Choosing A Water Filter
Instead of looking at bottled water as a way to ensure quality drinking water, consider a water filter instead. It’s a more affordable and convenient way of guaranteeing fresh water.
Water filters are easy to install and maintain, with a wide variety to suit individual and home requirements. Get yours today and set your mind at ease.
Perfect Water Technologies Expands National Distribution With Lowe’s
Innovative Home Water Purification Products Now Available on Lowes.com
PHOENIX—-Perfect Water Technologies, the innovative water purification manufacturer, announces increased online distribution of its top-selling products. Lowes will carry the companys Home Master brand of water filtration systems, including reverse osmosis, through their e-commerce platform.
Established in 2002, Perfect Water Technologies, Inc. continues to provide a means to quality drinking water filtration products that serve its residential and commercial customers worldwide. With expanded distribution through Lowes.com, consumers will now have access to an expanded range of water treatment products.
The Home Master brand manufactured by Perfect Water Technologies features Whole House Filtration systems, faucet filters, undersink reverse osmosis units, and hydroponics RO systems. One of Home Master’s leading units, the TMAFC-ERP Artesian Full Contact Undersink Reverse Osmosis system has surpassed the 1,000 review mark on and currently holds an average 4.8 star-rating. Its the only RO on the market adding beneficial minerals back into the water twice thanks to a patented remineralization process. The Artesian systems are expected to be a powerful addition to Lowe’s.
Upgrade Pick: Aquasana Aq
$175 + FS w/code AQWC50
*At the time of publishing, the price was $196.
With identical certifications to the Aquasana AQ-5200 and the A.O. Smith AO-US-200 but higher flow rate and larger capacity, the Aquasana 5300+ Max Flow is our pick for people who need a lot of filtered water and want it fast. But its a physically much larger system and costs more up front and to replace the three filters.
The Aquasana AQ-5300+ Max Flow is ANSI/NSF certified for the same 77 contaminants as the 5200 and A.O. Smith filters, including chlorine, chloramine, lead, mercury, VOC, PFOA, and PFOS. The AQ-5300+ Max Flow adds a prefilter for capturing rust and sediment that may be in the water supply, helping keep the contaminant filters from clogging the AQ-5200 and A.O. Smith filters lack this feature.
The AQ-5300+ Max Flow uses all-metal hardware thats identical to the Aquasana AQ-5200 and the A.O. Smith filters, and like the AQ-5200, the faucet comes in three finishes: brushed nickel, chrome, and oil-rubbed bronze. And the AQ-5300+ Max Flow has the same secure compression fittings, helping prevent leaks.
The AQ-5300+ Max Flow is well reviewed, with 4.6 stars across more than 900 reviews at Home Depot and 4.6 stars across nearly 1,500 reviews at Aquasanas site.
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Flaws But Not Dealbreakers
The Aquasana AQ-5200 has a lower maximum flow rate relative to some competitors and lower capacity . This is the direct result of its physically small filters. On balance, we think these minor drawbacks are outweighed by its compactness. If you know you want higher flow and capacity, the Aquasana AQ-5300+ is rated to 0.72 gpm and 800 gallons but shares the same six-month filter-replacement schedule, and the Aquasana Claryum Direct Connect delivers up to 1.5 gpm and is rated to 784 gallons and six months.
The AQ-5200 systems instruction manual is a bit sloppy, with a few parts not shown on the parts list or diagram. Its nothing that will trip up most owners fundamentally, all youre doing is attaching a couple of tubes to the water supply and the faucet, and the parts more or less explain themselves. And in fairness, sloppiness is a problem with many under-sink filters manuals, judging by the comments we came across in our research. But wed like to see the manual rectified in the future. In the meantime, heres a video from Aquasana of how to install the AQ-5200.
If you suspect your water is sediment-rich , you may wish to look at the otherwise similar Aquasana AQ-5300, which adds a sediment prefilter.
Do You Need A Water Filter
Unfortunately theres no universal answer to whether you need a water filter. In the United States, public water supplies are regulated by the EPA under the Clean Water Act, and water leaving a public water-treatment plant must meet strict quality standards. But not all potential contaminants are regulated. As well, contaminants can enter the water after it leaves the treatment plant, by infiltrating leaky pipes or by leaching out of the pipes themselves. And water treatments done at the plant can exacerbate leaching in pipes downstreamas happened in Flint, Michigan.
To know exactly whats in your suppliers water when it leaves the plant, you can usually find your local suppliers EPA-mandated Consumer Confidence Report online if not, all public water suppliers are required to give you their CCR upon request. But because of potential downstream contamination, the only way to know for certain whats in your homes water is to pay a local water-quality lab to test it.
As a rule of thumb: The older your home or community is, the greater the risk of downstream contamination. The EPA says that homes built before 1986 are more likely to have lead pipes, fixtures and solderonce-common older materials that dont meet current codes. Age also brings an increased likelihood of legacy groundwater pollution from pre-regulation industry, which can be a risk, especially when combined with age-related degradation of underground plumbing.
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Why You Should Trust Me
I have been testing water filters for Wirecutter since 2016. In my reporting, Ive spoken at length with filter-certification organizations to understand how their testing is conducted, and delved deeply into their public databases to confirm that manufacturers claims are supported by certified testing. Ive also spoken with representatives of multiple water-filter manufacturers, including Aquasana/A.O. Smith, Filtrete, Brita, and Pur, to interrogate their claims. And Ive gone hands-on with all of our picks, because overall livability, durability, and user-friendliness are important in a device youll use multiple times a day.John Holecek, a former NOAA scientist, researched and wrote earlier Wirecutter water-filter guides, conducted his own tests, commissioned further independent tests, and taught me much of what I know. My work builds on his.
What About Reverse Osmosis
Reverse osmosis, or R/O, filters initially employ the same sort of cartridge filters as our picks here but add a secondary reverse-osmosis filtration mechanism: a fine-pored membrane that lets water through but filters out dissolved minerals and other substances.
We may address R/O filters in depth in a future guide. Here, we categorically dismissed them. They offer limited functional advantages over adsorbent filters they produce significant amounts of wastewater , while adsorbent filters produce none they take up far more room, because unlike adsorbent filters they employ a 1- or 2-gallon tank to store filtered water and they are far slower than under-sink adsorbent filters.
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Types Of Water Contaminants You Need Protection From
Water contaminants can be broken down into four categories:
If your water smells or tastes bad, there is little doubt that you would benefit from a water filter. Municipal water often smells of chlorine, which is used to treat the water. Well water, which is dependent upon many local conditions affecting the water supply, may also smell bad. Water filters often treat these conditions by the use of “Granular Activated Carbon,” a substance that absorbs contaminants that would otherwise cause offensive tastes and odors.
Filters which use GAC may cause cloudy water for the first couple of weeks after a filter change. This is a harmless condition caused by the release of air from the GAC and can be reduced by running the water for several seconds before each use until the air is flushed out.
You may notice visible particles in your water sediment may be seen collecting in the bottom of your dishwasher or commode, for example. Larger particles may collect behind the screens of your faucet aerator. Smaller particles may collect at the bottom of a glass of water that sits for a time.
Who This Is For
If your household goes through more than two or three gallons of drinking water each day, an under-sink water filter may be a better choice than a pitcher filter. Under-sink systems provide filtered drinking water on demand, with no waiting around for the filtration process to run its course, as there is with pitchers. On demand filtration also means under-sink systems can provide enough water for cookingyou could fill a pot to cook pasta with filtered water, for example, but youd never repeatedly refill a pitcher for that.
Under-sink filters also tend to have much more capacity and much longer lifespans than pitcher filtersoften hundreds of gallons and six months or more, versus 40 gallons and two months for most pitcher filters. And because under-sink filters use water pressure, not gravity, to push water through the filter, their filters can be denser, so they can remove a greater range of potential contaminants.
On the downside, theyre more expensive up front than pitcher filters, and replacement filters are also more expensive in absolute terms and averaged over time. The system also takes up space in your sink cabinet that could otherwise be used for storage.
A no-installation option for lower-demand homes
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Certified to remove contaminants, these water filters, pitchers, and dispensers can improve home drinking water.
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Also Great: Aquasana Claryum Direct Connect
May be out of stock
*At the time of publishing, the price was $100.
The Aquasana Claryum Direct Connect is an under-sink filter with particular utility for renters and for people in homes that dont have a separate mounting hole for a filter-dedicated faucet. Thats because it plumbs directly into the cold-water line and sends filtered water to the main faucetyou dont have to drill any holes or otherwise alter your space. This design also makes the Claryum Direct Connect easier to install than our other picks, which need that separate faucet installed and also require you to mount the filters on the sidewall of the sink cabinet. In contrast, the Claryum Direct Connect can simply lie on the cabinet floor .
The Claryum Direct Connect has the same exceptional ANSI/NSF certifications as our other picks from Aquasana and A.O. Smith. It reduces lead, mercury, PFOA/PFOS, and some pharmaceuticals, a total of 77 contaminants. The filters are rated for 784 gallons, or about six months worth of normal use, and Aquasana claims a flow rate of up to 1.5 gallons per minutethree times faster than that of the top-pick Aquasana AQ-5200 and twice as fast as the flow rate of the AQ-5300+.
Be aware, however, that the filter is much larger than our other picks at 20½ inches long and 4½ inches wide, and you need 3 inches of additional space below it or next to it to remove a spent filter and put a new one in. So take some measurements before buying.
Our Pick: Aquasana Aq
$100 + FS w/code AQWC50
*At the time of publishing, the price was $153.
Our pick is the Aquasana AQ-5200, aka the Aquasana Claryum Dual-Stage. Its most important feature by far is that its filters have the best ANSI/NSF certifications among our contenders, including chlorine, chloramine, lead, mercury, VOC, multiple emerging contaminants, and PFOA and PFOS. Beyond that, its faucet and plumbing hardware are made of solid metal, which is superior to the plastic that some other manufacturers use. And this system is also extremely compact. Finally, the Aquasana AQ-5200 is one of the best values weve found in under-sink filters, typically costing about $140 up front for the whole system and $60 for a set of two replacement filters. Thats less than many competitors with weaker certifications.
The Aquasana AQ-5200 is ANSI/NSF certified for 78 contaminants. Its filter uses the same technology as the Aquasana AQ-5300+ and A.O. Smith AO-US-200, but those filters currently lack certification for microplastics. That makes the AQ-5200 the most robustly certified system among our picks. For comparison, the excellent Pur Plus Filter is certified for 23.
The AQ-5200 is very well reviewed for a water filter, with 4.5 stars across more than 800 reviews at Aquasanas site, and 4.5 stars across nearly 500 reviews at Home Depot.
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How We Picked
This guide is about a specific type of under-sink filter: those that use cartridge filters and send the filtered water to a separate faucet. These are the most popular under-sink filters. They take up little room and are generally simple to install and maintain. They use adsorbent materialstypically, activated carbon and an ion-exchange resin, just like pitcher filtersto bind and neutralize contaminants. Were not talking about faucet-mounted filters, reverse-osmosis systems, or other pitchers or dispensers.
To ensure that we recommend only trustworthy filters, we have always insisted that our picks be certified to the industry standard: ANSI/NSF. The American National Standards Institute and NSF International are private, nonprofit organizations that, working in concert with the EPA, industry representatives, and other experts, establish strict quality standards and testing protocols for thousands of products, including water filters. The two main certifying labs for water filters are NSF International itself and the Water Quality Association . Both are fully accredited in North America by ANSI and the Standards Council of Canada to do ANSI/NSF certification testing and both must adhere to the exact same testing standards and protocols. Filters can meet the certification standard only after being pushed well beyond their expected lifespan, using prepared challenge samples that are far more polluted than most tap water.
How We Tested
Weve conducted lab tests of water filters in years past, and our main takeaway from testing was that ANSI/NSF certification is a reliable measure of a filters performance. Thats not surprising given the extreme rigor of the certification testing. Since then we have relied on ANSI/NSF certifications, rather than our own limited testing, to select our competitors.
In 2018 we conducted tests on the popular Big Berkey water-filter system, which is not ANSI/NSF certified but claims to have been extensively tested to ANSI/NSF standards. That experience further cemented our insistence on true ANSI/NSF certifications and our distrust of tested to ANSI/NSF claims.
Our tests since then, including in 2019, have focused on real-world usability and the kinds of practical features and drawbacks that become apparent when youre living with these products.
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