Review: pHountain pHresh Whole House Water Filter
Written by: Gene Fitzgerald // Expert Fact-Checking: Buddhini Dolapihilla, MBSS // Last Updated: Aug 4, 2023
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The pHountain pHresh Whole House Water Filter is claimed to be specifically designed for contaminants present in Long Island tap water.
And that’s not the only unusual strapline we stumbled upon reviewing the product.
The question is, can the pHountain pHresh’s premium price tag be justified?
Let’s take a closer look!
Contents
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pHountain pHresh Whole House Water Filter |
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| Price: | $$$ |
| Filter Media: | KDF, Catalytic Carbon, Other |
| Filter Life: | Not Specified |
| Flow Rate: | Not Specified |
| Annual Cost: | – |
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Overall Rating: 1.5/5.0 ⓘRating based on filtration performance, filter life, price and yearly cost, NSF testing/certification, customer support, product warranty, our testing/experience, user feedback, and other factors.
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pHountain pHresh Whole House Water Filter – All Specs
- Model: pHountain pHresh
- Last Price: $3,988.00-8,888.00
- Annual Maintenance Cost: $0
- Filter Media/Process: KDF + Catalytic Carbon + ?
- WxHxD: 9.5-11.5″x61-63″x9.5-11.5″
- Warranty: 10-Year Limited
pHountain pHresh – Key Features
First of all, the pHountain pHresh Whole House Water Filter features different types of filter media. It’s unclear what exactly these “different filter media” are, but what we concluded from the product description is, it definitely includes KDF and catalytic carbon. Here’s a breakdown of the filter stages as we understand them:
- Stage 1: Copper-zinc alloy (KDF) removes chlorine and water-soluble heavy metals. It also controls bacteria, fungi, algae, and mold growth, so you can use the system for years without replacing it.
- Stage 2: This is likely a mix of catalytic carbon and some other media. We expect it to be activated alumina and/or ion exchange resin, since pHountain pHresh lists fluoride and arsenic as water impurities that can be removed. But we could only confirm that this stage contains catalytic carbon which removes chlorine, chloramine, even some heavy metals, and organic chemicals like pesticides and chloroform.
Besides, the pHountain pHresh comes in three sizes: Small, medium, and large, so you can choose the one ideal for your home and required flow rate.
There’s a 10-year limited warranty and the system is made in the USA.
Finally, and as mentioned before, we have a very hefty price tag – $3,988.00-8,888.00 depending on the system size you choose.
pHountain pHresh Whole House Filter Pros
Based on the information we have, we expect the filtration process to be powerful and capable of removing many potentially harmful contaminants and thus greatly improving water quality. Water aesthetics will be improved likewise.
The pHountain pHresh water filter is also advertised to be maintenance-free, meaning you don’t have to replace filters or anything. In fact, there are no filter cartridges to replace. Instead, the system backwashes, so some of the trapped contaminants will automatically go down the drain (more on this later).
Then, there’s the Vortech tank! The Vortech tank spins your water so that, during backwashing, less water is used.
What Contaminants Are Being Removed?
According to the official website, the pHountain pHresh Whole House Water Filter removes chlorine, fluoride, benzene, 1,4-Dioxane, aluminum, chloroform, lead, pesticides, arsenic, chromium-6, fertilizers, and more than 260 other contaminants that can be present in Long Island water supplies.
Installation
We couldn’t find information on installing this filter; it doesn’t have a manual online.
What we like is the bypass valve which makes installation a lot easier.
Video
The Package (Parts)
- pHountain pHresh Whole House Water Filter
Maintenance
The pHountain pHresh is easy to maintain as you don’t need to buy or fix replacement filters.
Manual
We could not find a product manual online.
NSF and Other Certifications
This product has no NSF certifications it seems.
Earlier Product Versions
We don’t know any earlier versions of the pHountain pHresh Whole House Water Filter.
Cons
As mentioned in the introduction, we noticed a couple of unusual things about the pHountain pHresh system.
- For one, it claims to remove over 278 contaminants specifically found in Long Island water. But of course, Long Island water varies in quality, and we find types of contamination in one of Long Island’s water supply but not in another. What this means is, the pHountain pHresh whole house system might be suited for your home’s water supply, but it doesn’t have to be.
- What’s more, the system claims to be self-cleaning, but that’s pretty unclear. True, backwashing releases some of the trapped contaminants (mainly sediments) through the drain. But this is mainly a carbon and KDF filter possibly with ion exchange resin or activated alumina; backwashing cannot remove most of the accumulated contamination from these. So what happens to the leftover contaminants in the tank? They remain! Backwashing or not, the media will lose its capability to eliminate water contaminants over time.
- We don’t understand how the media separator(s) provide for better filtration. It might be a real thing, we just don’t see how.
- Then, there are unfounded claims about the Vortech tank we believe. pHountain pHresh says, because it swirls the water it infuses it with energy and “provides an optimized cellular and metabolic function in addition to greater hydration and detoxification“. To our knowledge, absolutely no scientific research backs up these claims, so we are very skeptical.
- The system also claims to provide “higher alkalinity”, but what it actually does is retain your water’s pH. In other words, like every regular whole house filter, the pHountain pHresh does not remove minerals from your water.
- Also, there are no NSF certifications, third-party user ratings, or even an online manual. Many necessary details about this filter (for example the flow rate) are missing.
All in all, for a system with such drawbacks, it has a very high price tag. Around 3 to 5 thousand dollars is a lot compared to similar whole house water filters on the market.
pHountain pHresh Review: Our Verdict + Best for
What to make out of all of this?
Well, the pHountain pHresh whole house filter has its pros, most importantly a mixture of powerful filter media for broad contaminant removal and its Vortech tank saves water during backwash. Plus, there’s a 10-year limited warranty on the filter, which shows some level of confidence in its quality.
On the downside, we lack NSF certifications, many of the marketing claims are hard to verify, and the price is unheard of.
In our opinion, this system is just too expensive and we wouldn’t recommend it.
Our Rating in Detail:
- Filtration Performance: 4.0/5.0
- Filter Capacity (Life): 4.0/5.0
- Purchase Price: 1.0/5.0
- Annual Cost: 5.0/5.0
- Overall: 1.5/5.0
Comparison to Other Whole House Water Filters
Let’s see how the pHountain pHresh filter measures against the SpringWell CF and Kind E-1000.
SpringWell CF |
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| Price: | $ |
| Filter Media: | 5-Micron Sediment, Catalytic Carbon, KDF |
| Filter Life: | 1,000,000 gal or 6 Years |
| Flow Rate: | 9-20 gpm |
| Annual Cost: | ~$40 |
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Overall Rating: 5.0/5.0 ⓘRating based on filtration performance, filter life, price and yearly cost, NSF testing/certification, customer support, product warranty, our testing/experience, user feedback, and other factors.
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Kind E-1000 |
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| Price: | $ |
| Filter Media: | 5-Micron Sediment, Catalytic Carbon Block |
| Filter Life: | 12 Months |
| Flow Rate: | 15 gpm |
| Annual Cost: | ~$145 |
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Overall Rating: 4.5/5.0 ⓘRating based on filtration performance, filter life, price and yearly cost, NSF testing/certification, customer support, product warranty, our testing/experience, user feedback, and other factors.
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pHountain pHresh |
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| Price: | $$$ |
| Filter Media: | KDF, Catalytic Carbon, Other |
| Filter Life: | ? |
| Flow Rate: | ? |
| Annual Cost: | – |
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Overall Rating: 1.5/5.0 ⓘRating based on filtration performance, filter life, price and yearly cost, NSF testing/certification, customer support, product warranty, our testing/experience, user feedback, and other factors.
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The SpringWell CF (click for review) uses KDF, catalytic carbon, and a 5-micron sediment filter. The sediment filter eliminates the need for backwashing the KDF/carbon media tank, possibly putting it on a similar filtration level as the pHountain pHresh.
The Kind E-1000 (click for review) also uses a 5-micron sediment filter and a catalytic carbon block. This is great for city water treatment. The Kind further upholds performance by allowing for yearly filter cartridge replacements.
Both SpringWell and Kind come with a limited lifetime warranty and a money-back guarantee. There’s enough information (like flow rate and filtration capacity) about the products and both systems are much more affordable than the pHountain pHresh. With these points in mind, we believe they are far better options.
More Reviews:
This completes our review of the pHountain pHresh Whole House Water Filter. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below!
About the Author Gene Fitzgerald
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