Top 9 Water Filter Benefits, Explained by an Expert

Read this guide if you’re keen to know the top 9 benefits of drinking filtered tap water in your home.

🧐 What Is A Water Filter?

If you already know the basic role of a water filter, feel free to skip straight to the benefits.

A water filter is a device that removes unwanted impurities from tap water. The aim of filtration is to reduce the adverse health effects of drinking water straight from the tap and ensure that water tastes good.

Popular Water Filtration Methods

There are dozens of water filters on today’s market, each offering a specific filtration method.

Four of the most popular water filtration methods are:

• Activated carbon filtration – most commonly granular activated carbon or carbon block filtration, found in under-sink filters and pitcher filters.
• Reverse osmosis filtration – produces pure water by removing up to 99.99% of TDS, found in under-sink and countertop units.
• KDF filtration – removes a variety of contaminants using the electrochemical process of oxidation, found in under-sink and whole-home filters.
• Ion exchange filtration – exchanges ions to improve water’s taste and health properties, often found in pitcher filters.

🔎 9 Key Benefits of Drinking Filtered Water

We’ve shared the top 9 benefits of filtering your water below.

1. Water Tastes and Smells Better

The biggest benefit of filtered water is that it tastes and smells better than normal tap water.

Even a basic granular activated carbon filter can noticeably improve the taste and smell of water by removing chlorine, a disinfectant that gives an unpleasant chemical water taste.

Many people use water filters purely to get bottled water-tasting water straight from their faucet.

2. Water Is Safe To Drink

Another key benefit of filtered tap water is that it’s much safer to drink than normal tap water.

Let’s look again at activated carbon filters – the most popular, affordable filtration option available today. An activated carbon filter reduces chlorine, disinfection byproducts, some VOCs, pesticides, herbicides, and PFOS, providing safe, clean water.

Multi-stage filters combine several types of filter media, including KDF, carbon, ion exchange, activated alumina, and RO membrane filtration (in the case of reverse osmosis systems). The best water filters produce virtually pure water by removing a host of dangerous contaminants.

3. Filters are Cost-Effective

If you currently drink a lot of bottled water to avoid poor-tasting or bad-quality tap water, installing a filtered water solution is much more cost-effective in the long run.

After their initial cost, water filters are cheap to maintain. Most single-stage systems cost less than $50 per year to run. Compare this to the hundreds of dollars you usually spend on bottled water, and you could probably make some significant savings.

Considering the safety and health benefits of filtered water, most people are happy to pay a small recurring cost for a water purification or filtration system.

4. Environmentally-Friendly

Switching from single-use plastic bottles to filtered water at home is the best thing you can do for the environment.

Water filters are often recyclable, and many manufacturers offer recycling programs with incentives for returning used filters. You can do your bit for the environment by cutting your bottled water habit and recycling your filters.

5. Retain Healthy Minerals

The majority of tap water filters don’t remove essential minerals like calcium and magnesium. That means that the pleasant taste of tap water is retained, even while the unpleasant-tasting contaminants are removed.

The only exception here is reverse osmosis filters, which remove healthy minerals (although many systems feature a remineralization stage to add these essential minerals back into the water after the filtration process).

6. Numerous Filter Options to Choose From

Regardless of your budget and your contaminant removal needs, you should be able to easily find a water filtration system that’s ideally suited to you.

📌 For small budgets, faucet filters and pitcher filters are effective, affordable purified water solutions. The best pitchers can remove hundreds of contaminants from tap water.

If you have more money to spend, consider under-sink drinking tap water systems, whole home filters, and reverse osmosis systems, which offer faster water flow, increased contaminant removal, and (in the case of whole home filters) treatment of your entire water supply.

There are different filters to remove a whole host of different impurities, including lead and heavy metals, chlorine, chloramine, pharmaceuticals, fluoride, VOCs, and many other contaminants.

7. Water Filters Are Low-Maintenance

All water filtration solutions require some maintenance.

However, this maintenance is usually minimal, requiring no more effort than ordering a batch of bottled water or maintaining a coffee machine.

Most water filters just need filter changes every few months. The entire filtration unit should also be cleaned occasionally to prevent a buildup of dirt and debris.

8. Enhances Performance Of Water-Using Appliances

Certain contaminants in your water supply might be more than just a health risk – they may also damage your water pipes and water-using appliances, affecting water flow and appliance efficiency.

Contaminants like iron, chlorine, sediment, and other minerals and chemical contaminants can clog, corrode, or coat the surfaces inside appliances like washing machines, dishwashers, and coffeepots.

📌 When you install one of the filtering methods that can remove contaminants that cause plumbing damage, you won’t have to worry about their effects. Your appliances should last longer and require less frequent cleaning and maintenance.

9. Filters Protect Your Entire Family

Getting children to drink enough water can be difficult. Plus, you might feel concerned about the contaminants in unfiltered tap water, many of which are more dangerous to children and have developmental effects.

Filtering water in your home means you can protect your entire family from contaminants. By improving the taste of your water, you should also encourage your children to drink more fresh water and avoid sugary fruit juices and sodas.

🚰 Why Are Water Filters Needed?

Unfortunately, our tap water supplies aren’t as purified as we might think.

It’s common for tap water to contain traces of contaminants that affect drinking water quality, such as heavy metals, chlorine or chloramine, volatile organic compounds, pharmaceuticals, nitrates, and pesticides. Water that travels through lead pipes may also contain dangerous levels of lead.

There are national regulations for water quality in the US set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but even these regulations permit small amounts of contaminants in water, deeming these amounts to be “safe”. But most of us would rather drink water that’s completely impurity-free.

The only way to avoid drinking contaminated water is to install a filtered water system in your home.

⛔️ Water Filter Setbacks

You’re here to learn about the benefits of a water filtration system, but for the sake of a balanced argument, we have to share the setbacks, too.

Some of the biggest setbacks of owning a filtered water system are:

1. Cost – The upfront cost of even the cheapest filtered water system is around $20-$50, and the average annual cost is $30-$50.
2. Maintenance – Most types of water filters need to be replaced every 2-12 months.
3. Limited contaminant removal – Unless you go for a reverse osmosis system (which is about 3x the price of a standard filter and wastes water), you probably won’t find a filter that can remove everything.
4. Decreased water flow – There’s a price to pay for clean water, and that’s decreased water pressure.
5. Potential for bacteria growth. Not changing your water filters on time increases the risk of bacteria growing in the media.

🤔 Is Filtered Water Worth The Cost?

Now you know the benefits and setbacks of water filtration, you’re probably wondering: is filtred water worth the cost?

👨‍🔧 In our opinion, the answer is a very definite “yes”.

Drinking filtered water isn’t just safer and healthier – you’ll also enjoy your water taste so you’ll find it easier to stay hydrated.

While water filtration costs money, it’s often cheaper than buying bottled water. And you can’t put a price on your family’s health.

❔ Benefits Of A Water Filter: FAQ

Why is it important to have a water filter?

It’s important to have a water filter if you want to protect your family against common drinking water contaminants, like lead, arsenic, chlorine, and nitrates. Drinking water contains trace contaminants, and the only way to eliminate them is with a water filter.

Is drinking filter water good for you?

Yes, drinking filtered water is good for you because the water contains fewer contaminants than your normal tap water. Most filters only remove the bad stuff, so your water is safer to drink but still contains healthy minerals.

How do water filters benefit the environment?

Water filters benefit the environment because they provide you with bottled water-like quality, so you don’t have to spend your money on single-use water bottles. This helps to reduce plastic waste.

How often should you filter your water?

You should filter all the water you drink with an on-demand water filter, ideally. This will ensure you’re protected against harmful contaminants at all times.