Home water filter systems can be a simple and effective way to improve the quality of the water that you and your family use. This is especially useful in areas where the quality of water is below the level you desire. It often becomes more cost effective to use a home water filter system than to purchase bottled water for drinking, cooking and other uses.  

There are a few major purification methods used in filtration systems. The first is purification that involves passing water through a porous substance. Charcoal filters use this method and it is used in some water treatment plants. The next is reverse osmosis which involves reversing the natural flow of water through a membrane. Most reverse osmosis systems also utilize pre and post filters in addition to the membrane itself. The last common method we will look at is distillation. Distilling systems heat water until boiling and then collect the vapor as it condenses. This leaves many contaminants behind, particularly minerals and heavy metals such as iron. Some contaminants convert into gases, though, and they may be carried over as vapor. Your choice of filtration or purification system might begin with examining the contaminants in your water that you want to remove. Since each system has certain advantages over others (such as ability to remove certain negative aspects) and of course cost.

If you want to provide your entire home with filtered water, then chances are that you are interested in a point-of-entry system. What this means is that this type of system will provide your entire home with filtered water. Of course this is the more expensive type of system for several reasons, one is that it is larger, and normally requires more maintenance due to the quantity of water that it will have to filter.

Point-of-use systems are what many of us already have experience with and what many of us will continue to choose. These types of systems include personal water bottles with filters; pour through purifiers, plumbed-in under the sink. These tend to be practical for most users since they filter the water that you use to drink and cook with. Even with these types of systems you will have to pay for filter maintenance (replacement, cleaning, etc.) as you would with a point-of-entry system and in some cases you may have to completely replace the point-of-use system when the filter becomes ineffective.

At the end of the day, your budget and your scope of how much water you want to filter will be your ultimate deciding factors. Systems are available at most home improvement centers and if you are not inclined to installing one yourself, there are many companies that specialize in water purification.