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How to Correctly Compare Home Water Purifiers

If you try to compare home water purifiers based solely on cost, you can get confused very quickly. For example, home water purifiers for the kitchen faucet can cost less than fifty dollars, but can cost as much as $420. What is the difference?

First, let’s get rid of the more expensive systems that you probably don’t need in your home. Most of us need to eliminate chlorine and its derivatives, pesticides, herbicides and other chemical contaminants, as well as lead and microbial cysts.

If you compare home water purifiers by looking at the performance data some companies provide, you’ll see that some do a better job than others. Some simply claim to be the best.

Many companies advertise reverse osmosis as the best and most advanced technological systems on the market. But, the truth is, unless you’re filtering river water directly into your home, you don’t need the expense and probably can’t afford to waste it.

If you are served by a public treatment facility, home water purifiers with a submicron filter can do as much for your safety as any reverse osmosis system. That’s direct advice from the Environmental Protection Agency.

So once you cross reverse osmosis off the list, you still have plenty of products to look at when comparing home water purifiers. For $420, Amway will be happy to sell you a system that removes chlorine, lead, and other contaminants, but there are less expensive brands that do a better job.

One thing to remember when comparing home water purifiers is that it costs less to buy directly from the factory. Amway is a high margin middleman.

Next on the list is Aqua Pure made by 3M Company. It’s a good system, but it still costs more than you should pay.

Now, it becomes a bit easier to compare home water purifiers, because the prices become more similar. The only other thing you really need to look at, cost-wise, is the cost per gallon.

Really inexpensive pitcher filters cost more per gallon than a good kitchen counter model. Faucet filters cost more per gallon than those found in the sink. It has to do with the cost of replacement filters and how long they last.

The best home water purifiers cost less than ten cents a gallon. The jugs are 25 cents a gallon and only remove a little chlorine and some lead.

You want to look for a multi-stage system when comparing home water purifiers. You need carbon filtration to remove chlorine and other chemicals. You need an “adsorption” step to remove chlorine (THM) byproducts. You need a media block that targets specific chemical contaminants like common pesticides and herbicides. It needs a submicron stage to kill microbial cysts and it needs ion exchange to kill lead.

That may sound like a lot, but when you compare home water purifiers carefully, you’ll see that you can have all of that for less than the price of a good pair of sneakers. Hope that helps clear up some of the confusion.