The Basics Of Whole House Water Filters Explained
15
April, 2021
A GUIDE TO COMPLETE HOME FILTRATION
How to choose and install a whole of house water filter in Australia to provide filtered water to the complete home.
Types of whole house water filters
The systems vary in sizes dramatically, some online and the occasional bricks and mortar retailers sell 10 inch x 2.5 inch units which are way undersized to do the job of supplying water to all of your home. The minimum size in our opinion should be 10 inch x 4.5 inches or 20 inch x 2.5 inches, we would recommend using a bigger system if at all possible measuring 20 inches x 4.5 inches as the flow will be stronger and the cartridges will not require to be changed as often. The configuration of the systems can be single twin or triple as in the diagrams below.
Pricing of whole of house water filters
Basics: the housing is the blue plastic with the black head that you can see in the diagrams above, the cartridges are the filters which fit inside the housings.
Pricing varies dramatically between different systems, obviously a 10 inch x 2.5 inch system should be a lot cheaper than the 20 inch x 4.5 inch unit, however sadly this is not always the case.
Things to consider are is the system Australian Watermark Certified if it isn’t then stay clear as it may not stand up to the high water pressures experienced in Australia, also a stainless steel bracket is highly recommended as the white powder coated brackets will rust and look terrible after a matter of a few years.
The most important thing to consider is the quality of the cartridge that you place inside the housing both in terms of micron sizing and quality of the media inside the carbon cartridge.
Cartridges can vary dramatically in quality and also in what contaminants that they can remove from the water. Cheaper carbon blocks may only remove chlorine taste and odour, leaving other contaminants in your water such as lead, viruses and chloramines which are detrimental to your health. A cheaper made sediment cartridge can collapse under water pressure causing blockages.
Installation
Always use a licensed plumber to install your whole of house water filter, this is not only a legal requirement but there are also inherent risks in digging around gas and water pipes along with risk of death from electrocution.
The cost to install a whole house filter can vary dramatically from one home to the next, the reason for this is that it depends where the point of entry of the town water is to your home. Here are a few images that will help explain this:
POINT OF ENTRY PRE CONSTRUCTION
This is a typical example of a point of entry to a slab built home in Australia, the red circle indicates where the copper pipe enters just above the slab.
POINT OF ENTRY POST CONSTRUCTION
Once the home is complete it can be difficult to find the point of entry or it may be completely buried meaning that a lot of digging is required to locate this position.
WHOLE HOUSE INSTALLED
Here is an example of a whole of house water filter with the earth excavated and system installed
