A Better Choice for Water Filtration

PETALUMA – If you want to have filtered drinking water in your home, you have a couple of options. One is a reverse osmosis system, which is effective at removing chlorine, lead and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) found in tap water. However, this type of system has a couple of drawbacks. First, while it removes a lot of the bad things from tap water, it also removes a lot of the good things, such as calcium and magnesium. What’s worse, it’s inefficient: As a result of its multi-phase filtration process, for every gallon of water a reverse osmosis system produces, four more gallons are lost.

A better choice for water filtration is a single-stage point-of-use filter, which removes the bad things from drinking water but doesn’t go overboard like a reverse osmosis system. Prior to installing a water filtration unit in your home, it’s important to have a plumber assess your water situation. For example, if your home runs on well water, you’ll likely need a special filtration system. Also, you should consider maintenance costs whereas some filters require almost no maintenance, others require periodic cartridge replacements, which can cost up to $400 each time.