I drink a lot of tap water and I’ve decided that if it won’t break the bank I should get some sort of purification system. My dilemma is the enormous price range for different products; presumably there’s a reason why one system costs ninety dollars and another costs two thousand. How do I determine what I’m getting for my money?
I use this: WaterChef C7000 Premium Countertop Water Filtration System
It sits on the counter in the kitchen next to the faucet. When you want drinking/cooking water, you use a little bypass toggle that attaches to the faucet and it routes water through the filter. It takes a big filter cartridge that for my household of one, lasts about a year. The device does not need an electrical outlet, but uses a small, disc-type battery. I’ve had it for about three years, and I’m very satisfied with it.
Read up on it at the amazon link.
I think the best solution is a moderately-priced, permanently-plumbed unit that goes under the sink and has a separate tap. We had a Home Depot-grade one when we moved in, and like most such it was a little low in output and the filters were insanely expensive. We replaced it with an Apec RO-90, which was $290 but has considerable daily flow and uses very moderately priced commodity filters. If you look at the Apec line, you’ll find cheaper and 'spensiver models with various levels of filtration, flow and the like.
The battery does nothing but power a countdown timer to light up an LED to tell you they think you need a new filter. 
Addendum to my above: Amazon has Apec, as well. Good place to research.
A generic RO system should meet your needs. Our water is ridiculously crappy and it tastes just like bottled water when run through the RO membrane and filters. If your water pressure is low, look into one with a pump. I think I spent around $200 on ours.
Well, that’s something I want to know. As soon as I replace the filter, I immediately buy another one to have on hand.
Definitely. I research everything on amazon. Some of the reviews are incredibly detailed and well thought-out. There are also pictures and even videos. Also, people warn you of possible problems, both with the product and with dealing with the company.
The first step would be to have a water sample from your home tested (PDF file) to find out what contaminates, if any, are present at levels that may need to be remediated. That information will help point you to specific types of purification systems.
Since my tap water is occasionally light yellow, I think I can forego the testing. 
Thanks all! Based on what you’ve told me it sounds like what I want is a fairly inexpensive countertop model, and a high flow rate isn’t needed.
Sometime there are no contaminants but the water just tastes bad. Our well water in the country tested okay, but I didn’t like the taste. Lived there for 20 years and never drank the water.
Hehe. I used to live somewhere where the water in the glass looked ok, but when you filled up the bathtub… ewww. The water was the color of weak tea.
The flow rate on the one I mentioned is exactly the same as what comes out of the faucet. The filter doesn’t seem to slow it down.
I live alone and the largest Brita pitcher works great for me. I fill a large vinegar jug w/ tap water and leave it to decant w/ the cap off for 1-2 days to lose the chlorine smell. Then I filter that through the Brita pitcher I got at Goodwill for $2 and the Home Depot fits-all filters. That will last me 2-3 days and meanwhile the jug is full and decanting, ready to be filtered.
I recycle the plastic of the filter w/ the other HDPE and the carbon inside goes in my driveway cracks.
Yellow water can be caused by iron, manganese, bacteria or any combination of those. If it were just a taste issue then I agree with ThelmaLou. In your case you need to make sure the filter will remove all of the contaminants that are present. Also, yellow water could be indicative of trouble in galvanized pipes.
In short, I recommend not just treating the symptom, but fixing the problem.
No, it’s a well-known problem with Minneapolis water, caused by seasonal increases in organic matter in the Mississippi river.
Get a reverse osmosis permanently plumbed filter at minimum. You might add on a water softener. If you wanna go crazy get a whole home reverse osmosis filter.
Whole house units are expensive, but the undersink units I recommended (which are reverse-osmosis plus two to five additional filtration steps) produce more than enough water for drinking and cooking at moderate cost. And eliminate the endless hassle of countertop pitchers and the like.
Then fixing the issue just became a much bigger problem for you! 
Also since we’re talking about an increase in organic matter, ensure whatever filter you get has a UV light to kill anything in the water.
Our house came with a rental under sink RO system. I did the math on rent vs buy and ended up purchasing a similar Apec system. I sort of recall I bought a smaller system than yours, but added the re-mineralization stage for taste purposes. It’s a well put together, relatively easy to install system. We’ve been very pleased.
The one down side to reverse osmosis is that it’s wasteful of water. Enough so it bothers me here in drought stricken Santa Barbara. The literature will say the ratio is 4:1, that is that four gallons go to flushing the membrane for every gallon you pour. What it doesn’t say is that’s at the optimal point where the tank is empty. As the tank fills and develops pressure, the ratio gets way worse, all the way down to 13:1. And most of the time, you’re only drawing out a little bit of water at a time meaning the refill is operating at the worst efficiency most of the time.
I verified this by running the dump line to a bucket for a while. So a glass of drawn off a full tank can mean nearly a gallon of water going down the drain. I intend to run that waste water out to a irrigation barrel one of these days.
If you have an electrical outlet under the sink, you could add a pump for about $65 and your efficiency would be pretty high. I doubt that it would ever pay for itself but it would be better for the environment. Plus, when you go through a lot of water, it fills your pressure tank up much quicker.
I had heard there was a pumped option. I really need to look into this. Thanks!
I’ve had two RO systems, both with pumps. The first one was probably installed 15 years ago and the pump was pretty loud. You could hear it clearly in my daughter’s bedroom since the pump was in the next room. The one that we have now (installed a couple of years ago) is very quiet. You can’t hear it if you’re not standing next to it. I don’t know if they improved or I just got a better pump with the second system. If they are rated for noise and not just pressure, I’d definitely take that into consideration.