in multiple configurations – this one in particular is a 3-stage system. The first stage filter is a sediment filter that eliminates dirt and rust, which has an effect of increasing water pressure. The second stage gets rid of the hydrogen sulfite, manganese, and iron. The third stage features a coconut shell carbon filter for removing industrial chemicals, pesticides, herbicides, etc.

Thanks to the 1-inch ports in and out of the filter cartridges, the water pressure remains as high as possible. The good flow rate and efficient filters require little maintenance. This can save you a lot of valuable time and money.

With a capacity of 100,000 gallons, the filters can serve a four-member family for approximately the whole year. The lifespan of the filter may decrease depending on the quality of your water. For example, the presence of manganese impacts the filter much higher than iron.

Pros

• Multiple available configurations
• 1” ports
• Three large-capacity filters
• 100,000 gallons capacity or one-year cartridge lifespan

Cons

• Pricey

This is the two-stage version of the PWT Home Master whole-house filters. Without one fewer stage, it is best used for water that doesn’t contain as many harmful particles.

Everything else would be the same as all other PWT Home Master systems. This includes large-capacity filter cartridges and 1-inch ports.

The first filter reduces clogging by removing particles from the water, while the second does the same for iron and industry chemicals. This second stage should get rid of 95% of contaminants in the water including unpleasant odor and taste.

One of the downsides of this system is that it’s on the heavy side; if you’re to mount it to a wall, you’re going to need to build additional support or frame.

Pros

• Reasonably priced
• 1” ports
• Easily replaceable filters

Cons

• Not the easiest to install

The 3M Aqua-Pure filtration system has one easily replaceable filter for removing particles from your water. It has a stainless steel base that you can simply attach to your main water source. After that, you can connect the cartridge to the base.

You don’t need any tools or special skills to replace the cartridge. To remove it, pull the latch upwards to ease the pressure and then turn the cartridge to the left and remove it. After that, insert the new cartridge and reverse the procedure.

The Aqua-Pure works at 20 gallons per minute. You don’t have to worry about running out of water in the morning when everyone is getting ready. Besides particles, the filter also takes care of iron, chemicals, and odor.

The particle filter is rated at 5 microns, so it doesn’t remove bigger particles from the water like dirt or rust. For those, you will have to install a prefilter upstream to this one.

Pros

• Easy to set up and replace filter
• Remove chemicals and odor
• 5-micron particle filter
• Affordable

Cons

• Doesn’t remove larger particles.

The Culligan WH-HD200-C is a whole-house sediment filter. Culligan is one of the top names in water filters and this one is one of the most affordable.

It’s equipped with a battery-operated filter life indicator. Culligan makes several filter cartridges for use with this system. The one as advertised is for sediment or particles only. You can buy another one that comes with a different Culligan cartridge, such as one for chemicals – it’s compatible with 5 cartridges.

If you get all 5 of them, you can install them back to back. But that would not be recommended for it will likely reduce the water pressure too much. You’d be better off with a 3- or 5-stage (or more) system if that’s the case.

Overall, it is an excellent filter for smaller households that don’t have severely contaminated water.

Pros

• Affordable
• Culligan pedigree
• Battery life indicator
• Easy to install

Cons

• Only one stage at a time

Overall, the Perfect Water Technologies Home Master 2-Stage filtration system is probably the best whole-house water filter. It is not too expensive and offers a two-stage system that can remove dirt, sand, and rust in addition to chemical molecules from the water.

If you have severely contaminated water, you may want to opt for the iSpring WGB320B or the 3-stage Home Master.