If you’re concerned with the drinking water quality in your home, you can use filters as a viable form of water treatment. They are affordable, and will give you water from your tap that is as good as bottled water. If this doesn’t solve your problem, you may want to look into the wide variety of full-house systems that are available.

Selecting a water treatment system that is the best option for your home can be difficult, if you don’t have help. You can always buy the more expensive units, and they will probably work very well, but there may be less expensive options for you to use. You can distinguish one purification system from another if you are armed with knowledge about the degree of hardness in your water, and the effects of the system you are looking for.

You can buy drinking water filters at many box stores and home improvement stores, but they are not usually as effective as a water treatment system for your whole house, which will be more complex. If you buy a cheaper filter system, you may need to attach part of it to your kitchen faucet, and then flip the handle of the device when you want drinking water as opposed to water for other purposes. Sometimes the seal between that filter and your faucet will deteriorate too rapidly, or fit too loosely to work.

In addition, the cheaper water filtration systems for your faucet will require that the filter be changed on a regular basis, or the water quality won’t be much better than you started with. These devices are fairly convenient, but not always durable, and with a little more money to spend, you can get a more effective water treatment system for your home.

The next step up from a faucet-mounted filter is a system that will be installed under your sink. These units usually work very well, and give you water of a high quality. They also do not need a lot of maintenance. They are more expensive than the faucet mounted filter systems, but they make up for that in performance and water quality. You may find units like this to be well worth the higher initial cost.

Your city water is probably tested on a regular basis for contaminants that may be harmful to you and your family. But they don’t test the water for contaminants that they don’t consider to be harmful, and this usually includes calcium and magnesium. A faucet unit may be all the filtration you’ll need, but if the water you use comes from a well, rather than a municipal utility, you’ll probably need a more sophisticated water treatment system.

Water purification systems that are installed directly where water enters your house are called point of entry systems, and they filter all the water that comes into your home. They will handle the health of your cooking, washing and drinking water.

If you are on a well, none of your water is altered before it gets to you, so if your well water has a lot of contaminants, you will want to consider a water treatment system. This will make your water tastier to drink, as well as safer for your house’s plumbing. If you install a home treatment system at the point of entry for well water, you will know that your family is not at risk from more harmful contaminants. In addition, your plumbing and appliances will last longer, and probably need fewer repairs.

Home water treatment systems are varied in form, and also in the way they function. For example, a carbon filter, which is most common, is the type that attaches to your faucets, or is included in pitchers that filter water. The carbon removes harmful compounds when the water contacts the filter. They are not expensive initially, but you need to replace the filters on a regular basis.

Reverse osmosis and UV filtering are more high-tech methods, to remove any harmful minerals from your water. These can treat your water and condition it as well, and they are often the type you see mounted under kitchen sinks. Basic systems like these may run into hundreds of dollars, although they are not as expensive as the more complex systems.