In the event you spend sufficient time on Instagram, you would possibly start to get the concept the largest drawback dealing with America is water. And that the very best bathe water filters are the one reply. Over the previous few years, a brand new technology of trendy filtered showerheads has arrived to hijack our collective social media feed—and probably our unconscious—with a terrifying query.
Can you actually belief the water that comes out of your bathe?
The reply, in line with WIRED’s reporting, isn’t all the time encouraging. The makers of filtered showerheads typically make daring pronouncements about what your deteriorating pipes and chemical-filled bathe water may be doing to your physique, throughout what might in any other case be the one peaceable 5 minutes of your day. In the event you can rid your self of the chlorine or contaminants in your water, the argument goes, it could be the remedy on your most embarrassing issues: all the pieces from frizzy hair to limp hair to dandruff, hair loss, eczema, dry pores and skin, break up ends, blackheads, and the heartbreak of psoriasis.
The most effective bathe water filters on this checklist are certainly fairly good at eradicating the abrasive chlorine compounds that cities add to your faucet water to kill micro organism. And so this was our focus. Possibly half the nation’s water programs, together with New York and Seattle, use chlorine to disinfect town’s water provide. However most main metropolitan areas use a extra steady substance referred to as chloramine that’s considered much less carcinogenic. Chloramine is harder to filter out—and never all bathe filters succeed.
Actually, the variations in efficiency had been shockingly massive in some circumstances. So, let’s say you don’t like chlorine in your water? And you reside in a metropolis? These are the showerheads we advocate.
For extra purity filters and exams, take a look at our guides to the Greatest Backpacking Water Filters, Greatest Air Purifiers, and Greatest Indoor Air High quality Displays. For extra methods to stage up your lavatory, take a look at our guides to the Greatest Bidets, Greatest Electrical Toothbrushes, and the Greatest Eco-Pleasant Cleansing Merchandise for Your Residence.
Up to date April 2025: We have added the Weddell Duo, Hydroviv, and Curo filters and showerheads, and up to date our descriptions of earlier picks after sturdiness testing. We additionally up to date costs and hyperlinks all through.
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How We Examined and What We Examined
{Photograph}: Matthew Korfhage
The marketplace for filtered showerheads stays younger and largely unregulated, and efficiency claims are solely not often backed up publicly by unbiased information. We made numerous requests, however few bathe filter corporations hand over their lab outcomes. (Thanks, Aquasana, Weddell, and Curo for being exceptions.)
Some makers informed us that unbiased labs and certifying our bodies have been backed up, and that information is forthcoming. Many supplied buyer satisfaction surveys as a substitute. This all signifies that some skepticism is warranted.
And so I received out check kits at dwelling, as a substitute. First I examined the entire chlorine ranges within the water with none filtering, a measure that features both chloramine or free chlorine that is interacted with no matter’s in your pipes. Then I examined the water filtered by the showerhead. I carried out every check a number of instances to account for imprecision or fluctuations in testing and in municipal chlorine ranges. Most often, I did this over a number of days.
For testing, I averted painfully unreliable dwelling check strips, and as a substitute received out considerably nasty chemical indicators and used digital and chemical exams designed for swimming pools and aquariums.
We additionally examined complete dissolved solids utilizing a TDS meter, and individually examined filters’ results on pH to be able to gauge results but additionally to confirm the reliability of chemical check outcomes.
The effectiveness of filters goes down over time, after all, relying on how a lot contamination is filtered out of the water—which is why filters all the time should be modified. As we replace this information, we’ll proceed to check the simplest showerhead filters to see how their efficacy adjustments over time—and add any new bathe filters we’re in a position to advocate.
What Bathe Filters In all probability Don’t Do
The upshot is that you simply in all probability shouldn’t count on these bathe filters to melt the mineral hardness of your water or take away most substances.
In any case, a filter should be comparatively small to suit right into a showerhead. And but it’s being requested to filter gallons of water every minute, pushed out at each excessive temperature and excessive strain. A showerhead filter poses a frightening engineering problem, as in comparison with countertop water filters that deal with solely a small quantity of water at a time—or a cumbersome reverse-osmosis gadget that may plug into your under-sink plumbing.
So what do these showerhead filters truly do, in a method we are able to measure? They filter chlorine and chlorine compounds, largely by means of chemical reactions. Just about each American metropolis provides low concentrations of chlorine or chlorine compounds to consuming water to kill doubtlessly dangerous micro organism. That is all properly and good when the water’s nonetheless within the pipes. However chlorine’s not precisely nice on your hair or your pores and skin, and few individuals prefer to drink it. Some are additionally particularly delicate to the style or scent, or susceptible to pores and skin reactions.
Essentially the most distinguished dwelling bathe filters rely partially on a zinc-copper combination referred to as KDF-55, recognized to be fairly efficient at neutralizing “free” chlorine in chlorine-treated programs. Different frequent substances used to deal with chlorine and chlorine compounds embody calcium sulfite and activated or catalytic carbon. The simplest filters use these in some mixture. The principle factor I used to be in a position to confirm, and check, was bathe filters’ potential to take away the entire chlorine content material of water popping out of your bathe.
We’ve seen little proof that the most typical forms of showerhead filters have a lot impact on the softness or hardness of water, or on calcium buildup. Actually, some early tutorial research current proof that they don’t. The bathe filters we examined additionally had little or no impact on the sum complete of dissolved solids in our water, in line with measurements with a TDS meter—i.e., the filters aren’t eradicating a considerable amount of supplies or minerals from the water.
I wasn’t in a position to check claims by some corporations that these filters take away heavy metals like lead and arsenic, which fortunately aren’t in my pipes. We solely discovered one firm, Weddell, whose filter was licensed to take away lead. Up to now, so good! Nonetheless, when you imagine you’ve got harmful lead or arsenic in your water, you in all probability shouldn’t attempt to repair the issue with a mail-order showerhead. Discuss to a water remedy skilled or your public well being authority.
In the event you dwell in a significant US metropolis, chlorine is probably going not what your metropolis makes use of to deal with the water in its pipes. New York, Chicago, Seattle, and Phoenix use chlorine, certain. However Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Boston, and most massive cities in Texas don’t.
Greater than half of American massive cities use a substance referred to as chloramine, a extra steady and enduring chemical that’s tougher to filter and check. That is additionally what was in my water provide. To check, I received out my useful digital water colorimeter and a considerably nasty chemical indicator, after which examined the flexibility of every bathe filter to deal with any of various chlorine compounds within the water.
First I examined the entire chlorine within the water with none filtering, then I examined the water filtered by the showerhead. I did every check a number of instances to account for imprecision or fluctuations in testing and in municipal chlorine ranges. Most often, I did this over a number of days. As we replace this information, we’ll proceed to check the simplest showerhead filters to see how their efficacy adjustments over time—and add any new bathe filters we’re in a position to advocate.
