Four Places to Put It

The four EPA describes

Pitcher filters and faucet-mounted filters, both with cartridges lasting roughly two to six months. Under sink filters, lasting from six months to over two years. And refrigerator filters, around six months, included with some models.

EPA publishes indicative price ranges for each alongside those service lives, and the guide is short enough to read in full.

Source: U.S. EPA, Choose the water filter that’s right for you.

What EPA says to think about first

Four things: plan for the setup and the care of it; think about where in the home water is actually used; consider who will be using the filter; and budget for cartridges, because you will need new ones periodically.

Notice that three of the four are about people and habits rather than about water.

The question that decides it in practice

Whether it will still be maintained in eighteen months. A pitcher that gets refilled is better than an under sink system whose cartridge was last changed two summers ago, and the second failure is far more common because nothing about it is visible.

Choose for the household you have. Why this is the whole ball game.

Two practical limits worth knowing

EPA notes that not all water filters can be used with all faucets, which is a real constraint on the faucet-mounted option and worth checking before buying rather than after.

And EPA’s guide covers point-of-use filters, excluding whole-house systems. Whole-house treatment is a different decision, usually a plumbed installation, and often a permitted alteration.

And the one we will not answer

Which product. We name no brands anywhere on this site, deliberately, because the moment a site names one every other sentence on it reads as advertising.

What we will say is where to check a certification, which is EPA’s own consumer tool rather than anybody’s catalog.

Source: U.S. EPA, Consumer Tool for Identifying Point-of-Use and Pitcher Filters Certified to Reduce Lead.

• Certified for what
• Cost