The Best Water Treatment System For Your Whole Home

Whether you live on city water or well water, it’s not uncommon to require some sort of water treatment system. In most cases, our well and city water is safe to drink but a water filter provides a little extra security or can simply make your water look and taste better. 

Even if your water looks and tastes great, however, it doesn’t hurt to have a water test done to see what minerals are present there. While our bodies actually prefer the mineral content of water before treatment, our homes don’t do so well with it. For instance, the added chlorine in city water makes it corrosive and will take a toll on all our appliances and pipes.

The challenge is that our water treatment options seem nearly endless. Water treatment systems work in a number of ways including ultraviolet light, reverse osmosis, carbon, chemicals, air injection, and a host of other ways. To make matters more complicated, filter systems come in a variety of formats from point of use, such as pitcher filters and filters on the faucet, to point of entry systems, like a whole-home water filter system. 

What’s the Best Type of Water Treatment System?

Which water treatment system will work best for you depends largely on the condition of the water in your area and what you are looking to protect against. Do you live in the city and want to reduce the hard water coming from your tap? are you in the country and experiencing problems with your well water? 

For this article, we’re going to assume that you are living in the North Central Florida area and want to protect against some of the common challenges present in the area. 

The best way to determine which contaminants are present in your water is to do a complete water test. Once you’ve identified what you’re up against, you can select the right water treatment system to safeguard you and your family. Some of the common water filtration methods are:

• Activated Carbon Filter

A carbon filter is made of pulverized carbon in the form of granules or pressed into blocks. They remove contaminants by passing water directly through the carbon which effectively absorbs the contaminants. Carbon filters are ideal for areas where the common contaminants are chlorine, lead, or mercury. 

• Distillation 

Distillation is a process in which water is heated to its boiling point, causing it to evaporate and leaving substances with a higher boiling point behind. It’s a great option for areas in which there is concern about minerals, bacteria, or viruses in the water supply, however, due to the large amount of space and energy this type of system requires, it is typically not practical for home or business use. Additionally, distillation systems require a lot more maintenance than other common water treatment systems.

• Ceramic Filters

Ceramic filters treat water by passing it through tiny holes present in the material. They are great for stopping sediment and large contaminants but do not remove chemicals from the water.

• Reverse Osmosis Filtration System

The reverse osmosis (RO) system uses a high-pressure pump to push water through a semipermeable membrane from a strong saline solution into a weaker solution, leaving 95%+ of the salt behind. This filter removes lead, calcium, iron, total dissolved solids (TDS), heavy metals, and other minerals (including FLouride) from the water. RO systems are cost-effective (on a small scale) and effectively remove up to 99% of contaminants from your water but, due to its nature, may lead to lower flow rates and acidic/corrosive water getting into your pipes. 

• Ozone/Air Injection/Aeration

These chemical-free systems inject ozone into the water which saturates every drop of water, immediately oxidizing minerals like iron and removing a wide variety of problems like bacteria and viruses in the water (higher than when utilizing chemicals like chlorine). The water is then filtered prior to home use. 

Choosing the Right Water Filtration System for You

Hopefully, this article has clarified some of the basics of water treatment systems and which would best suit your family. If you’ve made a decision and would like to discuss setting up a water treatment system in your home, contact the professionals at Perry’s Pump Repair today. 

If you are still unsure, we’d love to help. Our experienced technicians would be glad to assist you in the selection, installation, and maintenance of the right system for your home.