When was the last time you had smooth, fair skin? You know, the kind of skin where you gazed at the mirror feeling so attractive and genuinely excited about getting outdoors for the day?
Hard water can leave you feeling like someone vigorously scrubbed your skin with a piece of sandpaper. You’re conscious of your dried-out skin, you look worse around everyone, and no amount of make-up will soothe your already damaged skin texture. In fact, your nails and hair are in acute distress too.
If this is a regular occurrence for you, you need the best shower filters that can treat and soften hard water. These shower filters will help restore healthy oils to your skin, leaving you with a fair complexion. You won’t be taking a shower. Instead, you’ll always look forward to a whole new showering experience, with softened water that will also revitalize your nails and hair.
| Image | Stages | Lifespan | Price | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 12 | 6 month | AquaBliss AB-SF100 Check Price | 9.2 |
 | 15 | 12 month | BathBeyond KDF-55 Check Price | 9.0 |
 | 15 | 6 month | AquaHomeGroup AHG12S Check Price | 8.7 |
 | 2 | 3-6 month | Pure Action SH388 Check Price | 8.7 |
 | N/A | 6-12 months | Aquasana AQ-4100 Deluxe Check Price | 8.4 |
 | 15 | 12-18 months | KARIDGE 15 Stage Check Price | 8.1 |
 | N/A | 12-18 months | APEX MR-7010 Check Price | 7.8 |
 | 16 | 3-6 months | Weluvfit 16 Stage Check Price | 7.7 |
 | 15 | 3-6 month or 10K gals | Torti Lia 15SSF Check Price | 7.5 |
 | 15 | N/A | Umien 15 Stage Shower Filter Check Price | 6.9 |
- Fast and easy to install
- Revitalizes your skin, hair, and nails
- Eliminates harmful chemicals from water in a short time
- Quick and easy installation
- Improves water quality
- Softens your hair and skin fast
- Removes excess heavy metals in your shower water
- Sprays soft, gentle and purified shower water
- Better health effects including providing vitamin C and E
- Easily connects to any standard overhead shower arm
- Great efficiency and saves water
- Made out of solid stainless steel material
- Easy and quick installation
- Stronger healthier hair
- Reduces chlorine and synthetic chemicals in hard water
- Easy to install
- Protects your skin and hair
- Purifies your water to perfection
- Helps eliminate heavy metals in water
- Quick and easy installation
- Longer lifespan of filter cartridges
- Removes unpleasant odors and impurities
- Made of solid, stainless steel material
- Quick and easy to install
- Protects your skin
- Odor-free water
- Easy installation and full compatibility
- Outstanding filtration kit
- Adjustable and comfortable to maneuver
- Eco-friendly and great water pressure
How to Choose Best Shower Head for Well Water-Buying Guide
Before you buy a showerhead filter, there are a few essential things you need first to consider. We’ve created a guide that will help answer a few questions and inform your buying decisions.
What is a Showerhead Filter?
Any piece of bathroom equipment that helps reduce and remove heavy metals, fluoride, chlorine, pesticides, and sediments from your hard water is a showerhead filter. Showerhead filters also soften water and improve its overall quality when taking a quick bath or shower. Therefore, it reduces any chances of skin irritation, dried-out hair, and nails.
One of the most prominent characteristics of shower head filters is to purify water while filtering hard water through stages. This allows the free flow of water and unwanted particles from getting blocked into your filtering system.
Another characteristic is that shower filters drastically reduce any chemical build-up and scum in your water filtering system. That means this handheld device or fixed showerheads maintain cleanliness through a straight-forward process.
One thing to remember about shower filters: the filter cartridges have to be regularly changed to improve their longevity and proper filtration of water often in gallons. The filter cartridges are responsible for providing and maintaining pristine water quality in your household. However, this will depend on your water consumption and the degree of hard water levels in your home.
The Importance of Shower Head Filters in your House
All in all, installing a single fixture water filter or a complete shower water filtration system in your home has significant benefits to your health, including but not limited to:
- Gets rid of flaky scalp and dandruff
- Revitalizers your skin by lowering dryness and irritation
- Relieves eczema and psoriasis
- Improves the health of your hair
- Reduces exposure to opportunistic pathogens and chemicals
- Lowers risks of some cancers
- They reduce harmful chemicals like chlorine, fluoride, and heavy metals, etc.
Compared to skin and hair treatments in the market, installing a shower head water filter in your home is an inexpensive way of dealing with hair and skin conditions without breaking a bank. If you also consider the medical costs, these filters are a simple and easy way to maintain proper well-being. They’re super easy and convenient to install, and sometimes you require no tools.
Things to Consider When Buying a Shower Water Filter
There are several things to look out for when buying a shower filter for your home. And one of them is a certification from NSF (National Sanitation Foundation). Certification means that your shower filter has successfully passed the test of filtering harmful impurities and foul smell from your hard water.
If the showerhead filter you’re going for directly attaches to the pipe in front of the showerhead, then you require a certification for it. This will help you determine if it eliminates chlorine in the hard water.
Here are other important things to consider when buying a shower water filter:
Material
Different types of shower filters have different materials on them. Some are made from plastic, and others from solid metal materials.
Shower filter units made from plastic are affordable and are easy to maintain. The only drawback is, after continuous heavy usage, plastic shower filters will break or start leaking. Meanwhile, units made from metal or steel materials are slow to rust. They never decay or even corrode with heavy usage. The drawback is that you’ll have to pay more for them thanks to the extra solid quality of their material.
The Lifespan of the Filter Cartridge
Filter cartridge’s lifespan depends on the manufacturer. However, make sure to choose a filter cartridge best suited for your home,which will meet your needs and exceed your expectations. The right filter cartridge for your home will have specific qualities you need to look out for:
- Filters at least 10,000 gallons of water at a time
How frequent it needs replacing – If you have too many people using the same filter cartridge when taking a shower, the chances are you’ll have to replace it at least twice a year.
How best it filters hard water levels in your premise – the higher the mineral content in the hard water, the quicker the filter cartridge wears off.
- The Adjustability of the Shower Water Filter
It is recommended that a shower water filter be at least adjustable. Otherwise, it won’t fit your current shower specifications. Remember, some showerhead filters have different sizes and shapes. Others are mounted in a different way altogether. So, before you buy a shower water filter, make sure it is compatible with your existing showerhead. This will save you time.
Does the Unit Affect Water Pressure?
The fact of the matter is, you will find water filters in the market changing your water pressure. This is not ideal. Ensure to go for a unit that hardly changes the water pressure in your household.
Weight of the Water Filter
Of course, the weight of your shower head filter matters a great deal. If a unit is a little too bulky or heavy for you, it means it will beinconvenient as well. So, don’t go for it, especially if there are children or older adults using the same shower filter. Otherwise, you’ll find the weight of the filter too heavy to liftfor them. Convenience should always be at the top of your pile when buying a water filter.
Important Filter Features to look out for
Besides having different physical aspects, shower head filters have different characteristics as well. Make sure to consider all these characteristics before buying a purifying unit for your home’s shower.
- Type of Filtration
Thanks to proper filtration systems, all shower filters can remove heavy metals and harmful chemical build-ups in hard water. In fact, some models can eliminate bacteria and parasites from contaminating shower water altogether. But some of these products are specifically designed to remove and lower chlorine levels in the water. Sometimes, they even softenhard water to improve its quality.
The degree to which a water filter can perform the above depends entirely on the product’s quality and type of filter cartridge. For example, some shower head filters come fitted with multi-level cabin filters, Vitamin C filters, or KDF filters. It is essential to choose a water filter depending on the filter cartridge it bears, as it will significantly determine the product’s functionality in your home.
- Cost of Replacement Filters
Some manufacturers of shower head filters will provide an extra filter cartridge in the pack. This will significantly lower replacement filter costs whenever one fails to function. Such an arrangement is convenient. However, this will substantially depend on the manufacturer of the shower filter altogether.
- The Reputation of the Manufacturer
The reputation of the shower filter manufacturer matters a lot. You will find a particular manufacturer has a good record of crafting longer-lasting shower head filters. And most people tend to buy only from them. From a customer’s standpoint, such a reputation is enough to build confidence before making a purchase. So, when looking out for a filter for your home, consider the manufacturer’s reputationtoo.
- Certification
You should always aim to buy a product with proper certification and warranty. This helps in case your shower filter fails to function over time. You can have it repaired or replaced without any hassles. This ensures the manufacturer takes care of any extra repair costs you may incur before the certification or warranty expires. That said, you should never void the warranty lest you cover the repair costs.
- Ease of Installation
Buy a shower head filter with comprehensive and detailed instructions. Though installing a shower head filter is as easy, it must incorporate ease of installation on its packaging. The reason for this is that you’ll clearly understand how to mount the unit without the guesswork, painful struggles, or entirely damaging it.
How a Shower Water Filter Works
The above filter cartridges work in different ways, but the goal remains the same: to improve the water quality and make it healthier for your hair, skin, and nails.
These filters generally work by eliminating build-up chemicals, sediments, and rust, as well as parasites and bacteria from the water. And they effectively do this through a series of steps. The saidsteps are unique to each filter cartridge, but they all work on filtering harmful chemicals as well as chlorine and other heavy metals from contaminating the water.
For instance, carbon filters trap debris through cotton materials around the mechanical features of the cartridges. And through chemicals, the cartridge will soften the water and block all calcium and magnesium molecules from seeping into the water. The final step is to get rid of any traces of chlorine remaining before allowing the free flow of water through the showerhead.
Types of Shower Filters
Choosing the best shower filter can seem like a daunting exercise. The good news is, we’ve listed the most common to best inform your buying decision. You will find three designs of a shower filter on the market today. They include:
Showerhead filters – These models are often bulky and look more like the regular shower heads you can find in any household. In spite of the regular appearance, showerhead filters are tasked with the removal of harmful particles in your shower water. Usually, they will provide great water pressure.
In-line shower filters – Most in-line shower filters hardly bear a showerhead. This makes it easier to install on your existing showerhead. This is one of the advantages of using an in-line shower filter as you can quickly fix it to your current showerhead and enjoy its benefits regardless. Then again, they hardly affect the bathroom aesthetics as they are less conspicuous.
In-line and shower head filters – Compared with the other two models, in-line and showerhead filters are often the largest. That’s because you have to install the in-line unit directly to your waterline. Meanwhile, you have to attach its showerhead straight to it, as well.
The in-line units often use a filter cartridge. It helps in the filtration system of the buildup of chemicals and heavy materials in the water. The sole purpose of a showerhead, on the other hand, is to manage the pressure of the water. So, both features are vital in a shower water filter.
Here are the common types of filter cartridges in a water filter:
- Multi-level Carbon Shower Filters
These are the most popular and standard filter cartridges you’ll find in most units. Their work is to push water through different mediums, 10 to 12 in number. Each of these mediums is designed to expel harmful contaminants from your shower water.
- KDF Filters
You can find a shower head filter containing both carbon shower filter and KDF filter. Sometimes, a KDF filter alone. These filters are effective in the removal of parasites, bacteria and viruses, and other harmful contaminants from your water. They are often made of zinc and copper materials.
- Vitamin C Filters
You can also use KDF filters and Carbon filters together with Vitamin C filters for greater performance. Vitamin C filters alone cannot invigorate the overall health of your skin. However, they are only good at filtering chloramine and chlorine particles from water.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Shower Head Filters
Showerhead filters equally have a good side and a bad side. It is essential when buying the perfect water filtration system to arm yourself with the pros and cons of filter cartridges. This will help you make good and informed purchase decisions without the guesswork.
Advantages:
- The prices are low since the devices are relatively smaller compared to a portable water filter. The smaller the size of the filtration system, the more affordable the price.
- They are easy to install, and mount – Filter cartridges come with easy instructions. All you have to do is snap the cartridge on the showerheadand voila.
- Instant filtration – Being small, they allow instant free-flowing of water from your showerhead.
Disadvantages:
- You only get clean water through one faucet, which is the shower. Filters use a ‘point-of-use-only’ mechanism. So, if you want more faucets in your home covered, then buy more filters.
- Chemicals still seep through in spite of filters deemed effective. Often, it’s up to you to decide which contaminants you want to be removed from your water and which ones will remain.
- You have to replace the filter cartridges regularly as they wear out quicker than you expect.
Do Shower Water Filters Work for Hard Water?
Remember, hard water contains high levels of chemicals and impurities. This can affect your skin’s health and the health of your hair and nails. To remedy this problem, water filters are designed to soften the water and improve overall quality over time.
By improving water quality, we mean drastically reducing the amount of calcium, magnesium, chlorine, and other harmful substances present in hard water. Here’s what a water filter can do in a home.
- Water filters prevent scum from growing on your bathroom tiles, bathtub, and faucet.
- They prevent white spots from forming in your bathroom.
- They invigorate your skin’s health through PH balance enhancement, which helps retain natural moisture in your skin.
- Water filters also prevent chemical build-ups and clogging in the showerhead’s water line system.
FAQs
Will a shower head filter help my hair?
Yes, a shower filter will help your dried-out skin and scalp. The idea of having a shower head water filter is to eliminate contaminants from seeping through into your body. The filter lowers the concentration of chlorine in the water, which is a major culprit in drying out your skin and scalp.
Does a shower filter come with a cartridge?
The cartridge is an essential feature in any showerhead filter. So yes, the water filter will come with a cartridge. In some cases, you’ll find a spare cartridge in the pack for your convenience.
How to clean a shower head filter?
Take the filter apart. You will need to unscrew the swivel nut that connects the filter to the threads on the shower arm. Next, clean the filter using a sponge and water. Clean the showerhead and arm as well. Then reassemble back the filter and head. Tighten the swivel nut. Finally, run the water.
When is the best time to change the showerhead filter?
After every 4 to 6 months is regarded as the best time to start thinking about changing the shower head filter. However, if the interior of the filter has dark particles, it’s time to change it.
Will a shower filter reduce water pressure?
Not at all. However, if the water pressure is already low, the water filter will entirely slow it down.
Conclusion
There you have it. The best shower filters to treat hard water and a comprehensive buying guide to help you make informed decisions quick and easy.
The single most important thing to do when you go shopping for the best shower head water filter is first to test the quality of your water. This test will help determine which chemicals linger in your water. The results will guide you in choosing a shower water filter that will make your hard water soft. And also improve your health including nails, hair, and skin.
If you relish luxury and the feel of being in a spa, Umlen filtered shower headset with a 15-stage shower filter will deliver a powerful spa-inspired water pressure. If you desire simplicity and style, Wulevfit 16 stage shower filter will achieve your goal while providing consistent water flow all the time. Remember, using water filters will help improve and invigorate your skin and hair condition.