Guide on Choosing and Installing the Right Drinking Water Filter for Your Home

When it comes to clean drinking water you have sole discretion of what is and isn’t present in your household water, and it doesn’t matter what the water source is. 

Our role as water filtration experts is to help you choose and install the right drinking water filter for your home.

We’ve written this comprehensive guide on how to choose a drinking water filter as well as providing you with information about drinking water filter installation, so that you can enjoy fresh filtered water in the comfort of your own home.

Types of drinking water filters

Before you decide which water filter is the best for drinking, it’s important to clarify what we mean by a drinking water filter, as they can come in different shapes and sizes.

A drinking water filter does not treat the water coming out of any existing tap in your home. That would be a mains or whole house water filter.

With a drinking water filter you would have to install a separate drinking water filter tap or replace your existing kitchen tap with a 3 way tap.

Under sink drinking water filters

This type of drinking water filter is typically installed underneath your kitchen sink and the filtered water is dispensed via a separate drinking water filter tap or by replacing your existing kitchen tap with a 3 way tap. 

It normally comprises of one, two, or three 2.5 x 10” water filter housings which contain varying water filter replacement cartridges depending on what you want to filter out of your water.

 

Pros and cons of an under sink drinking water filter

• Wide choice of water filter cartridges that cater for all filtration requirements.
• Easy to install and maintain.
• Filtered water is on demand rather than having to fill up a water filter jug.
• Doesn’t take up precious space on your kitchen bench.
• Cartridges are generally recyclable.
• Takes up more space underneath your kitchen sink than an inline drinking water filter.

Inline drinking water filters

An inline drinking water filter is essentially a water filter cartridge that isn’t contained within a housing.

 

Pros and cons of an inline water filter

• Ideal when you have limited space underneath your kitchen sink.
• Easy to install and maintain.
• Lower initial cost than an under sink drinking water filter.
• Suitable for boats, caravans, and motorhomes.
• Limited choice of water filter cartridges compared with under sink drinking water filters.
• More regular water filter cartridge replacements – every 6 months as opposed to every 12 months.
• Generates more plastic waste.

Water filter jugs

You will also come across water filter jugs such as the Brita filter. Water filter jugs can seem a convenient and reasonable solution to filtering your tap water, but they are expensive to maintain. We came up with some excellent Brita water filter alternatives that will save you money in the long-term.

 

Pros and cons of a water filter jug

• They are convenient and the filter cartridges can be recycled.
• Easy to clean but must be cleaned regularly.
• Filter cartridges must be changed every four weeks.
• Filtered water isn’t on demand.
• They are expensive.

Before deciding, which is the best drinking water filter, we recommend you think about what it is that you want to change about your water. This is always one of the first questions we ask people before they choose a drinking water filter.

What do you want from a drinking water filter?

The benefits of drinking clean filtered water are numerous, but you need to work out what your own individual household needs are.   

By identifying what your needs are you’ll be well on your way to choosing which filter is good for drinking water in your home.

Let us give you a few helpful hints when choosing a drinking water filter.

Choosing the right drinking water filter for your needs

Unless people have already identified specific contaminants they want to remove from their water or know the questions they want answers to because they have been reading the incredibly useful information on the Fountain Filters website, people often call us up and ask which filter is best for drinking water.

Our focus is on narrowing the search for them by helping them identify what it is they want to change about their water. They find this very helpful before committing to purchase and install a drinking water filter.

10 helpful hints to help you decide which filter is best for drinking water

Based on our experience of talking to people about their household water we’ve put together 10 helpful hints to help you decide which filter is best for drinking water in your home.

The following are all key factors to consider, and we’ll also give some simple recommendations for different scenarios we know people come up against.

Helpful hint 1 - Where does your water come from?

If you are on mains water, your water is treated with a disinfectant such as chlorine to prevent bacterial growth. This ensures that the water travels safely through the pipe network to your kitchen tap.

A private water supply means that your water most likely comes from a bore hole on or nearby your property. That water will not have been treated for any contaminants and its quality varies greatly depending on where it’s located in the UK.

Helpful hint 2 - Have you been advised to install a water filter?

There are a couple of scenarios where you would need to install a drinking water filter.

If you are on a private water supply, you may have had your water analysed and the report throws up some issues where the level of certain contaminants is above the UK’s permissible levels.

Installing a drinking water filter would reduce the contaminants and make it safer to drink.

Or you may have become aware that your property contains lead pipes and the quickest and most cost effective option is to install a drinking water filter to reduce the lead in your water. A water filter is far cheaper than replacing your pipes.

Helpful hint 3 - You don’t like the taste or smell of your tap water

You may just decide that you don’t like the taste or smell of your water because of the chlorine that’s added to the mains water supply.

Installing a drinking water filter from our chlorine and taste range will improve the taste and smell of your water. If you suffer from certain skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis, you may also find that removing chlorine will have a positive impact on your skin.

Helpful hint 4 - You live in a hard water area and are sick of the limescale

Many households across the UK are located in hard water areas and they are desperate to get rid of limescale.

You’ll know if you have limescale because it wreaks havoc on appliances such as boilers, kettles, and washing machines. Limescale also leaves hard scaly deposits on taps and shower screens, and it doesn’t wipe away easily.

Thankfully, with one of our drinking water filters for hard water, we can help you minimise the annoyance and increase the life of your household appliances.

Helpful hint 5 - Are you troubled that fluoride is being added to your water?

If you are one of the many people who are opposed to fluoride being added to UK tap water, the first thing to do is check whether it’s added to your water supply. 

If it is and you want to remove it, you can.

We offer drinking water filters that will address your fluoride concerns. Check out our fluoride water filters here.

Helpful hint 6 - Heavy metals are a concern

If you have lead in your drinking water, that is a legitimate concern and you should do something about it as soon as you can.

Installing a drinking water filter that removes lead will ensure your drinking water is safe to consume.

Helpful hint 7 – Install a separate tap or change your existing kitchen tap?

When it comes to installing a drinking water filter you need to decide how you are going to access your clean filtered water.

You can choose to install a separate drinking water filter tap that will dispense cold filtered water directly from your under sink drinking water filter. This tap will sit alongside your existing kitchen tap.

Or you can replace your existing kitchen tap with a 3 way water filter tap, That way, you can enjoy hot, cold, and filtered water from the same appliance.

Helpful hint 8 - How much space do you have?

The amount of space you have underneath your kitchen sink is a determining factor when considering drinking water filter installation.

While drinking water filters aren’t huge pieces of kit you may be considering a unit that has single, double, or triple housings. The height and depth remain the same at 34cm and 13cm respectively, no matter how many housings you have, but the width will be anything from 14cm to 36cm.

Helpful hint 9 – Replacing the cartridges in your drinking water filter

People start out by installing a drinking water filter and then when it comes to the 6-12 month cartridge change, life gets in the way, and they forget to order a replacement water filter cartridge.

That’s why Fountain Filters have made it easy for people to remember. Our cartridge renewal reminders that drop into people inboxes every six months mean that at the touch of a button people can order new water filter cartridges to ensure they have continuous clean filtered water in their homes.

Helpful hint 10 - Who is going to install your drinking water filter?

When it comes to plumbing, people can get a little anxious about it. Unless you’re a competent DIYer or professional plumber, that is completely understandable.

But our drinking water filters are easy to install, and we provide detailed fitting instructions with every drinking water filter that leaves our warehouse.

We don’t supply a list of plumbers in different areas of the UK. We’ve found that it’s always best when looking for tradespeople to ask for recommendations from friends or family. People are always happy to recommend someone and give you their honest opinion of how they have found the service.

How to install a drinking water filter system

Installing a drinking water filter system is basically water in on one side and water out on the other. It’s a very simple installation for any DIYer or plumber.

If you want to have a go at it yourself, we put this simple video together to show you exactly how to install a drinking water filter system.

Maintenance of your drinking water filter

Apart from the 6-12 month cartridge changes there is minimal maintenance required for drinking water filters.  

The only things that can become worn and compressed over time are the rubber O-rings that sit at the top of the housing. We recommend that these are changed every 2-3 years. Keeping your O-rings and threads lubricated is also important and therefore a handy tube of food grade silicone grease is a useful toolkit staple.

How Fountain Filters can help you get the drinking water filter you need

We hope that you’ve found the information in this article helpful.

With our experience of drinking water filters, we are confident that we’ll have a drinking water filter to suit you.

It’s important to stress that if you have any questions or aren’t sure which water filter is the best for drinking in your home, or any aspect of drinking water filter installation to get in touch with us.

If you like to chat then call us on 01352 838 281 or if you prefer written communication our helpdesk is waiting for your message.