Filtered Water To The Whole House
By Sean O'Hara
No homeowner should have to put up with crappy unfiltered water. Period. A simple household water filter like the Omni Whole House water filter can effectively reduce rust sediment, chlorine, and odors at the point where the water lines enters your home, ensuring that every spigot in the house delivers decent water.
These filters install where the water line enters the house, and they’re easy to hook up to ¾” pipe. The filer system has a lifespan of about 15,000 gallons per filter cartridge, so depending on how conservation savvy you and your family is – and how nasty the water at your place — these should last you around three to six months. Refills cost about $8.
The best part is that the filters can be changed after install without turning off the water line or making a huge mess, and in a pinch you can turn the system to bypass mode to skip the filter entirely.
The bottom line: for around $40 and twenty minutes of install time, the water flowing to all your faucets and appliances is clean and tastes better.
I think I see one of these in my (near) future.
The U25 House Water Filter [Omni]
Street Pricing [Google Product Search]
Via Amazon
June 1st, 2007 at 11:20 am
I see your point about the relative low cost of these systems. However, the majority of “the house” really does not need filtered water (e.g., car wash, dish washer, shower, garden, etc.). On the other hand, I guess if your water has a lot of sediment, this would save you some effort.
June 1st, 2007 at 12:11 pm
It will remove chlorine, which is good if you don’t like the smell or taste when showering or brushing your teeth. Those aren’t locations a point of use device would normally go, and are served well by a whole house filter.
June 1st, 2007 at 12:31 pm
My parents added something much like that a few years back. After changing the filters a few times, my father wasn’t convinced it was taking care for everything so he added a second one immediately after the first one in the line. While the first one quickly becomes rust colored, the second gradually shows a tint of rust color. The benefits include no rust in the appliances and no rust stains in the sink/toilet. They’re happy with it, especially considering the cost.
June 1st, 2007 at 12:46 pm
I have been thinking about getting one of these, but and under the sink job that has a dedicated filtered water tap.
June 1st, 2007 at 12:55 pm
My dad set up this system and it works great. It’s filtering well water, after it goes through the water-softener. And this is some scummy water when it comes out of the ground. Filter changes come a little sooner than what they recommend. He also put in a second spigot afterwards, one for carwashes (soft) and one for the lawn (hard).
And I’d have to disagree Mark, remove all the sediment and chemicals you can from your water! I’m on a city line (’burbs of Indy) and the water is harder than hard. Washing a car without leaving water spots is tough. And don’t even bring up the subject of water quality with my wife! Our glasses and silverware look awful. I was BSing with a plumber a couple weeks ago(pricing a water softener at the store) and he said areas with hard water have higher reports of kidney stones. Makes sense, since disolved rock (limestone) is what makes water hard. However, I didn’t do any fact-checking on his statements.
In summation, I’m a believer.
June 1st, 2007 at 12:59 pm
I have currently already one coming from my well which is a coarse grain filter. Now I already have the second ready with a finer grain. The only problem is that I really don’t want to slow down the pressure as each filter does that.
So I might put at a couple more in parallel instead of serial for my second filter so that it compensates the filtering slowness.
June 1st, 2007 at 2:06 pm
When we installed something like this in my parent’s house we added a pressure valve after the filter. By monitoring the pressure, Dad can tell when it is time to change the filter.
June 1st, 2007 at 2:57 pm
FYI, GE makes a slighter larger unit that will work with 1 inch water pipe coming into the house. Home Depot carries it. But, of course, the unit itself, and the replacement filters are more expensive. It does do a fantastic job though. You should see what a filter looks like after three months of use… I’m pretty sure that my city has an old chevy trapped in a water line somewhere rusting away bit by bit and all the rust is ending up trapped in my filter.
June 1st, 2007 at 5:13 pm
This would have been perfect in the house I grew up in, which happened to be on an area of bedrock limestone. The water there is extremely hard well water, and the next best thing in our (very rural) area was soft - and sulfur - water. It was great for leg-shaving, but that’s about it. I bet these filters will be huge back in the ole’ neighborhood.
June 1st, 2007 at 5:29 pm
Ahh, Detroit lake water.
June 1st, 2007 at 9:00 pm
We have a similar unit attached to our cold water on our kitchen sink. My wife always complains about a plasticy taste to the water. I have tried several different brand of filters with the same complaint. So i just removed the filter cartridge altogether.
We did buy a fridge with filtered water dispenser and that works pretty well. My wife doesn’t complain about the taste of the water. I’m not sure why the fridge filter work better.
I guess I don’t also understand why you would filter water for the whole house, when you probably get all you drinking water from the same place anyway. Unless, you like brushing your teeth with filtered water too.