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.

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 you have a lower-quality water system that deliver water heavy on chlorine or bad tastes, you probably spend too much every month on bottled water. A reverse osmosis drinking water filter will get rid of nasty tastes and heavy chemicals, and turn your tap water into bottled-quality drinking water. These systems are more expensive than the simple filters and usually must be installed by a plumber, and you'll need some space under your sink for the reservoir. Once it's in, however, you'll be able to get water that has been cleansed of almost every contaminant for only pennies per gallon - and you'll never want to buy bottled water again.

Even though a reverse osmosis drinking water filter system is perhaps the best possible water filtration system you can get, it has a couple of problems. If you also live in a drought-prone area, you should know that for every gallon of purified water your reverse osmosis system makes, ten more gallons are wasted - not a problem if you water your garden and yard from a gray water tank, but a potential problem if you are very sensitive to wasted water. Also, once in a while a biological contaminant can get through the osmotic filters, and only one can contaminate your entire reservoir. For this reason, most reverse osmosis systems also include an ultraviolet water purifier at the end that shines UV rays through your reservoir, killing every biological contaminant there while leaving your water otherwise unchanged.

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.