Our reader question for the day came to us from ‘Fred222’ who wanted information on the Austin Springs line of water filters… and specifically he wanted information on the Countertop (AS-DW-CT-P) and Undercounter (AS-DW-UC) models.
I have city water and want to know if the austin springs water filter will clean my water so it is safe. The under counter and countertop models look like they will work but how can I can I tell for sure?
First and foremost, Fred, before you start deciding on a water filter, we think you should consider getting your water fully tested for typical water contaminants in your area. Contact your local water department for a copy of the most recent annual water quality publication and then locate a certified water testing laboratory in your area that can perform any testing that appears necessary.
We suggest using a qualified (and certified!) local water testing laboratory because they may have the ability to recommend testing based on their experience with the local water supply over a number of years.
If no local lab exists, then you may want to consider the mail-in water testing services of a company like National Testing Laboratories that currently offers three levels of what they call ‘City-Check’ ranging in cost from $140 for the Basic City-Check up to $250 for the Deluxe City-Check.
After completion of testing?
With any luck, Fred, your water will receive a clean bill of health! But, if not, then make a list of all the things found in your water that you would like removed (or in some cases reduced) and compare that list to the list of water contaminants removed/reduced by any of the water filters you have considered purchasing.
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Moral of the story?
Rushing into a water filter purchase without knowing exactly what, if any, contaminants your water supply contains makes no sense. You could very easily make one of several foolhardy things:
- Spend money on an expensive, complicated water filtration system when your water does not require anything more than simple chlorine reduction for taste and odor improvement.
- Spend any amount of money on a water filter that does not address your specific water quality issues.
- Spend money on point-of-use (i.e. shower, faucet, countertop, or undercounter) water filters when in actuality, only a whole house filter has the filtering power to meet your water quality improvement needs.
What about simpler drinking water test kits?
The cost of water testing by a laboratory may not fit a lot of people’s budgets these days — and we can FULLY appreciate that! 🙂
So… will more economically feasible water test kits like the WaterSafe City Water Test Kit, WaterWorks COMPLETE Test Kit or SenSafe Water Quality Test Kit work just as well? Not for complex contaminants like VOC’s (volatile organic contaminants) and harder to test for environmental elements, no, but for folks on municipal water systems one would HOPE that none of those would exist in the water supply to begin with since those folks PAY a company to clean up the water before distributing it!
Interested in learning more about Austin Springs water filters?
If you would like to learn more about the filtration capabilities of the Austin Springs product line, then the links below will take you to pages containing more facts about each of the products shown:
