If you spend If you spend enough time on Instagram, you might start to get the idea that the biggest problem facing America today is water and what’s in it.
In recent years, a new generation of sleek, filtered shower heads has arrived to hijack our collective social media feed (and possibly our subconscious) with a terrifying question.
Can you really trust the water coming out of your shower?
The manufacturers of these shower heads often make bold claims about what deteriorating pipes and chemical-filled shower water may be doing to your body, during what might otherwise be the only peaceful five minutes of your day. If you can get rid of the chlorine or contaminants in your water, the argument goes, it may be the cure for your most embarrassing problems: from frizzy hair to limp hair, dandruff, hair loss, eczema, dry skin, split ends, blackheads and The pain of psoriasis.
But many filtered showerheads are pretty good at removing the harsh chlorine compounds that cities add to tap water to kill bacteria. And that was our goal. About half the country’s water systems, including New York and Seattle, use chlorine to disinfect their city water supplies. But most major metropolitan areas use a more stable substance called chloramine, which is thought to be less carcinogenic. But chloramine is harder to filter out, and not all shower filters can do it.
In fact, the differences in performance were surprisingly large in some cases. So, let’s say you don’t like chlorine in your water and you live in a city. Here are the shower heads we recommend.
For more ways to improve your bathroom, check out our guides to the best bidets, the best electric toothbrushes, and the best eco-friendly cleaning products for your home.
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How and what we tested
We asked manufacturers for independent lab data, where available. We also used digital and chemical tests designed for pools and aquariums and avoided home test strips, which are extremely unreliable. The upshot is that you probably shouldn’t expect these shower filters to soften mineral hardness in your water or remove most substances.
What do these shower filters actually do, in a way we can measure? They filter out chlorine and chlorine compounds, mostly through chemical reactions. Virtually every American city adds low concentrations of chlorine or chlorine compounds to drinking water to kill potentially harmful bacteria. This is all well and good when the water is still in the pipes, but chlorine isn’t exactly good for your hair or skin, and few people like to drink it. Some people are also especially sensitive to the taste or smell, or prone to skin reactions.
That’s where home filters come in. The most prominent shower filters rely in part on a zinc and copper mixture called KDF-55, known for its effectiveness at neutralizing pure or “free” chlorine. Other common substances used to treat chlorine and chlorine compounds include calcium sulfite and activated carbon. The most effective filters use some combination of these.
What shower filters probably don’t do
The market for filtered shower heads is still young and largely unregulated, and performance claims are rarely publicly backed up with independent data. We have made many requests, but few shower filter companies provide us with their lab results.Thank you, Aquasana(for being an exception.)
Some manufacturers told us that tests have been carried out by independent laboratories and certification bodies and that data will be provided shortly. Many of them offered customer satisfaction surveys, so we should be skeptical.
After all, a filter needs to be relatively small to fit into a shower head. And yet it is being asked to filter gallons of water per minute, which is expelled at high temperature and high pressure. A shower head filter poses a daunting engineering challenge, compared to countertop water filters that treat only a small amount of water at a time, or a bulky reverse osmosis device that can be attached to the plumbing under the sink.
We have seen little evidence that the most common types of shower head filters have much of an effect on water softness or hardness, or on calcium buildup. In fact, Some early academic studies present evidence that they are not.The shower filters we tested also had very little effect on the total amount of dissolved solids in our water, as measured with a TDS meter—that is, filters do not remove a large amount of materials or minerals from the water.
I wasn’t able to verify some companies’ claims that these filters remove heavy metals like lead and arsenic, which thankfully aren’t in my pipes. But if you think you have dangerous lead or arsenic in your water, you probably shouldn’t try to fix the problem with a mail-order showerhead. Talk to a water treatment professional or your public health authority.
If you live in a large city in the United States, chances are your city doesn’t use chlorine to treat its tap water. New York, Chicago, Seattle, and Phoenix do, but Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Boston, and most large cities in Texas don’t.
More than half of major American cities use a substance called chloramine, a more stable and long-lasting chemical that is harder to filter and analyze. To perform the test, I pulled out my handy digital water colorimeter and a somewhat nasty chemical indicator, and then we tested each shower filter’s ability to treat chlorine compounds in the water.
First, I tested the total chlorine in the water without any filtering, then I tested the water filtered by the showerhead. I did each test multiple times to account for inaccuracy or fluctuations in municipal chlorine levels. In most cases, I did this over several days. (One showerhead’s filter broke under its own weight on the second day of testing. I didn’t feel comfortable not recommending this showerhead, despite only one day of mediocre test results.) As we update this guide, we’ll continue to test the most effective showerhead filters to see how their effectiveness changes over time, and we’ll add any new showerhead filters we can recommend.
