Let’s face it, we all need water. Ideally, we all have clean and healthy water that we can consume and use straight from the source. In reality, most homes don’t have that luck. If you’re anything like me, you could have multiple water supply issues to overcome. Thankfully, there’s a slew of options today to improve your home’s water quality, and odds are you can do it yourself! Today, I will share my experience with you about the A. O. Smith Water Filtration System.
I have partnered with A. O. Smith to share with you my thoughts on their water treatment products. While I am compensated for my time, all opinions and experiences are my own.
Why Upgrade My Home’s Tap Water?
A. O. Smith Whole House Water Filtration System
High-quality water is among the most important things we bring into our home, and it’s likely the last thing on your mind when you purchase a home. We got lucky with our first and second home’s water, but when it came to our third home, we weren’t so lucky.
In fact, our home has just about every issue you can imagine- hard water, contaminants, and a wild amount of sediment issues. You can imagine I was relieved upon closing to notice a large water system already installed.
Problem solved, right? Again, wrong!
This system had been professionally installed by the previous owners and was a wildly expensive system. It hadn’t had proper maintenance though, so it suffered from buildup and corrosion in the system that made our water even worse. While all of this was frustrating enough, we had to contend with the company that originally installed the system. This was virtually impossible.
After about a year of ups and downs, I finally decided to pull this whole system out and install one myself: The A.O. Smith Water Filtration System. We had amazing luck!
This past winter though, we suffered a wild deep freeze here in Texas that damaged some of our exterior plumbing. As I installed this new system, I stuck with A. O. Smith products and am so glad I did! I will walk you through the products I chose and the reasons I chose them!
System Walkthrough
A. O. Smith Whole House Sediment Filter
First and foremost, the Sediment Filter is the first line of defense. We have a significant amount of iron and other particulate and sediment in our water, so this is a great place to start. Often, this is the filter that will show the largest visual impact on your water since it removes the contaminants you can actually see.
The A. O. Smith Whole House Water Filter with Reminder Timer (Model AO-WH-PREL) has a large 4.5″ filter that provides up to 6 months of filtration. It also includes a timer you can set to remind yourself when it’s time to change your filter. You’re also provided with a wrench to use when it comes time to replace your filter – I store mine on a hook next to the filter so it’s always close by!
Depending on which filter you select, there are options that range from 5-40 micron reduction. The lower the micron rating, the more contaminants that are caught and reduced. Some of them even remove chlorine taste and odor!
When I say this has a huge impact on your water supply visually, I mean it. I can’t even tell you how disgusting it was to change this for the first time in our home. We certainly don’t make the long end of 6 months, and I expected the first change to be quicker than the next. After only a few weeks, this filter was vivid orange from all of the debris it captured.
No doubt, this is a very satisfying part of our home’s maintenance routine!
A. O. Smith Central Water Filter
The next product we added to our system is the A. O. Smith Whole House Water Filter (Model AO-WH-FILTER).
This product also removes contaminants from your water supply without adding anything to your water. The difference from other filters lies is in what is removed. The Whole House Water Filter is designed to remove chemicals from your water, specifically chlorine.
If you have ever noticed a “smell” to your water, like pool water, it is likely that you have excess chlorine in your home’s water supply. Thankfully the Whole House Water Filter is very efficient at removing this.
Using activated carbon, the A. O. Smith filter removes more than 97% of chlorine from water alone and when paired with the sediment filter, you’ve significantly reduced the toxins entering your home. This filter is rated for up to 6 years of use or 600,000 gallons of water.
A. O. Smith Whole House Salt-Free Descaler
One of the things I encountered with our old water system was that to properly reduce the hardness level, you had to use a significant amount of salt in the softener. This can change the taste of water significantly.
While we certainly enjoyed using this water over the untreated form, we knew it wasn’t ideal long term. This time around we added the A. O. Smith Whole House Salt-Free Descaler (Model AO-WH-DSCLR) to the mix.
I am so glad we did this! I wasn’t sure if it would truly maintain the softer water we needed, while also preventing excessive salt usage, but it absolutely does. Additionally, our plumbing had significantly less buildup at its check-in, which was another great visual cue that we had made progress!
Selfishly too, this addition has made a huge change in my hair and skin. Even my husband noticed an improvement in his as well, which means we are onto something!
A. O. Smith Water Softener
The final step before the water enters my home is the Water Softener. Talk about a huge difference in water quality. Soft water is the kind of water you can truly feel the difference in. If you have hard water- your pipes and appliances, as well as your skin and hair will thank you!
We have the A. O. Smith 50,000 Grain Premier Series unit (Model AO-WH-SOFT-PRO-500), as we tend to use quite a bit of water these days, with two kids and all. With the amount of laundry that always needs washing- it was necessary to go for the larger unit. What I love about the Descaler/Softener combo, is that we go through less salt and still achieve really good results.
The A. O. Smith Water Softener has some neat tech incorporated in its unit to make it easier to use and more effective: First, it senses salt levels and lets you know when you need to add more. As well, you can track your water usage which is always useful if you’re trying to watch for leaks and control usage. You can also switch the unit into Bypass Mode if you need to service the unit. You can also easily customize the amount of salt used on the digital interface.
Installation Process
A. O. Smith Whole House Sediment Filter
One unique thing about my setup is that the entire system is outdoors. This has been a huge topic of conversation on my social media, but living in Texas, this is typical to see.
With that said, I do plan to enclose my system this fall to protect it from the extreme weather here. If you’re also in that situation, I recommend planning ahead.
Since we had an existing system, this was a straightforward install for me. A. O. Smith has great resources on their website and in their product guides to help you in terms of the basic install, including the order of install for your specific equipment as well as manuals too.
Depending on your specific needs, they have a lot of easy-to-understand recommendations on their site that allow you to be sure you’re installing the system correctly.
One thing I did to prep for this install was to have a small slab poured that will keep the equipment on a solid surface. This allows me to have a solid place to build its enclosure. A. O. Smith includes the bulk of the fittings you will need, and I paired that with 1 inch PVC pipe as recommended.
I pre-measured and assembled the bulk of the system together prior to connecting it to the water supply to be sure I wasn’t missing any connections. The entire install was complete in about an hour.
Where to Find It
A. O. Smith Whole House Sediment Filter
You can find the assortment of A. O. Smith water treatment products at your local Lowe’s store or on Lowes.com. For more details, you can also look at aosmithatlowes.com.
My Experience
A. O. Smith Whole House Sediment Filter
I have a long history of water issues in my home. As someone who owned two homes prior to our current, I can tell you that this was a major struggle of ours from the day we moved in.
I honestly took clean water for granted. For a while, our water was always coming out orange- yuck! I mentioned earlier our home had a full system professionally installed when we purchased our home. While that initially sounded appealing, I have to say it was a massive letdown. A.O. Smith really out-filtered the expensive system.
To me, this was the perfect afternoon DIY project and one I think most people can easily tackle with the right tools. If you’re not into DIYing, you can easily call a plumber and have them install the system, which I would recommend any day of the week.
Plus, you can easily maintain your A. O. Smith Water Treatment System where other systems aren’t quite as easy to find parts for. With the A. O. Smith Water Treatment System, components are straightforward and simple to install, but more importantly simple to service!
Without a doubt, the A.O. Smith water system was one of the best decisions we made in our home!