When you're trying to get good clean water for your home, it's tempting to just pick up the $30 PUR filter and end your search there. The problem is, these small faucet-mounted water filter systems aren't necessarily the best ones for your needs.

If you drink a lot of bottled water, you may want a more involved drinking water filter system, like a reverse osmosis system; if you live in the country and get your water from a well or a spring, you want a filter that is exceptional with killing biological contaminants.
Click here to learn about some of the best home water purifiers available.

If you already have good-quality water in your taps, you may just want to use the regular PUR or Brita type drinking water filter system. These filters use activated charcoal to filter out mostly biological contaminants, but also a few mineral contaminants, and deliver clean, good-tasting water to you. The less-used ceramic water filter systems work approximately the same way, but with diatomaceous earth instead of activated charcoal.

If your water is relatively unpleasant to drink and you find yourself spending a lot of money every month on bottled water, it might be a good idea to go with a reverse osmosis drinking water filter system. The most basic of these consists of an osmotic filter where the water comes in, a reservoir where purified water is stored, and a tap separate from your regular sink tap where your purified water comes out.

Where the activated charcoal water filter system removes contaminants when water is forced through the filter, an osmotic filter removes contaminants passively, allowing very pure water to seep through the filter while all contaminants remain on the other side. The result is bottled-water quality drinking water.

Reverse osmosis drinking water filter systems do have drawbacks. They take ten gallons of water to make one gallon of filtered water; the rest is used to flush out the filter. They process water very slowly, so they need a reservoir into which the purified water is placed. And they sometimes let a biological contaminant through, where it can contaminate the entire reservoir. This last problem can be solved by using a three-filter system instead of a single-filter system; in this drinking water filter system, water is first forced through an activated carbon water filter, then allowed to diffuse through the filter.

Finally, just before the reservoir an ultraviolet water purifier shines powerful ultraviolet light on the water, irradiating and killing any biological contaminants while leaving the water itself pure and clear for your drinking leisure. If you have a problem with hard water or people in your home with breathing problems, you may want to go with a whole house water filter system as opposed to just a drinking water filter system. These devices are complicated (requiring a plumber to install them) and expensive, but will treat the water in your whole house rather than just your drinking water. When you go this route, you will not only be drinking purer water, but because the shower will no longer vaporize chlorine and other toxins dissolved in your water, you'll be breathing purer air.