What is the best whole house reverse osmosis system

Summary: Best Reverse Osmosis Water Filters

How to Determine Which Reverse Osmosis Water System Is Best for You

Price

RO water filters can be pricey. The amount of water you need to filter per day will affect the price of the filter you buy. (A larger household and/ or lots of water usage = a larger filtration system.) If you know you won’t need a high number of gallons per day (GPD), you can reduce your overall costs — initially, and over time — with an RO system that has a lower GPD filter.

Water Pressure Conditions Prior to Installation

RO filtration systems rely on water pressure to function, so make sure your home can handle it before purchasing your filter. Optimum RO flow requires at least between 40 to 60 psi, and ideally no lower than 50 psi. Low water pressure will reduce the flow of water coming from your faucet, resulting in more waste and decreasing the efficacy of filtration.

Capacity and Speed of Water Production

How much water you use will determine the capacity of the semipermeable membrane or gallons per day (GPD) of the unit you need. The higher the GPD number, the higher the production membrane. If you’re going to use less water per day, a lower production membrane is a better choice because it will run longer and spend less time sitting idle.

What to Look for in a Reverse Osmosis Water Filter

Efficiency

Your RO system should tell you what types of contaminants they can filter and how successful they are at doing so to produce clean great-tasting water. In addition, you’ll also want to investigate how much wastewater they produce in the process, as well as how the system disposes of it.

Replacement Filters: Ease of Installation and Affordability

Keeping your RO filter effective means replacing the filters as needed, and the price of filter replacements can vary greatly. Before you buy, look at how easy or difficult it is to get these filters replaced (and whether that will require labor costs from hiring a professional), as well as how much the individual filters will cost, to make sure you can keep up with your RO filtration system maintenance.

Quiet and Fast Water Flow

RO systems make water slowly, and the speed of water flow varies greatly between systems. Highly filtered water with low contaminants takes time to produce. You’ll want to shop for a system with a storage tank that can hold the amount of water you’ll need to get through your routine so you never have to wait for it to purify. It’s also worth researching how quiet your RO system will be to avoid loud gurgling noises as it filters water, even when you aren’t using it.

Pros and Cons of Reverse Osmosis Water Filters

Pros

• Highly effective (up to 99%) at eliminating most harmful pollutants from water
• Best purification filter for healthy, clean and safe drinking water
• Does not require electricity to operate; runs on water pressure
• Maintains high mineral content in water
• Safe and environmentally friendly

Cons

• Tend to be more expensive than other types of water filters
• Require high water pressure to operate; may notice a drop in water flow rate
• Waste a lot of water in the purification process, only cleansing a small portion of the total water used, and wastewater requires a proper and safe method of disposal
• Removes some beneficial minerals from water
• Requires professional maintenance to ensure effectiveness and safety

Basic Steps to Installing a Reverse Osmosis Water Filter

The process of installing a reverse osmosis water filter is important to ensure your filter performs correctly and safely. It’s best left to a professional plumber unless you understand all the system components and are highly confident in your skills. Here is an oversimplified step-by-step of the process:

1. Install and mount the faucet (if applicable), and check all fitting connections to the faucet.

2. Open ball valve, allow system to pressurize and check for leaks.

3. Open valve on bladder tank and open faucet until water flows.

4. Close the faucet, wait five minutes and check for leaks again.

5. Allow the system to produce a full tank of RO water. This could take up to 2-3 hours depending on how much water you need to filter.

Methodology

To determine the best reverse osmosis water filter ranking, the Forbes Home editorial team analyzed third-party data on over 30 products. Each product’s star rating is determined by evaluating a variety of metrics, including:

• Customer rating (20%)
• Price (15%)
• Number of filtering stages (15%)
• Remineralization included (10%)
• Max TDS (ppm) (10%)
• Water production (GPD) (10%)
• Replacement cycle (10%)
• Warranty (10%)

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Is reverse osmosis the best filtration?

Reverse osmosis is an effective water filtration method for removing many types of contaminants and impurities and is commonly regarded as the best filter for drinking water. Like all types of water filters, there are situations where they are a more effective choice, as well as situations where another type of filter may provide better results.

Some common contaminants can slip through a reverse osmosis filter, including some types of chlorine and dissolved gasses, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and organic compounds. If these are still concerns after determining your water contaminants via a water test kit, a different type of filter may benefit your water quality.

Does reverse osmosis help well water?

Yes, reverse osmosis filtration can help filter and eliminate the many contaminants found in groundwater to make it safer to drink. Whole home reverse osmosis water filtration systems are more commonly found on rural homes that rely on well water.

What's the difference between osmosis and reverse osmosis?

Osmosis and reverse osmosis share similarities in that they both remove solutes from water, but there are key differences. Osmosis is the natural process of water molecules diffusing through a semipermeable membrane from a place of high water concentration to low water concentration. In reverse osmosis, water passes through a semipermeable membrane in the direction opposite that of natural osmosis when subject to additional pressure.

How much does a whole home reverse osmosis system cost?

The cost of a whole home reverse osmosis system will vary based on a few factors but is most closely correlated with the amount of water that needs to be generated per day, as well as the amount of pre-filtration equipment. You can expect to pay between $12,000 to $18,000 for the installed price, which includes labor and materials.

Which filter is best for drinking water?

Reverse osmosis filtration systems are the best for drinking water. The many stages of the filtration process can remove up to 99% of contaminants from water.

Information provided on Forbes Home is for educational purposes only. The products and services we review may not be right for your individual circumstances.

Forbes Home adheres to strict editorial integrity standards. To the best of our knowledge, all content is accurate as of the date posted, though offers contained herein may no longer be available. The opinions expressed are the author’s alone and have not been provided, approved, or otherwise endorsed by our partners.

Shelby is an editor with an affinity for covering home improvement and repair, design and real estate trends. She also specializes in content strategy and entrepreneur coaching for small businesses, the future of work and philanthropy/ nonprofits. An advocate for creativity and innovation, she writes with the knowledge that content trends tell an important tale about the bigger picture of our world. Reach out to her if you want to share a story.

Lexie is an assistant editor who is responsible for writing and editing articles over a wide variety of home-related topics. She has almost four years’ experience in the home improvement space and harnessed her expertise while working for companies like HomeAdvisor and Angi (formerly Angie’s List).

What is the best brand of reverse osmosis?

Is there anything better than reverse osmosis?

Can you have reverse osmosis for the whole house?

How big of a reverse osmosis system do I need?