What Should I Look For In An Under-Sink Water Filter?
Choosing the right water filter can be a daunting task. Deciding which water filter you should choose can be daunting: What is important, what isn't important, what the cost should be. Let's dive into all the questions you should be asking and what you should be looking for.
Flow Rate and Water Pressure:
We think this is the most important question because if you have a really slow water flow rate, you're just going to be spending too much of your life sitting around waiting for water to come out of a faucet, and trust us, that is really boring. In our opinion, anything less than 2 gallons per minute is too slow. Compared to most reverse osmosis water filter systems, the OM filter system saves you about 5 hours/a year in time not spent waiting for water to come out of a filter. That is enough time to watch the Before Sunset movie trilogy!
It's worth pointing out that at 2.5 GPM, you will still have enough pressure to use this water filter on your everyday system, meaning you'll have enough pressure to clean dishes or use your sprayer and always know that your water is being filtered.
How Often Do You Need to Change Filters:
Let us save you some time - if you need to change the filter more than once per year, walk away from the system. Any system that needs to be changed more than once per year is needlessly complex, which means breakdowns, clogs, and probably water spills all over your cabinets and gorgeous kitchen floors.
How Easy Is It to Change Filters:
This is probably related to the point above: If you need a special tool to change the filters, walk away from the system for all the same reasons we brought up above.
What Contaminants Does It Remove:
Water filter companies try to make this part needlesly complex. What you should be looking for is how many microns the filter is. If it is greater than 0.3 microns, the system is simply not good enough. Below 0.3 microns, this will take out everything you should be worried about: chlorine, taste, odor, lead, VOCs, and heavy metals. Also cysts, bacteria, PFAS, nasty pharmaceuticals, and fluoride.