Making sure the water coming into my home faucets, showers, hoses, and sprinklers is as pure as possible is very important to me. All city and well water has either chemicals for treatment and/or minerals that can reduce the life of appliances like dishwashers, water heaters, washing machines, and these chemicals and minerals are not good for your skin, hair, sinks, showers, and clothes.

I originally called 5 different plumbers to quote me to install a whole house system that could address these issues. Prices ranged from $3000 to $10,000 installed. I did EXTENSIVE research including talking to my city water department to determine exactly which chemicals were added to treat my water. I also had the water tested to determine the amount of chemicals, minerals, and sediment that I was trying to remove from the water.

After a week of research I found this product on Amazon that would filter most of my concerns for only $329. Because I have brand new appliances including two tankless water heaters, I wanted extra purification features. For this I bought separately the GOLDEN ICEPURE 3 Stage Whole House Water Filter System for $299.

I'm fairly handy but was not comfortable installing on my own. I hired a plumber, and for $600 and they installed both units for me in about 4 hours. So, out the door I only spent $1200 for a great system!

My family immediately noticed a difference in the shower. Everybody noticed their skin was softer and not irritated, soap and shampoo washed off easier, and clothes came out cleaner and softer. I like to wash/detail my cars at home and I noticed the water spotting was much less and easier to clean than before I had the system installed.

PROS:
1. MUCH CHEAPER than a whole house water filtration system even when adding on additional filtration system.
2. Low profile for space saving installation
3. Works great and water tested showing chloramine, sediment, and water hardness removed
4. Saves money up front and long term by extending life of appliances that use water and are normally damaged due to mineral deposits
5. Skin feels better and not irritated
6. No salt to refill
7. If the power fails the system will still function as apposed to electric descalers
8. My wife is happy!

CONS:
1. I would not attempt to install this on my own. Its not really supposed to be a DIY for the average home owner. My plumber said it was easy to install and I'm happy with that.

This has been installed for 9 months without any issues. I will update the review if something changes.

I put 2 of these in, in 2 different houses about 2 months apart October to December 2022. I also installed the Descaling unit and 4.5" filer housing with active carbon filter. All items arrived quickly both times and in good condition. Fair warning, the Carbon filter unit is heavy and I bet my Amazon driver hates me sense I ordered 2. Both systems are on public utility water. One system has a water hardness of ~120mg/L (Moderate) and the other has a water hardness of ~260mg/L(Very High) according to local provided municipal water reports. Both system's reports claim to have low TDS but also have rust due to old municipal infrastructure. In both cases we noticed the water felt noticeably better after installation. Will update on status and effectiveness in the future.

With the first system I took my time and used the included valves and PVC plumbing and adapted to the existing house PEX system. I fought with leaks in the PVC joints and had to adapt to NPT before adapting back to PEX to tie into house plumbing, which required more fittings and increased chance of leaks. Total install time was about 12 hours or so and ~$250 in extra parts. For the second system I adapted straight to PEX, installed breakable joints and PEX valves on both sides of the units for ease of replacement. The 2nd install was 6 hours and cost less than $150 in additional parts.

Some suggestions
-These units are short (~30" tall), if you are installing them I suggest you put them on a raised, well supported platform making them easier to work with. If its in a finished area put them in a drain pan.
- Put in a bypass valve to allow you to isolate the units in event of leaks and to aid in replacing them after the 6 years.
- If you don't already have PVC Plumbing than don't use the included PVC fittings. I tried it both ways and it was easier for me, and cheaper, to adapt to the existing house plumbing rather than install the PVC valves/pipe a then adapt to the house plumbing.
- Follow the instructions and purge before installing.
- Highly recommend following the manufacturer suggestion and installing the canister pre-filter.

Doing the math including salt and filters the cost of putting in the system myself (~$850) was nearly equal with installing a salt based water softener myself which would not have included a carbon filter. This would have required extra plumbing and electrical work, also hauling salt down into 2 basements 2 times per year. Quoted cost (at one location) for having a service put in a full system was $1700 (single tank ion exchange, pre-filter, and whole house carbon filter). To have provide salt, change filters, and service the system was an additional ~$30 per month for the first 2 years, higher after that. Both houses would have required additional plumbing cost for the purge lines and electrical outlets to be added for the water softeners. If this system works as it seems to then the cost is significantly cheaper.

We recently moved to a mobile home in a different city.
Every tap in the house, including toilet and shower, the water smelled strongly of chlorine, plus felt like there was a film on our skin and hands after washing hands and taking showers.
We have used countertop water filters in the past at our other house; tho needed a filtration system to block the chlorine in water through out house.
Someone mentioned a whole house water filtration system; researched online and found this wonderful AO Smith whole house water filtration system.
This is a huge unit; about 2 feet tall, 8 inches diameter, and felt like it weighed about 75 pounds.
Very well made, sturdy.
We had a plumber install this under our mobile home; they flushed all water taps, then we flushed all taps.
Voila! No more chlorine smell or taste in any water in our home.
What a relief.
Glad we bought this unit, even tho more expensive, and were considering cheaper filtration systems, however those had filters that had to be changed frequently.
This unit is for thousands of gallons, so don't have to be changing filters.
Highly recommend this filtration system.

We are a week into this system, we installed the larger prefilter, this filter, and the descaler unit. The instructions were somewhat limited in scope. The most important thing is all the strange chemical smell was gone from our water from the very first glass! We also did a (Zero Water) instant test and it cut the raw water reading of over 480 to just less than 200. That may improve a bit over time as our old copper lines descale a bit. The water tastes fantastic and feels great in the shower. It is not slimy like a salt-based system. We expect the prefilter/sediment filter will be a once-a-month thing and have already put it on our subscribe and save service. The only con I have is they don't have a flow direction arrow on the big filters, yet the instructions (although) vaguely tell you by the location of the brand sticker on the front of the main filter housing. If they had a direction of flow arrow I would not have needed any instructions at all! They have a massive sticker reminding you to flush before using the filter so why not a simple sticker telling you the flow direction? It is on the sediment filter housing, molded into the plastic even! Saved hundreds on the system and thousands by installing it ourselves!

Not installed long enough to review results, but when I followed the flushing procedure the water was clear from the start not cloudy as the procedure described. Yes, I did use the inlet for the hose.