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Whole house water filters are used in situations where the quality of all water coming into the house is so bad that even water used for other purposes than drinking needs to be filtered. Some conditions leading people to choose whole house filters are hard water, stinky water and water that causes staining of fixtures and clothing.

Water softeners are one type of whole house water filter. They use backwashing with a salt solution to regenerate the filtering media. Water from these filters enhance the ability of soap to lather and reduce the staining of fixtures and clothing caused by suspended iron particles in the water.

The reverse osmosis water filtering process squeezes water through a very fine membrane, removing all contaminants and minerals. The result of the reverse osmosis process is water nearly as pure as distilled water. Reverse osmosis is a slow process and requires fairly high water pressure to be effective.

Reverse osmosis water filters usually consist of at least three stages. The first stage is a prefilter that removes sediment and larger particles prolonging the life of the other two stages. The next stage is a granulated activated charcoal (GAC) filter to remove things like insecticides, pesticides and industrial solvents. The 3rd stage is the reverse osmosis membrane itself.  The filtered water is stored in a small tank from which the purified water can be drawn as needed.