Home Water Filters: What to Consider Guide, House Drinking Tips, PFAS chemicals advice

Home Water Filters: What to Consider Tips

29 May 2020

Whether you have a personal well or benefit from city water, you want to know that the tap water you’re drinking is safe to consume. The best way to protect your home from a barrage of chemical influences is to install a water filter.

Not all filters, though, have the staying power that you’ll need. If you want to keep PFAS chemicals out of your water, you’ll need to be careful when considering which filter you’re willing to invest in.

PFAS Chemicals: The Reason for Your Filter

PFAS chemicals, otherwise known as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, enter your groundwater courtesy of a variety of different products, including:

Carpets
Clothing

Polishes
Wax
Food packaging

Non-stick materials

More often than not, these chemicals find their way into your water due to the disposal processes at nearby manufacturing plants or disposal sites. When these chemicals come together in high quantities, they can begin to pose a threat to your health. Long-term exposure to PFAS chemicals can cause:

Increased infertility in women

Higher blood pressure
Hormone imbalances
Increased cholesterol

To make matters more complicated, these chemicals do not leave your body quickly. You’ll likely see their impact on your health for years at a time. This is all the more reason to try to avoid coming in contact with them.

How Do You Test Your Water For PFAS?

Unfortunately, it’s exceptionally difficult to test your tap water for PFAS, despite their prevalence. Each state has a different process through which it’ll test your water. You’ll need to seek out a lab on your own time, either through your state’s Department of Environment Quality or through the private sector. Even then, the cost of testing is a barrier for many homeowners.

To have your tap water tested by a lab that has the accreditation to monitor such things, you’ll run up against prices between $50 and $1,000 per water sample you send in. If you’re not able to front those costs, it’s best to act as though your water has been contaminated and look for a filter to keep your water clean.

Why Won’t A Water Pitcher Filter Do The Job?

If you’re thinking about home water filters, then you may already be using one of the name brand pitcher filters to clean your water. These filters do a lot of heavy lifting, when it comes to the care and keeping of your water. However, while Brita and Pur filters will remove heavy metals from your water, they were not designed with PFAS in mind. As such, you won’t be able to rely on these filters to clear those chemicals out of your water.

It’s best, then, to explore your home filter options. Filters that you can attach straight to a sink faucet will better collect PFAS alongside heavy metals and other detrimental additives. With one of these filters in place, you’ll be able to cut bottled water from your shopping list and enjoy tap water at your leisure.

What to Consider When Purchasing a Home Water Filter

How can you know which home water filter is best for you, though? In general, you’ll want to make sure that a filter does what it says it will on the package. Your filter absolutely needs to be able to filter PFAS out of your water if it’s going to benefit you.

Additionally, try to keep an eye out for a home water filter that:

Improves on your existing filtration rate.
Provides you with a high quality of water, in terms of taste and safety.

Is easy to install and affordable to operate.
Requires little to no maintenance over the course of its life.

At the end of the day, your water filter is meant to improve the health of the water that you use in your home. Filters like the Royal Berkey water filter can filter away not only the heavy metals that change the way your water tastes, but the PFAS that might otherwise compromise your health.

With those sorts of benefits available to you, why not seek out a water filter for your home today?

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Not yet decided which whole house filter to buy? Get expert recommendations by reading the best whole house water filter reviews and product comparison guide.