Water Filtration System: How to Choose the Best One

Whether your home’s water supply comes from the municipality or your own well, you can face problems like hard water, scale buildup, unpleasant taste or bad odors. Installing a water filtration system can solve these issues and improve your water quality. Learning some basics about the different types of filtration systems can help you choose the right one.

Water Filtration Systems 101

There are three main types of filtration systems — the first relies on a filter medium to capture impurities, the second uses a chemical process to remove contaminants and the third purifies with ultraviolet light. For help picking the right type, have your water tested and talk with a knowledgeable pro to learn which system can solve the problems you’re experiencing.

Certain types work better for addressing specific issues:

• Ion exchange water softeners are a good solution if you have hard water.
• Reverse-osmosis systems incorporate a semi-permeable membrane to keep particles inside the filter medium so they work well for sediment problems.
• Ultraviolet filters and chlorination filters are effective at sterilizing water and eliminating bacterial and viral contaminates.
• Activated-carbon or oxidizing filters can remove odors and improve the taste of your water.
• Multistage filters that combine several of these technologies are a good choice if you’re experiencing multiple water quality issues.

Point-of-Use Versus Whole-House Filtration

You’ll also need to decide whether a point-of-use or whole-house system is your best option.

• Point-of-use systems. These units can offer either single or multistage filtration. Some are installed under a sink, while others are used in refrigerators to supply cold filtered water and ice. In-line filters hook up directly to the water heater to provide clean, filtered water for showering and bathing.
• Whole-house filtration. These systems are installed at the point of entry for the home’s water supply. They not only provide filtered water to every fixture and faucet, they also help protect the entire plumbing system from scale buildup and hard water issues as well as potentially damaging chemicals like tannins and acids.

For help choosing the best water filtration system for your San Antonio home, contact the pros at Beyer Boys today.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in the greater San Antonio, Texas area about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems).

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