Home water treatment systems are typically installed to soften your water and remove contaminants.
Reverse osmosis is an incredibly effective system, but it’s one among several others we will discuss below:
4. Faucet, fridge and pitcher filtration
Contact a WaterSmart professional to find out which of the home water treatment systems is best for your unique situation.
Comparing home water treatment systems: cost + pros and cons
Choosing Between Reverse Osmosis and Other Home Water Treatment Systems
Maybe you’re drawing water from a municipal supply or perhaps you have a private well. Either way, home treatment systems improve the quality of the water coming into your home.
You can quickly assess your options using the graphic above, but here’s a more detailed breakdown.
1. reverse Osmosis
Reverse Osmosis is a water treatment system that removes dissolved substances while still giving you great-tasting water.
This purifying process pushes water through a semi-permeable membrane made up of small holes called "pores”. Clean water passes through the membrane, and contaminants are flushed away.
Watch this video to learn more about reverse osmosis.
Purchase a reverse osmosis system that’s high quality and includes a carbon filter to block dangerous chemicals like pesticides, herbicides, and chlorine which are all small enough to pass through less sophisticated filters.
We recommend the Duro Reverse Osmosis water treatment system.
2. Water Softener
As far as home water treatment systems go, a water softener is very common.
If you have hard water - like we do here in the Kitchener-Waterloo area - it contains large amounts of dissolved minerals like calcium and magnesium. A water softener will remove these minerals that cause your water to be hard.
This diagram outlines the softening process.
By softening your water, you solve a wide range of hard water problems in your home:
Eliminate buildup and residue in tubs, showers, pipes and faucets
Clear and clean dishes and flatware
Alleviate dry and itchy skin
Sustain the colour and comfort of your clothing
Extend appliance lifespan
Here is A comprehensive look at how water softeners work.
3. Dechlorination
Did you know there could be chlorine added to your water supply to help reduce the risk of waterborne diseases?
According to the Government of Canada, “chlorine is a disinfectant added to drinking water to reduce or eliminate microorganisms, such as bacteria and viruses, which can be present in water supplies.”
Given this, chlorinated water can have a very specific, sometimes unpleasant smell that turns many off from drinking it.
Whole-home dechlorination is the process of removing chlorine from the water supply before it reaches your faucets.
Additionally, you might want to use a dechlorinator simply for outdoor use. You can learn more about that here:
Discover the benefits of water dechlorination for your garden.
4. Faucet, Fridge and Pitcher Filtration
Many are quite satisfied with basic filtration for their home water treatment systems.
Faucet filtration
Faucet mounted filters are relatively easy to use, install, and clean. As an added bonus, you can remove them and take them with you if you’re in a rental unit.
However, water filtration attachments don’t necessarily add to the look of your kitchen and they can decrease the rate of flow of your water from your tap.
Fridge filtration
Fridge filters are another convenient and inexpensive way to get filtered water.
They do need to be replaced pretty regularly, though - usually about once a month.
While they’re relatively inexpensive to replace, fridge filters don’t remove as many substances from your water as reverse osmosis.
WaterSmart carries fridge filters for almost every make and model of refrigerator in the market.
Pitchers and bottles
There are many different kinds of water filters that you can purchase. You can choose from small to larger-sized pitchers that are equipped with a filter.
You simply fill the pitcher up with tap water and place it in your fridge so that it is ready to use when you need it.
We also sell water coolers with spring, distilled, or purified water, which you can order online and have delivered for free. Or if you prefer, you can refill your own bottles at any of our store locations.
Read more about our bottled water here.
Discover the Benefits of Home Water Treatment Systems
WaterSmart has been serving the Waterloo region - including, Kitchener, Cambridge, Guelph, Brantford and surrounding areas - for almost 30 years.
We help select the perfect home water treatments systems for your particular needs.
We are committed to helping you improve the quality of your home's water.
We live and work in the Kitchener-Waterloo region so we understand the hard water challenges of this area.
We know how to program your water softener for maximum efficiency and are familiar with the types of water softener repairs that you might need.
We also offer other effective whole house water filtration systems like reverse osmosis and fridge filters.
Want to learn more? Contact WaterSmart today to talk to one of our water systems experts.
What Our Customers Are Saying…
“What a great experience!! I did a search on the internet, called regarding the price of a water softener and the next day it was installed and we had soft water again. Paul removed the old softener, installed and setup the new one and was out in just over an hour. He also noted that the grounding of water pipe was not done by previous installer and he corrected that as well. Cost was the same as softener that was installed 14 years ago - I am impressed.”
