To browse a wide range of water filter systems with friendly assistance to help you find the best water filtration for your home, drop by the Mr. Water Filter store.

Drinking Water Treatment: Design Factors to Consider Before You Buy

Drinking water filters for your home come in several designs. Each design possesses strengths and weaknesses, so picking out the right form factor to fit your kitchen, your water needs, and your free space is a crutial point in the decision making process.

Water Filters for your Counter Top

Countertop water filters are easy to connect to your faucet, so they're perfect for apartments or when you might need to move the filter in the future. Besides, no drilling of sinks or counter tops is required to install a water filter on your countertop and a single canister water filter of this style takes less countertop space than a decorative vase. A water filter for the counter top is the preferred style when under the sink space is not available.

Under the Sink Water Filters

An under the sink water filtration system conserves your working counter space and gives you a more permanent install. Because under the kitchen sink water filters are out of the way, they can be big enough to provide the best drinking water purification.

A two canister under sink water filtration system provides safety from contaminants for your family, with minimum space needed under your sink.

This style of water filter is sometimes called under counter water treatment systems, as they don't have to be installed underneath the sink.

Water Filtration for the Refrigerator

Drinking water filters for the refrigerator simply get attached on the back of a water dispensing fridge to provide filtered drinking water and/or ice.

A water filter for your fridge spares your loved ones from pollution that gets into bottled drinks via your ice maker. If you don't cook food at home, filtering the drinking water and water used to make ice might be sufficient.

Water filters designed for your refrigerator are no different from water filtration systems for an ice maker, it is only a matter of which appliance is connected.

Water Coolers with Filtration

water coolers with filters are not limited to use in offices now days. Millions of moms love the idea of kids drinking more water to limit soft drinks. Moms are especially happy when the kids can get refills while eliminating trips to the ice box.

A filtration capable water cooler makes pure cold or hot water for drinking on demand, so water coolers get used year round. What's best, your drinking water is safe and tastes great without moving those big heavy water bottles.

Reverse Osmosis Filters

Reverse osmosis water purification is a slow process, thus a storage tank is used to hold water that is purified so you don't run out of water during times of heavy usage. If you do not have space available for a tank and a filter under the counter a reverse osmosis system is not an option.

Also, keep in mind that reverse osmosis water filtration is not the best water filtration method available today.

Filters That Attach to Your Kitchen Faucet

Faucet mounted water filters attach to the output end of your kitchen faucet and have a diverter valve so you can get filtered water when you switch the valve. Faucet mounted water filters don't provide the cleanest water, as only a small filter cartridge can be used. In addition, the filter cartridge usually only includs granularized activated carbon, which is not the best filtration media.

Normally, a water filter that sits on your counter top which includes a carbon block resin cartridge is a better way to go than anything that mounts on the faucet.

Filtered Water Pitchers

Filtration pitchers force water through a filter cartridge via gravity. This style of water filter does not provide the best filtration as it cannot include a dense filtration media like ceramic, since only the force of gravity is available to push the water through the filter. Water filters of this design tend to be slow to output purified water and don't offer any choices of filter cartridges.

Portable Water Filtration

For those on the go, portable water filtration systems are a must have item. These range from filtered sports bottles to water filters that sit on the countertop.

Now that you are familiar with all the possible design choices, you should be able up to easily identify the basic form factor of a drinking water system that fits your needs. The biggest part of your purchasing decision is based on the usable space installed in your kitchen and whether you want to get your filtered water from the fridge, the sink, or a water cooler.