How we pick well water systems

1. Your water decides

Every recommendation starts from a test number: iron in ppm, hardness in grains per gallon, a coliform result. There's no single "best" system for well water. There's the system whose limits fit your test.

2. Benchmarks come from EPA

Private wells aren't regulated, so we use EPA's public water standards as the yardstick: primary limits for health (arsenic 10 ppb, nitrate 10 mg/L) and secondary guidelines for stains and taste (iron 0.3 ppm, manganese 0.05 ppm, pH 6.5 to 8.5).

3. Products must publish their limits

We favor systems whose makers state what they remove and up to what level, their flow rates, and their pretreatment requirements. We check those figures on the maker's own pages and note the date we checked. Prices change, so we give approximate prices and send you to the seller for the current one.

4. Order matters

We never recommend a stage without the stages it depends on. UV needs clear, soft water. Iron filters need near-neutral pH. Softeners last longer after iron is gone.

5. Honest labels

When a review is based on specifications rather than our own installation, the page says so at the top. We don't publish star ratings for products we haven't tested.

6. Commissions don't pick products

Some links earn a commission. A product with a higher commission doesn't get a better placement, and when the right answer is "fix your well cap" or "call the health department", that's what we tell you.