Best Whole House Water Filtration System: 2025 Guide

A whole house water filtration system is installed where your main water line enters your home. The best options effectively address specific water quality concerns, such as chlorine, iron, arsenic or forever chemicals (PFAS). While some systems focus on contaminant reduction, others address aesthetic concerns like unpleasant tastes or odors in your water supply.

To choose the best whole house water filter solution for your home, you’ll need a water test to determine what’s present in your water supply so you know which specific solution or solutions would most benefit you. From there, you’ll compare factors such as functionality, brand reliability and third-party certification. Here’s a closer look at these considerations and how to ensure you’re getting an endless supply of cleaner tap water.

How To Choose a Whole House Water Filtration System

You have a lot of options when it comes to water treatment. Fortunately, you don’t need to know the technical specifications of every filtration method to choose an effective system. Instead, you should focus on factors such as:

Your Water Quality Needs

The biggest consideration when choosing a water treatment solution should always be your unique needs. This is because water quality differs depending on a variety of factors, including:

• Water source: According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the source of your water — for example, groundwater vs. surface water — can impact its quality.
• Treatment: Municipal treatment plants address many water quality issues for city water users but don’t necessarily address all issues. Private wells aren’t treated by your city.
• Local conditions: According to research in “Emerging Contaminants,” local factors such as climate change impacts, geological processes and landfill management impact your water supply.
• Home plumbing: Some pipes, especially those made with lead, can corrode and leach contaminants into your drinking water. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency notes that this is a more common concern in homes built before 1986.

To determine your home water filter needs, start with a free water test. These quick, in-home tests can identify specific contaminants, and a local water expert will help you choose a filtration system that addresses each one.

System Functionality

Experts install a whole home water filter system at the point where water flows into your house. That means it will provide filtered water at every tap.

Depending on which whole house filter system you choose, your water will be treated for different individual problems. Examples may include neutralizing filters to correct pH problems or filters targeting specific issues like nitrate, iron or sulfur.

In most cases, a whole house filtration system is designed to treat specific issues. You’ll want to research each system and choose one that targets the water quality problem that is most important to you. For example, chlorine odors might be the main focus for homes served by municipal water supplies, while well water users might want solutions for the rust stains caused by iron. In addition to contaminant concerns, a good whole house water filter system may also fix sediment problems that can result in reduced water flow.

Explore whole home filtration solutions.

Brand Reliability

For the best value, longevity and reliability, choose a water filtration brand you can trust. This impacts everything from the filtration system’s design and functionality to your filter system installation and after-purchase support options.

One factor to look for to determine brand reliability is third-party certification. This type of approval means that an outside regulatory agency like the National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) has evaluated a product and determined that it can effectively reduce specific contaminants. You’ll likely see these certifications among others:

• NSF 42: This standard establishes requirements for addressing contaminants that cause aesthetic concerns, such as chlorine, iron, hydrogen sulfide and total dissolved solids (TDS).
• NSF 53: This standard covers health-related contaminants such as lead, certain types of PFAS, arsenic, chromium and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

A good water filtration brand puts a lot of time and effort into meeting these criteria. The company should include a regulator-approved performance data sheet in its products’ owner’s guides, including contaminant reduction claims and testing details.

Cost

Cost of a whole home water filtration system is an important consideration in the research process. While exact prices differ, the top factors contributing to pricing include capacity, certifications, functionality, durability and app connectivity/smart features.

However, you should also consider the value you’re getting for that cost. For example, you’re treating water at every tap in your house, including all your drinking water, without installing individual filters for each. If you choose smart features, you get added value from service alerts, remote monitoring and more. Finally, if you choose a certified system, you’re also getting guarantees that it’s designed and tested to address the specific contaminant.

How To Tell if You Need a Whole House Water Filtration Solution

A water test is the best, most reliable way to determine which contaminants may be present in your tap water. A free, in-home water test from Culligan can identify many of these contaminants; for others, your local water expert will recommend our IL EPA-certified lab.

Some contaminants come with observable symptoms such as:

• Odors: A rotten egg smell may indicate the presence of sulfur bacteria; a swimming pool odor is usually caused by chlorine.
• Tastes: Contaminants like iron can make water taste metallic.
• Colors: Iron in water can also cause rust-colored stains on porcelain and elsewhere in your home.

Other contaminants are impossible to detect through sight, smell or taste. Examples include:

• Arsenic: According to the Minnesota Department of Health, long-term exposure to low levels of arsenic in drinking water is linked to health issues such as diabetes and increased cancer risk.
• Nitrates: High nitrate levels can potentially cause “blue baby syndrome.” Nitrate at lower levels may be associated with thyroid problems, adverse pregnancy outcomes and some cancers.
• Lead: According to the World Health Organization, there’s no safe blood concentration level of this element, which can impact central nervous system development in children and cause long-term issues in adults including high blood pressure and kidney damage.
• PFAS: As the EPA explains, exposure to certain levels of forever chemicals may lead to decreased fertility, developmental delays in children, reduced immune system function, increased cholesterol levels and more.

Other Water Issues

You may notice other issues like limescale, reduced water pressure, spotty dishes and dry skin or hair. These are often caused by hard water, which occurs when there’s too much calcium and magnesium in your water supply.

While a whole home water filtration system can act as a sediment filter to address some water flow and quality concerns, it isn’t a solution for hard water. You’ll need a water softener to ensure you have a virtually limitless supply of soft water throughout your house.

Best Whole House Water Filtration Systems for 2025

There are many kinds of whole home water filtration solutions. When working with Culligan, you’ll have help from a local water expert, who will use the results of your free test to make personalized recommendations.

Compare this year’s best whole house filter systems

Here’s a look at top options:

Aquasential® Smart High Efficiency Water Filter

This system combines the reliability of whole home filtration with thoughtfully designed smart features to maximize your value. With a whole house sediment filter, an activated carbon water filter or an acidic water neutralizer, this solution addresses more of the problems that impact your entire household.

Aquasential® Smart High Efficiency Iron-Cleer® Water Filter

This system offers both smart features and a unique focus on iron reduction to treat metallic tastes and rust-like stains. These solutions have been tested and certified by the Water Quality Association (WQA) against NSF/ANSI Standard 372 and NSF/ ANSI Standard 42 for the effective reduction of iron.

Aquasential® Smart High Efficiency Sulfur-Cleer® Water Filter

To eliminate rotten-egg odors, choose this smart system. WQA and NSF certification ensure it can effectively reduce hydrogen sulfide, while smart features give you stress-free control over maintenance and more.

 Aquasential® Whole Home PFAS Water Filter

PFAS may be present in both private well and municipal water supplies (and in single-use bottled water, according to “Water Research”). Treat your tap water with one of the only whole home systems certified to NSF Standard 53 for total PFAS reduction.

Aquasential® Smart High Efficiency Arsenic Reduction Water Filter

This system helps address arsenic concerns, which can be an issue for well water users, offering a combination of contaminant reduction and smart feature management for a high-value water treatment solution.

Aquasential® Smart High Efficiency Nitrate Reduction Conditioner

This system leverages effective design and smart features to make nitrate reduction simple. It’s especially helpful for wells in agricultural areas, where nitrates are a more common concern.

Get Started With Water Filtration

A whole house water filtration system reduces contaminants from your water supply as it flows into your home. This can include sediment, chlorine, iron, arsenic, PFAS and more, addressing both aesthetic and health-related issues.

However, choosing the best filtration system always depends on your needs. A water test helps identify contaminants you might not be able to see, smell or taste while positioning you for personalized system recommendations and solutions.

To get started, schedule your free, in-home water test and consultation today.

*Contaminants may not be present in your water.