We are fitting a whole house water softener. Although some sources suggest that there is no risk in drinking softened water IIUC you are supposed to provide a supply of unsoftened water.
So we would like this to be filtered water.
To fit by the kitchen sink, own seperate tap, some kind of cartridge filter which doesn't need changing too often.
There are lots of them. Some just filter and some have activated carbon filters supposed to remove heavy metals, pesticide traces etc etc. The filter cartridges are very expensive often so watch this.
However, a load of bollocks in my opinion.
The activated carbon ones remove the chlorine which can lead to all sorts of nasty bugs breeding in them. Especially if you go on holiday and leave the thing to fester for days. An especially if they are in a warm place.
Many last at least 6 months - some a year. Some of the posher ones have a meter of some sort to indicate when.
As with most of these things, it depends a little on what result you are looking for.
Pretty much any of them will filter large particulates like rust and mud etc. Also any will also deal with the aesthetics like unpleasant taste and smell.
You need to read the small print for ultra fine performance if you want one that will also deal with fine biological stuff like cryptosporidium and cysts etc, plus heavy metals and chlorine etc.
Having made tea and coffee with filtered water there is a big difference - at the moment when I add lemon to the green tea the water fizzes then clears. I would prefer it to start out clear. :-)
I thought green tea was best drunk with nothing added, except maybe a little sugar? But whatever is important to you, is what matters. Which Water Company supplies your area?
We live in a very soft water area (south Devon) but one which suffers from frequent noticeable chlorine dosing and sometimes an interesting peaty flavour.
We started off with a small in-line filter with its own tap - an entry level ukp 25 kit from EMWC.
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was ok but the water flow at the tap was slow due to the 1/4 inch piping and connections. We upgraded to their System 90 one year cartridge which came with 3/8 piping which improved the flow rate noticeably. Then one day a push fit connector to the filter cartridge came apart with real PITA consequences.
Following some online research I decided that the only in-line system which would give me peace of mind was a Brita A/P unit with decent screw fittings and braided hose. The Brita price was ridiculous but I soon found some of their kit on Ebay at a far more reasonable price.
It does make a noticeable improvement to the taste of the water - blind tasting confirmed this! Brita claim that their P 1000 filter also reduces limescale but whether or not this is to a useful degree I cannot say.
I've just had a 'Laser water softener' fitted by these guys:
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've omitted a water filter partly because the worktop is granite (so a sep= arate tap would require drilling), partly due to lack of space, and partly = due to the water in this house not being so bad.
In a previous home, I did exactly the same as you. I installed a softener a= nd got a filter for drinking water using a separate tap. The product I chos= e was:
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filter was much better and cheaper than using a jug filter. You can hav= e double filters and a variety of single cartridges. I was only motivated b= y taste and the standard cheapest cartridge was a big improvement over the = unfiltered water.
In my case the filtered drinking water and the garden tap were on a bypass = to the softener. I was very disciplined about changing the filter appropria= tely. I also had a bypass to the filter just in case I wanted to take that = out of circuit. You can also remove the cartridge so water runs through the= unit but isn't filtered e.g. if the filter is old but you haven't got roun= d to replacing it.
I've have heard of people softening water to the garden tap so they can use= softened water for car washing and filling outdoor pools/tubs.
Pozzani was a delight to deal with and the prices seem good. They even sent= me a spare part on trust. A friend got the filter on my recommendation and= he's happy with it too. However, he paid the extra for the Franke three-wa= y tap. For several reasons, I think a separate tap is better than a three-w= ay tap.
I've no connection with them other than as a customer.
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