Having clean water is essential for you and your family’s health and everyday tasks. Many people don’t know what contaminants are present in their drinking water. It could be anything from bacteria, to lead or corrosion from old pipes. Maybe something just makes your drinking water taste a little funky. Installing a water filtration system in your home can go a long way to adding peace of mind to you and your family. You should be confidant you’re drinking the highest quality water possible on a daily basis. Today, I’m going to help you do just that!

Disclosure: This project contains a paid product placement by Survivor Filter who generously supplied the filtration systems you’ll be seeing me install today. Get 15% OFF a Survivor Filter In-Home System at the link above or using the code MRFIXITDIY at checkout. Survivor Filter carries a wide range of water filters whether you’re at home or on the go so you can quickly transform water from contaminated to clean in a matter of minutes. All opinions are my own. 

What’s great about the Survivor Filter options is that they have both larger sized systems for use in higher usage areas like kitchens, and smaller systems for use in less used areas like bathroom sinks. It’s also great that their in-home products are manufactured here in the United States. Each system comes with an easy to follow instruction manual, mounting hardware, and the filters themselves. So today I’ll show you how you can easily install both systems.

Getting Started in the Kitchen

In my house, many of the old pipes are galvanized steel. There are areas of my home where the water pressure is lower than others. In some cases, the water can even be a little brown when it turns on. That’s because galvanized steel corrodes and rusts over time which starts to clog the pipes. I’ve replaced many of the water lines in areas of the home I’ve remodeled. Sadly, the trunk lines and supply lines in the kitchen haven’t been remodeled yet and are still galvanized. 

We’ll start with the larger water filtration system for the kitchen, the Max Filter System. It’s a 2 stage system that removes 95% of fluoride, and 99.9% removal of lead, chlorine, volatile organic compounds, toxic chemicals, and heavy metals. The system also leaves essential minerals in your drinking water.

The first step is to clean out the area under the sink that you’ll be working in. We tend to keep a ton of cleaning stuff under there, so get everything out of the way so you have a place to work.

Next you’ll want to find an area to mount the filter bracket. The system comes with attached water lines so find a location that is within reach of the water lines. If you don’t have a space available, you can purchase a longer set of lines to put it elsewhere. Mount the included bracket to the side of the cabinet or wall with the included screws and a drill or screwdriver.

Connecting the Water Lines

From there, turn the valve off for the cold water line at the valve on the wall or at the nearest supply valve for that sink. If you don’t have a valve anywhere, you can shut off the water main for the house if need be. Next turn on the faucet and let the excess water drain from the line. 

From there, disconnect the outlet hose line from the valve body, but leave the other end connected to the faucet. Connect the inlet line for the filter system in its place with some thread tape and an adjustable wrench. The inlet side has a threaded female nut on it and is on the left side as you’re looking at it. If you have different sized outlet lines on your water valves, you may need to purchase an adapter to fit.  

Next, install the outlet hose to the bottom of your supply line running to the faucet. Use a pair of adjustable wrenches to make sure you get a tight seal. From there, turn the water valve back on and check the system for leaks. Once you’ve verified there are no leaks, you’re good to go and you can run 5000 gallons of water before you need to replace the stage 1 filter which should easily last at least a year in the average home. 

My wife and I have used a Brita for clean drinking water but it gets pretty annoying when someone forgets to refill it or you need more than it holds for cooking. At one point, we even had a reverse osmosis system installed. However, you could constantly hear the water running from it because in order for them to work, they waste 4-7 gallons of water per 1 gallon of consumable water they produce. As someone who is environmentally conscious, that isn’t something I’m interested in. With this new water filtration system, we’ve got on demand filtered cold water without additional waste or complex installation. 

Setting up a Smaller System

Next I’m going to show you the PURE 10k In-Line filtration system. The Pure 10k also removes 99.9% of the same contaminants while leaving essential minerals in your drinking water. This system is great for bathrooms or as an in-line filter for a refrigerator water line or similar. 

Installation is similar to the larger unit. First find a spot to mount the included mounting bracket and install it with the included screws. Next turn off the cold water supply line at the valve, turn on the faucet to drain the remaining water in the line. Then disconnect the outlet line at the valve. From there, connect the inlet line on the filter to the cold water valve and connect the other end to the water line for the faucet using thread tape and adjustable wrenches. Lastly, turn the water valve back on, check for leaks, and you’re good to go. 

This system has the capacity to filter 10,000 gallons of water before replacement so it should last a good long time in a small bathroom like this. 

You’re All Set!

So that’s it for this project! I hope it showed you how you can easily get clean drinking water for you and your family. If you’re not sure what type of water your house has, check out this post. It shows how you can easily do a DIY water test to see what potential contaminants are in your water. Then you can see if installing a water filtration system is right for you.

I want to say a quick thank you to Survivor Filter for sending over the filters you saw me install. I absolutely encourage you guys to check out their full line of water filtration systems. Not only do they have these systems for your home, but they also have outdoor and on-the-go systems. They are perfect for backpacking, camping, fishing, hunting, or any outdoor activity that has you on the move. Their in-home products are manufactured here in the United States and made to be environmentally friendly. 

If you liked this project, here are some other water related projects I’ve done. Check them out!

Upgrade a Modern Water Spigot

How to Install a Sprinkler System

How to Install a Bidet

Thanks so much for stopping by and I’ll see you next time!  

Many people assume the water they’re consuming from local water agencies or even their own wells is safe, but is that really true?

So the question becomes, do you know what’s in your water supply? And if you were ingesting dangerous chemicals from your drinking water, would you even know?

The only way to really know what exactly is in your water supply is to test it yourself! Fortunately there are relatively inexpensive DIY tests you can do on your homes water supply to make sure it’s safe for you and your family, which I’m going to outline below.

I recently had to replace a large section of old water line in my house due to a breakage in one of the pipes and when I looked at the pipe, the level of rust, corrosion, and sediment in the line was disturbing.

It’s not uncommon for old pipes to be in bad shape, and even though I have a reverse osmosis system installed that I use most of the time, it got me curious about what contaminants I might be consuming in my water supply.

If you live in a city or area on public water, those suppliers have to report to the EPA by law and are required to provide annual reports to their customers but as we saw in the case of Flint, Michigan, sometimes that’s not enough. And with the incoming administration changes with the EPA, who knows how information will be presented to the public. Even if your water supply itself is up to EPA standards from the supplier, it doesn’t necessarily mean that by the time it reaches your tap it hasn’t become contaminated. There’s no way to really test for every contaminant out there but you can test for a broad range of contaminants to give yourself some peace of mind.

I purchased this simple DIY water testing kit on Amazon. There are a ton of different options out there but this one is from First Alert and it costs under $15 and checks for all sorts of contaminants like bacteria, lead, pesticides, etc.

The instructions are pretty self explanatory and require you to take multiple water samples to test for lead and pesticides… as well as nitrates and water acidity (pH).

There is an additional water sample required that tests for bacteria in the water supply. The test requires combining a water sample with an enclosed powder and allowing it to sit for 24 hours. If the sample is purple at the end of the 24 hours, the test is normal. If the sample turns yellow/orange, there is bacteria present in the supply. 

Fortunately in my case the test came back well within the normal range, but I plan to test it semi-regularly over the next few years just to make sure it stays that way.

In addition to the DIY testing kit, here are a few other tips on making sure you have safe & healthy drinking water for you and your family.

1. Always use a filtration system of some kind – tap mounted filters or even Brita filters remove many contaminants in your water supply, or for a more expensive approach, you can install a reverse osmosis filtration system.
2. Call the EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1 (800) 426-4791 – to find a local water testing agency
3. Search the Environmental Working Group Website – this is a watchdog group that compiles a list of water quality reports searchable by zip code, and water provider.

If you’re still concerned about your water supply, contact your local government office for more information on local water testing agencies.