Whole House Water Filters
A whole home water filtration system treats every drop the moment it enters your house — the kitchen tap, the shower, the ice maker, even the laundry. No more drinking-water-only protection: filter at the point of entry, once, for the entire household.
3-Stage Whole House Filtration System
Never miss a change — the free filter calendar reminds you when the 3-cartridge kit is due. Never open a green, smelly housing again.
Subscribe- 97% chlorine & taste/odor
- 99% sediment @ 5 µm
- ↓ iron & rust staining
- ↓ lead (NSF/53 media)
- ↓ VOCs & herbicides
- ↓ scale-feeding sediment
01Choose by Problem — What's in Your Water?
The right whole house filter depends on what you’re actually fighting. Pick the symptom you see at home — each card links to a full contaminant guide with test data and the exact media that removes it.
Cloudy, gritty or discolored water
Sediment & turbidity — sand, silt, rust flakes after pipe work or on well water. Clogs fixtures, shortens appliance life.
Chlorine taste & smell
Municipal supply — pool-like smell in showers, dry skin, flat-tasting coffee and ice. The #1 reason households upgrade.
Iron & rust stains
Orange rings in toilets and tubs, metallic taste, whites turning yellow — classic ferrous iron, common on wells.
Lead & heavy metals
Older homes with lead service lines or pre-1986 solder. No taste, no smell — only a test or NSF/53-rated media tells you it’s gone.
Hard water & limescale
White crust on faucets, soap that won’t lather, water heaters working overtime. Be honest with yourself here — read the card.
Well water, multiple issues
Private wells combine sediment + iron + sulfur smell + bacteria risk. Start with a $30 test kit, then match stages to results.
Don’t know what’s in your water? Start with the $30 test-kit walkthrough — every recommendation on this page maps to a test result.
How a Whole House Filter Actually Works
Every drop of water entering the house passes through the same sequence — coarse first, fine second, specialty third. Stage order is not cosmetic: each cartridge protects the next, and swapping the order is the fastest way to kill a carbon stage.
- Stage 1 — Sediment (5 µm spun poly). Sand, rust flakes, scale chips and turbidity stop here. This is the sacrificial stage: it costs the least and takes the beating so the carbon downstream keeps its full capacity for what it does best.
- Stage 2 — Activated carbon (NSF/ANSI 42 media). Chlorine, taste, odor and volatile organic compounds adsorb into the carbon structure — the 97% chlorine reduction figure on our spec sheets is this stage, measured to the NSF 42 protocol.
- Stage 3 — Specialty media (iron+/lead, optional). Where the water test calls for it: catalytic media for dissolved iron and manganese, lead-selective media for older service lines. This stage is configured by problem — that is what the Choose-by-Problem table above is for.
Why order matters: carbon loaded with sediment loses surface area within weeks, and specialty media blinded by rust dust stops being selective. Sediment first is what makes the expensive stages last their rated life — a $10 sediment cartridge is the cheapest insurance in the chain.
02Choose by Size — Big Blue 10" Vs 20"
Housing size sets your flow rate and cartridge life, not what gets filtered. Count your bathrooms before you count anything else. All three fit standard 1" plumbing with the included mount kit.
Pressure Drop & Flow — the Buying Note Nobody Gives You
A correctly sized whole house system drops pressure by less than 2 PSI at normal household draw — you will never feel it at a shower head. The failure mode is undersizing: a 10-inch slim housing feeding three simultaneous bathrooms restricts exactly when the house draws hardest. Count simultaneous users, not people: one bath running plus a dishwasher plus a load of laundry is ~10–12 GPM, which is Big Blue 20-inch territory (15 GPM peak on our chassis). Households with one or two bathrooms and standard municipal flow are well served by the 10-inch; irrigation, well pumps or 3+ bathrooms should start at the 20. And replace cartridges on schedule — pressure drop climbs as media loads, which is the system telling you the clock has run out.
03Compare Whole House Water Filter Systems
Three home water filtration systems, one chassis — pick how many stages your water needs. Every system ships pre-assembled with brackets, shut-off valves and a bypass: the household standard for point-of-entry purification, without the plumber-platinum price.
| 1-Stage CF-WH1 |
2-Stage CF-WH2 |
3-Stage Big Blue CF-WH3 · Best Seller |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| System price | $129.00 | $189.00 | $289.00 SAVE $60 |
| Stage 1 | 5 µm sediment | 5 µm sediment | 25 µm washable sediment |
| Stage 2 | — | Coconut carbon block | 5 µm carbon block |
| Stage 3 | — | — | KDF/GAC iron & lead media |
| Chlorine reduction | — | 97% @ NSF/42 | 97% @ NSF/42 + taste polish |
| Lead / heavy metals | — | — | NSF/53-rated reduction |
| Sediment / turbidity | 99% @ 5 µm | 99% @ 5 µm | 99% @ 5 µm, longer life |
| Peak flow rate | 10 GPM | 10 GPM | 15 GPM |
| Best for | Sediment-only concerns, small homes | Municipal water, chlorine & taste | Wells, lead risk, 3+ bath homes |
| Cartridge kit (per change) | $18.99 | $41.98 | $89.00 → $71.20 on subscription |
| Change interval | 3–6 months | 6 months | 6 months (S1: 6–9 mo) |
| Housing | Big Blue 10" | Big Blue 10" ×2 | Big Blue 20" ×2 + 10" |
| View CF-WH1 | View CF-WH2 | Add CF-WH3 — $289 |
What a Year Actually Costs
| Line item | Cost | Cadence |
|---|---|---|
| 3-stage system (CF-WH3) | $289 | once |
| 1-stage / 2-stage entry systems | $129 / $189 | once |
| Full cartridge kit, subscription | $71.20/cycle | every 6 months |
| DIY install (tools you likely own) | $0 · 2–4 hrs | once |
| Licensed plumber install | $150–350 · 1–2 hrs | once |
| Year one, CF-WH3, DIY route | $431.40 ($289 + 2×$71.20) | drops to ~$142/yr after |
Sediment-only stages in heavy-well homes may need a mid-cycle swap; city-water homes typically ride the full 6 months. Kit pricing shown for the CF-WH3 subscription; single stages reorder individually.
Where a Whole House Filter Stops — and What to Add Next
A filtration system removes what is suspended or dissolved-and-adsorbable. Three common problems sit outside that job description, and each has a purpose-built companion that bolts onto the same line:
UV sterilizer — microbes
Filters catch particles; ultraviolet light neutralizes what has no size to catch — bacteria, viruses and cysts that pass through any media bed. Worth it on untreated well water; redundant on chlorinated city supply (the chlorine stage already handles the load). Start reading: bacteria, viruses, Legionella.
Water softener — hardness
Calcium and magnesium are dissolved minerals no filter adsorbs — they need ion exchange. A softener after the whole house filter protects the resin bed from sediment and lets the filter handle everything else. White crust on fixtures is the symptom: hard water, TDS.
Iron & sulfur specialty — wells
Dissolved iron (clear water that stains orange) and hydrogen sulfide (rotten-egg smell) respond to catalytic media and oxidation, sized to measured levels — our stage-3 config. Deep dives: iron, sulfur smell, manganese, well water guide.
The sequencing rule: filter first, then treat. Sediment and chlorine upstream protect the softener resin and the UV quartz sleeve; skipping the filter shortens both. Every contaminant guide in the encyclopedia — lead, PFAS, chlorine, sediment, microplastics — ends with the specific filtration answer for that problem, so you buy the stage the water actually needs.
04Installation: DIY or Plumber?
How to install a whole house water filter system: the honest answer is 2–4 hours with basic tools if your main is accessible, or $150–350 for a licensed plumber if you’d rather not touch the supply line. Both paths are normal — about 60% of our customers self-install.
Self-install
- ✓Pipe cutter, two wrenches & Teflon tape — under $40 if you own none of it
- ✓Mount kit, shut-off valves and bypass included with every ClearFit system
- !Get it inspected if your county requires a permit for point-of-entry work
Hire a licensed plumber
- ✓Best for copper main lines, tight crawlspace mounts or HOA rules
- ✓They handle main shut-off, drainage & code-compliant bypass
- ✓Hand them the included template — fittings are standard 1" NPT
- ✓Many bundle the install with a water heater flush for one trip fee
05Replacement Cartridges on Autopilot
A whole home filtration system only protects the house while its cartridges are fresh. Skip the “when did we last change it?” argument — the kit arrives before the water goes bad.
- 01One kit, every 6 monthsAll stages in one box, matched to your system — sediment, carbon and specialty media pre-selected.
- 0220% off, foreverCF-WH3 kit: $89.00 → $71.20 per cycle. Skip a cycle, swap sizes or cancel in two clicks.
- 03Free shipping, alwaysSubscriptions ship free with no order minimum — the $49 threshold.
- 04Synced to your Home Filter CalendarWhole-house cycles, fridge filters and HVAC filters all surface on one reminder feed.
Every filter in your house — water and air — on one schedule. Add your system and last change date; we remind you before flow drops.
06Whole House Filter Questions
Yes, if the filter sits anywhere unheated — a garage, crawl space or against a north wall. Water freezing inside a housing will split the shell or crack the head, and that failure is not covered as a defect. For cold climates: mount on the warm side of the foundation wall, insulate the housing with a purpose-made jacket, and if the space truly freezes, drain the system before the first hard freeze — shut the main, open a low tap, and let the housings empty. City-water homes with the filter in a basement corner rarely need any of this.
Add later, with one caveat. The 1-, 2- and 3-stage systems share one chassis line — the housings daisy-chain on standard couplings — so a 1-stage owner can tee in a carbon housing or a specialty stage when a water test says so. The caveat is sizing: if you start on a 10-inch slim housing and later add two more stages plus a softener on the same line, you may outgrow the flow rate, and the honest upgrade is the 20-inch Big Blue chassis rather than stacking restrictions. Buy the stages the water test justifies today; buy the housing the house may need tomorrow.
07Beyond the Water Line
This page is one hub in a system: filter specs on one side, water chemistry on the other, and one calendar that keeps the whole house honest.