How to Choose the Best Water Filtration System for Your Needs

Why Get a Whole House Water Filtration System?

Before water reaches your home, it has to travel from its natural source through mountains, rocks and dirt. Whether your water travels through a treatment center or is pulled from a well, it may contain sediment, bacteria and other particles. Some contaminants, such as iron or sulfur, can cause an unpleasant taste or odor in your water, while others may go undetected. However, just because you can’t see the impurities doesn’t mean they aren’t there. Over time, some contaminants that might be present in your water can have negative health implications. 

Water is an essential aspect of any home. Having a water filter in your home can help ensure that you and your family receive the quality water you need and deserve. Whole house water filters do more than just provide better drinking water. These advanced filtration systems can bring your entire home safer, cleaner water for everyday use. That means quality water for cooking, cleaning, bathing, brushing your teeth and doing laundry. Moreover, with a whole house filtration system, you can access filtered water from every faucet in your house. Before you install a water filter, find out how to choose the best filtration system for your home’s needs. 

What Contaminants Are Lurking in Your Water? 

Does your water look, smell or taste off? If so, it could be a result of contaminants. Some contaminants make themselves known and can leave behind residue, odor or a metallic taste in your water. Examples of these include:

• Iron
• Sulfur
• Total dissolved solids

Other – potentially more harmful – contaminants can go undetected by the senses. If consumed for long periods of time, some contaminants can lead to adverse health problems. Examples of these include:

• Lead
• Arsenic
• Nitrates
• Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS)

Since you can’t taste, smell or see certain contaminants, testing your water is the only way to find out what’s in it. You should test your water if:

• Your water has a metallic taste or rotten-egg odor
• You recently moved into a new home 
• Your water is sourced from a private well 

How Can You Test for These Contaminants?

Finding out what’s in your water is the first step to finding a solution for better, high-quality water. At Culligan Water, we offer several water-quality testing options:

• Virtual consultations: We now provide virtual consultations for the health and safety of our customers. We will also continue to offer outdoor water testing as well as bottled water delivery.
• Free in-home water testing: This test is performed by a Culligan Water Expert at a time and date that’s convenient for you. A basic consultation is free of charge and can test for hardness in your water, total dissolved solids (TDS) and pH levels. 
• Laboratory water analysis: Culligan Water’s lab test reveals harder-to-identify water problems, such as arsenic and lead. Your Culligan Water Expert will send a water sample from your home to our IL Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-certified lab for in-depth analytical testing. You will receive results in about three days, and your Culligan Water Expert will discuss recommendations with you.  

Find Out the Flow Rate of Your Faucets

Choosing the best whole house water filtration system means knowing your home’s flow rate. What is flow rate? It’s the amount of water that can run through your home’s water dispensers, such as your shower, hot water heater, dishwasher and toilet. If you install a whole house water filtration system with a flow rate lower than the required rate, it could cause interrupted water flow and low water pressure, especially during peak use. 

To test your water flow, you can measure the amount of time it takes to fill a five-gallon container with water. This is how you would measure the flow rate:

• Fill a five-gallon bucket and record the time
• Divide five (number of gallons) by the number of seconds it took to fill the bucket and then multiply by 60 (seconds in a minute)
• Example: Five gallons divided by 30 seconds = .17, then multiply .17 by 60 seconds to get 10.2 gallons per minute

Decide on the Type of Water Filter Based on Your Contaminants 

Aside from your flow rate, you’ll also want to choose a water filtration system based on your specific water problem. Different filtration systems are designed to reduce specific contaminants. By testing your water, you can find out what problems you need to solve. At Culligan Water, we offer a variety of water filters to help bring cleaner, healthier water to every household:

High Efficiency Whole House Well Water Filter-Cleer® Water Filter

If you’re receiving your water from a well, this filtration system was designed for your home. The Culligan High Efficiency Whole House Well Water Filtration System is made to treat well water that’s unique to your region. Combined with a water softener, this system combats hard water and reduces sediment and contaminants found in well water. 

Culligan Gold Series Whole House Chlorine Water Filter

Is your home’s water cloudy or harsh? The Gold Series Whole House Chlorine Water Filter works to reduce sediment and particulates that cause murkiness or hardness in your water. Its four layers of filtration also work to reduce the effects of chlorine, so you and your family can enjoy cleaner water from every faucet. 

Culligan Medallist Series® Whole House Water Filter

If your water test results show that you have dirt, clay, silt or other contaminants that create cloudy or dirty water, the Culligan Medallist Series® Whole House Water Filter can help. This system is efficient and low maintenance, ensuring that you get cleaner, better water running through your entire home.  

Ensure That the Filtration System Meets Quality Standards

There are organization that work to test and certify products to ensure that they meet public health standards. Their mission is to protect and improve global human health. When choosing a water filtration system for your home, you’ll want it to be backed by one of these organizations that aims to ensure quality. 

At Culligan Water, we’re committed to bringing homes across the nation quality services they can trust. A majority of our water softeners, water filters and water filtration systems are backed by third-party organizations such as the Water Quality Association, IAPMO R&T and Underwriters Laboratories. 

If you’re not sure which whole house water filtration system is the best for your home, a Culligan Water Expert can help. We can test your water and customize our recommendations specifically for your home’s water problems. We’re here to ensure you get the best filtration system for your needs, so you can enjoy better, healthier water you can depend on.