Of all the types of water filtering systems and upgrades available for the home, a whole house water filter system is the most convenient. Also known as a point-of-entry, or POE filter, it is installed at a single point where the main water supply line enters the home. It’s a simple way to treat all the water used around the house, whether it’s in the bathroom, kitchen or laundry. Here are some Advantages Disadvantages Benefits of Whole House Water Filters.
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Advantages of a whole house filtering system
The biggest advantage is for the benefit of your health. Whole house filtration systems filter out unsafe levels of chlorine, sediments, and other chemicals that can be found in the water that flows to your house. Chlorine is added to water supplies in controlled amounts, but excessive levels can be highly dangerous, and even safe levels of chlorine can have unhealthy side effects such as drying out the skin.
An effective chlorine filter reduces the amount of chlorine inhaled and consumed while drinking, washing, and bathing. Less chlorine evaporates in steam from baths and showers. That makes healthier and better moisturized skin and hair, and cleaner air around the house.
High-end systems use advanced water filtration through multiple stages to remove over 30 dangerous contaminants from your home’s water supply.
Whole house systems require little or no maintenance, and the filters have a longlife, typically 5 to 10 years. Since whole house filtering systems should not require consumables or maintenance, over a long time they are a relatively cost-effective solution.
Disadvantages of whole house systems
Point-of-entry filtering systems tend to be more expensive options, compared to point of use filters located on countertops, under sinks or on a faucet. They usually require installation by a professional fitter.
If clean drinking water is your priority, then be sure to check which contaminants each brand of filter will filter out, because the specialized countertop and under sink units often filter many more impurities from tap water.
A whole house filtering system with a full range of filtering capabilities is therefore worth looking for and investing in. That way you will have a single point filtering system that delivers healthy, clean water, free from contaminants, and good for drinking, cooking, and bathing.
Find the system that suits your water supply
It’s important to know the quality of your water supply and what you need filtering out of it before selecting and purchasing a filtering system for your home.
Call your local water supplier or carry out your own tests to be sure you’re aware what specific problems your supply has, and what you want to achieve in terms of purity, capacity and usage requirements.
If you only need to filter smaller volumes of water, and for a specific small-particle contaminant such as pesticides, then a lower cost solution such as a reverse osmosis system may be all that is required.
Filtering systems that only do part of the job
Some inexpensive whole house filter systems, filter only for sediment and rust. These systems look like a false economy, as the water would require further filtering to make it safe for drinking. Further treatment would be needed for bathing and showering, to filter out chlorine and minimize lime and calcium deposits.
Reverse osmosis filter systems are popular, but they result in demineralized drinking water, which removes many of the health benefits of regular hydration. These systems also have a much lower capacity, producing around 50 gallons of clean water per day, compared to a POE system that can make in excess of 20 gallons every minute.
Benefits of a whole home water filtration
When a homeowner decides to install a whole house water filtration system, they can greatly benefit from these types of installation processes, specifically, since these systems are designed to reduce the family’s exposure to various types of chemicals and contaminants that are in the water.
Even though some people may be tempted to only focus on the family’s drinking water, they should always go a few steps further by protecting the entire family from all contaminants that they can potentially inhale or be exposed to when they are in the shower or bathing in the tub.
Reduces chlorine that leads to cancer and other illnesses
Many cities and towns use chlorine to clean the water to make it safe for everyone to drink. Chlorine is used to kill various kinds of bacteria that live inside the water before people use or drink it. Unfortunately, since chlorine is a chemical, the chemical level in the water can also be a potential threat to the public’s health.
In specific, these chemicals are known to cause illnesses and other related diseases like cancer in the bodies of those who drink it on a regular basis.
Therefore, it does not matter if the water that the person is drinking comes from the kitchen tap or the bathroom sink; they can be unduly exposed to a number of adverse medical conditions when they use this water without the benefit of a water filtration system. To prevent these issues from occurring, once the owner of the home installs a whole house filtration system, they can reduce or completely eliminate these concerns.
Eliminate hard water problems
Most people may think that they can filter only their kitchen water and they will not be affected by any other kinds of issues, since the primary reason why water filtration systems are installed is to make sure their drinking water is free from dirt, debris, bacteria and chemicals, a water filter installed in the kitchen faucet should be fine. Unfortunately, this is not necessarily true, because points of exposure to chemicals can be found in multiple places and situations.
For instance, it is not uncommon for an individual to take a shower or a bath in water that exposes them to hard water; when a person is bathing in water that has not been filtered, these compounds can easily be absorbed into the skin and make it very dry. Additionally, hard water problems can also affect clothes when they are being washed since it leaves a soap residue on the clothes from the detergent.
Conclusion: Advantages Disadvantages Benefits
Installing a whole home water filtration system today is no longer a luxury, but a necessity in many areas of the country. Since municipal water systems can be affected by dirt, debris, chemicals, bacteria, and hard water problems, these filtration systems are needed to ensure the water is not only safe to drink and cook, but for personal hygiene too.
Therefore, when you are considering installing a water filtration system in only your kitchen area, you may want to do a little bit more research prior to making your final purchases because the whole home water filtration systems offers a number of different essential benefits to the entire family.
Three of the most common include making sure all of the water resources in the home have the necessary improvements; the amount of chlorine in the water is substantially reduced, and eliminating hard water from the home.