How A Whole House Water Filter System Can Change Your Life For The Better

by Curtis Grossi | Last Updated: March 19, 2024

As the name suggests, a whole house water filter system filters all the water that is entering the home so that there is pristine quality water at any water point. This also ensures that all the water that is directed to your water-using appliances including washing machine and dishwasher has been treated beforehand.

A whole house water filtration system combines different filtration technologies to purify the water depending on the contaminants. That’s to say that it can take different styles depending on the contaminants in the water that you are supplied with.

For instance, if you are served with municipal water, your ideal whole house filtration system could employ a technology to get rid of chlorine/chloramine and sediment. Those on a well water supply may require a complex system than homeowners who are supplied with city water.

This is because well water is bound to have much higher water contamination, although this isn’t always the case. For well water supply, a full house filtration system could consist of a mechanical sediment filter to remove solid particles, followed by a water softener, and then an ultraviolet system to disinfect harmful pathogens from the water.

To understand how a whole house water filter could change your life, you need to understand how it differs from other types of water filtration systems first.

Difference Between A Whole House Water Filter System And Other Filtration Systems

Water filtration systems can be grouped into 2 broad categories: Point of Use (POU) and Point of Entry (POE) systems.

a) Point Of Use System

The name says it all. A point of use water treatment system is generally installed at a single water outlet mostly in the kitchen and in the bathroom.

These systems have low volume production of around 20-100 GPD. While the purified water can still be distributed to other outlets, most households will find the production too low. That’s because these systems are best suited for a single point of use and light applications.

Examples of Point of Use systems include under sink filters (see our recommendations) and countertop reverse osmosis systems. A point of use system is a much more preferable option compared to water pitcher filters and refrigerator filters. While the latter options still offer decent quality drinking quality, water from a point-of-use system is of a much higher quality.

A point of use system is also much cheaper to purchase and install (if you are purchasing a single unit) compared to a whole house water filter system.

The major drawback to point of use water filters is that since they are installed near a particular water point, all other water dispensing locations are left unguarded. And this means that your family isn’t fully protected from risks of contaminated water. Not to be taken lightly, keep in mind that some contaminants can be absorbed through the skin.

In addition, there are a lot of issues that point of use water filter systems don’t address- and that’s where Point of Entry water filtration systems kick in.

b) Point Of Entry (Poe) Water Treatment System

Whole house water filtration systems are installed where the water enters the house. That’s why they are commonly referred to as Point of Entry Water Filters.

The main advantage that a point of entry water system offers is that it is a central contaminant removal system for all the water that gets into your house. As such, you won’t need to install a dedicated water treatment unit for every water dispensing point in your house. Yet, you can rest assured that all the water around the house has been treated so you can turn on each faucet with confidence.

How Can A Whole House Filter System Change Your Life?

Installing a full house water treatment system is a demanding task that not most homeowners are up to. The chances are that you’ll want to hire a professional plumber.

Now, not everyone will want a whole house water filter. If you live in an apartment or have a small household, installing a point of use system or getting a filter pitcher might make more sense.

However, if yours is a big household with lots of water dispensing areas that make it uneconomical and impractical to install a POU filter for every point, then investing in a central water filter is a more sensible idea.

“So, how will a whole house water filter system can change your life?”

1. Clean And Filtered Water From Every Water Source

This is perhaps the biggest benefit that a whole house water treatment system offers. Since it is installed at the point of entry, then you are assured that all the water circulating around your house is treated. And this means that the benefits of using filtered and treated water are felt from every outlet in your home.

2. Convenience

An entire house water filtration system creates a lot of convenience in big homes and more so during rush hours.

Whether you are taking a shower, washing the dishes, or making some coffee, everything moves on smoothly since clean and treated water can be accessed from pretty much anywhere around the house.

3. It’s Cost-Efficient

It might sound counterintuitive to claim that a whole house water system is economical considering that the best rigs could cost several folds the price of a point of use water filter.

However, when you start considering the cost of purchasing and installing a filtration system for every water point in your house, then a whole house emerges as the most economical.

Also, it is relatively cheaper to replace a single filter than replacing several of them if you’ve installed multiple points of use water treatment systems.

Besides cost-efficiency, a whole house water filtration system adds a good deal of convenience in that you don’t have to remember the intervals at which you need to replace different filter cartridges as it’s the case with installing multiple points of use filters.

4. You Get Healthier Showers And Baths

Point of use water filters are installed to offer clean and pure drinking water mostly in the kitchen. While this is a good idea, it means that the water coming from your showers and bathtubs isn’t treated of the contaminants that you are trying to avoid.

If you are wondering whether there’s any need for showering and bathing in filtered and treated water, then you are not alone.

A 2008-2009 annual report by the President’s Cancer Panel and titled ‘’Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk – What We Can Do Now’’ revealed some disturbing findings on this issue. This report noted that treating public water supplies with chlorine led to a decrease in the incidences of waterborne diseases in one hand.

On the other hand, and what’s so terrifying, the panel also noted that when chlorine and other disinfectants mix with organic materials, they react to form chemical by-products that increase the risk of cancer if an individual is exposed to them for prolonged periods.

The document also noted that there are a lot of disinfection by-products that have been discovered so far although trihalomethanes (THMs) including chloroforms, bromoform, and haloacetic acid are the most common.

The report adds that individuals who are exposed to these harmful by-products either when showering, bathing, or swimming in chlorine-treated water have higher odds of developing different types of cancers including bladder cancer, glioma, colon/rectal, and renal cell carcinoma.

But what makes these findings terrifying is the fact that a person absorbs 100 times more chlorine when showering or bathing for 10 minutes than he/she does from drinking one gallon of water.

The only solution here is having your bathing and showering water filtered and purified- and this is much easier if you have a whole house water filter system. 

5. Eliminates Fear Of The Unknown

“Is your municipal water 100% safe? We doubt so!”

Indeed, city water is usually treated and purified to some degree before being supplied. But this does not mean that the danger of contaminants getting into your water is eliminated.

It’s not surprising that a News21 analysis of data from the EPA revealed that over 63 million Americans were served by water supply systems that violated federal requirements 2 or more times for arsenic, copper, lead, and cancer-causing poisons.

These contaminants could get to alarmingly higher levels especially if your home is served with well water.

Here is a range of contaminants and their effects on health problems:

• Brain-eating amoeba – although rare, Naegleria fowleri is a single-celled organism that infects the brain if it goes up through the nose
• Arsenic – This is a naturally-occurring poison that is linked to cancer and high blood pressure
• Chlorine – widely used in treating water, it’s quite ironical that this chemical can react with other organic substances to form by-products that are known to be carcinogenic in prolonged exposure
• Legionella – this is a severe form of pneumonia caused by a bacteria
• Lead – a heavy metal that is associated with developmental and learning disabilities
• Cryptosporidium – a parasite that causes Cryptosporidiosis- a respiratory or gastrointestinal illness that is characterized by watery diarrhea 

6. Extended Life Of Household Pipes And Water Appliances

The primary reason why most people install point of use water filter systems is to get rid of harmful contaminants in drinking water.But have you ever thought of the damage that untreated water causes on your household water pipes? If you live in an area with high levels of hard water, this is a concern that you might want to take seriously starting now.

Hard water causes mineral deposits (also known as scale deposits) after being heated. These deposits accumulate inside the pipes and solidify with time to cause limescale not only in your household pipes, but inside your water heater, dishwasher, and washing machine too.

This accumulation of mineral deposits could spell lots of trouble in your home’s plumbing system from low water pressure to damaged water-using appliances and fixtures.

Fixing the plumbing lines and repairing or replacing the failed appliances and fixtures could end up costing you way more than you’d have incurred installing a whole house water filter.

7. Prolongs The Life Of Your Clothes

You probably know a few tips on how to prolong the life of your favorite garment; don’t wash after just one wear, skip the dryer, use proper hangers, etc.

But what most people forget is that untreated water (hard water in particular) has a significant toll on the longevity of the clothes too. If you live in any part of the 85% of the USA that has hard water and don’t have a water filtration solution for your washing machine, the effects are beyond the challenging laundry processes.

When using hard water, mineral deposits build up on your clothes fabrics, clogging the weave, and causing yellow or grayish discoloration. It also causes gray streaks besides weakening the fibers leading to premature tears and wears.

Bottom Line

There are a whole lot of ways through which a whole house water system could change your life. Generally, it’s an important step towards protecting your family’s health and wealth. There will no longer be concerns about the quality of the water that your family is consuming.

They’ll also have way healthier showers and baths since the shower water filter systems will remove most of the chlorine and chloramines from the main system. Lastly, the best whole house water filter and purifying system will extend the life of your domestic plumbing, water-using appliances, and clothes!

Curtis is the founder and owner of softeningwater.com. He is the lead guy concerning all the water-softening accessories in this site's guides and reviews. If he is not writing a reviews, guides or any other useful tips, you will find him testing them to find out their suitability. He is passionate about softening water. You will find him extremely helpful and always willing to educate the general populace all there is concerning water and its effects on their health and appliances.