3 Water Filter Add-Ons for Superior Whole House Filtration

If you have a Springwell whole house water filter installed in your home, you know it acts as a powerful defense line against masses of toxic contaminants and impurities in water. But perhaps even more rewarding is the fact that you can add additional filters to target and eliminate a broader range of pollutants and impurities.

These add-ons essentially transform your whole house water filter into somewhat of a hybrid system, combining the different filters to provide cleaner, safer, and better-tasting water for your entire household.

But what specific add-on filters can you include in your whole house setup? And how will each upgrade help improve the system’s overall filtering capability? We answer these and other relevant questions in this article.

1. A Sediment Pre-Filter

While particularly stellar at removing all kinds of pollutants from multiple water sources, many whole house water filters cannot remove sediments and other particulate matter in water without additional filtration. This is where sediment filters come in.

A sediment pre-filter is a type of filter that uses mechanical filtration to physically block suspended solids and other particulate matter entering your water supply and water filtration system (your whole house filter, in this case). Think of it like a screen door blocking bugs and leaves from entering your home while letting in light and fresh air. A sediment filter uses a similar mechanism to catch dirt, debris, silt, sand, rust flakes, and other suspended particles trying to enter the whole house filter.

Once your whole house system has a sediment filter, it is less prone to damage. Not only will it last longer, but it will likely do a better job of filtering those smaller particles, like chlorine and other potentially dangerous chemicals.

A sediment pre-filter will also prevent damage to your plumbing and appliances and keep your water looking crisp and clear. You’ll gradually notice that your water no longer looks cloudy or appears orange, brown, or yellow (if you had experienced those issues). But to maintain these incredible benefits, you must replace the pre-filter cartridge every two months, depending on your water quality and sediment levels.

Sediment levels can vary from one location to the next, so when you install your sediment filter, it will look white initially. When you see that the color has changed or your flow rate slowed, it’s time to replace the filter. Failing to change the filter on time will significantly reduce your home’s water pressure, increasing the time to pour a glass from the tap or shower after an intense workout.

There’s no doubt that a sediment filter is an excellent way to supplement your whole house system’s filtering ability. But if you are only adding it to improve your water’s taste or smell, you’ll need to add another filter to achieve that (we’ll discuss this shortly).

To learn more about sediment filtration or find the best sediment filter for your whole house water filter system, head over to our Sediment Filters page.

2. A UV Post-Filter

Whether you are using well water or city water, it may have some level of bacterial contamination. In most cases, drinking water containing disease-causing bacteria, viruses, protozoa, and helminths can result in many diseases and illnesses, including cholera, typhoid fever, dysentery, polio, hepatitis, chronic diarrhea, and many others. But thanks to UV filtration, you no longer have to worry about these unwanted agents in your drinking water.

Post-filters act as a polishing agent after the whole house unit does its job, catching any remaining sediment and organic particles in the water. In particular, a UV post-filter provides a unique layer of protection against bacteria, viruses, or cysts (like Cryptosporidium and Giardia) in micro-biologically unsafe water.

A UV filter generates germicidal ultraviolet light that disrupts the organisms’ DNA and prevents them from reproducing and spreading throughout the water. For immunocompromised people, new parents, or dealing with a boil water warning, a filter like this could mean the difference between boiling gallons of water for your family every day and relaxing as the UV filter does all the work.

Springwell’s UV Water Purification System (UV5-15) is an excellent option if you decide to add a UV filter to your whole house water filter system. The UV5-15 is proven to remove 99.9 percent of bacteria, viruses, parasites, and other microbes possibly present in your water for increased protection throughout your whole home.

Also, remember that cryptosporidium, giardia, and many other cysts, are chlorine-resistant. That means when the city treats your water with chlorine or chloramines, these cysts will continue to survive. Luckily, even on city water, the UV5-15 can protect against bacteria and cysts that resist municipal water treatment, providing an added sense of protection and ensuring your water is bacteria and virus-free.

3. A Water Softener

If your home’s tap water is hard (like millions of other Americans’), you likely experience problems from nasty white stains on your kitchen and bathroom fixtures to dry and itchy skin and hair after showering. If that’s the case, we have great news!

Adding a water softener to your whole house water filter system is an effective way to combat hard water and its destructive effects. Water softeners are filtering systems that eliminate hardness-causing calcium and magnesium from water, leaving you with more desirable “soft” water.

By removing hard minerals from water, water softeners help prevent damage to water-using appliances due to hard water, making your appliances operate better and last longer. They also reduce mineral buildup that would otherwise clog pipes and appliances and restrict water flow and pressure. Water softeners virtually prevent all the household and grooming problems hard water creates.

Now, you usually have two options when it comes to adding a water softener to your existing whole house filter system: a salt-based softener or a salt-free softener. We explain the differences between each type here.

But to give you a quick breakdown, salt-based softeners use an ion exchange process to soften water, which involves swapping the hardness mineral ions for sodium (salt) or potassium ions. In contrast, salt-free softeners use a physical process called Template-Assisted Crystallization (TAC) that changes the minerals’ chemical structure, so they don’t build up or stick to pipe interiors, showerheads, appliances, and surfaces – no salt involved whatsoever.

While we offer two whole house filter and softener combo systems, the CSF1 is a customer favorite. With the CSF1, you get a powerful combination of our high-tech FutureSoft water softener and our robust whole house filtration system.

Our FutureSoft softener is environmentally friendly and highly effective at treating hard water. Unlike traditional water softeners, it doesn’t use salt or electricity, nor does it waste water. Instead, it uses the same TAC process we described briefly above, along with a host of other unique technologies and functionalities.

On the other hand, our whole house system uses the highest quality catalytic coconut shell, KDF media, and many other innovative technologies to eliminate all kinds of toxic water contaminants possibly in your water. Both systems work seamlessly to provide the cleanest water possible for your entire household.

Final Thoughts

A whole house water filtration system is a must-have for all homeowners. It protects your household from dangerous contaminants and impurities that could otherwise damage your pipes and appliances and harm your health. Plus, with one of these systems in your home, you don’t have to install separate filters at every faucet because whole house filters treat all the water entering your home. But best of all, you can customize it to combat pollutants of all kinds.

For the best results, we recommend customizing your whole house water filter by adding all three filters described in this article:

• a sediment pre-filter to block particulate matter in the water;
• a UV post-filter to destroy bacteria and viruses, and
• a water softener to combat hard water.

If you have any questions about upgrading or customizing your whole house water filter and the best upgrades to make for your particular model, please give us a call at 800-589-5592 or send us a message.