What Does Your Water Filter Actually Remove?

Chlorine. Sediment. Heavy metals. Fluoride. PFAS. Bacteria. Hardness.

We turn on the tap every day without giving it much thought.

We drink it. Cook with it. Make our coffee with it. Fill the kids' water bottles with it. Shower in it. Wash our clothes in it. Run it through our hot water systems and appliances.

But have you ever stopped to think about what's actually in your water — and what a water filter actually removes?

Here's the interesting part:

NOT EVERY WATER FILTER DOES THE SAME THING.

A basic carbon filter, sediment filter, whole-house system, UV system and Reverse Osmosis system all have different jobs.

And that's why at Aqua Power we don't believe in simply grabbing a filter off the shelf and hoping it's the right one.

The best filtration system isn't necessarily the biggest or most expensive. It's the one that's right for your water.

So, What's Actually in Our Water?

If you're connected to town water, your water has been treated and must meet Australian drinking-water requirements.

That doesn't mean there's nothing left that you might personally prefer to reduce.

Depending on the water source and local conditions, filtration can be used to target things such as:

Chlorine
Sediment
Taste and odour
Heavy metals
PFAS
Fluoride
Hardness and scale
Bacteria and microorganisms

The important thing is that different concerns require different filtration technologies.

And if you're using tank or bore water, that's another conversation again.

So let's break it down.

CHLORINE

Don't love that "tap water" taste or smell?

Chlorine is used in many treated water supplies as a disinfectant.

For households that don't like the taste or smell, activated carbon filtration can reduce chlorine and improve taste and odour.

You can do this at one tap with an under-sink system — or throughout the house with whole-house filtration.

And that brings us to one of the biggest decisions...

UNDER-SINK FILTRATION

Simple. Compact. Beautiful drinking water.

If your priority is the water you drink and cook with, an under-sink filter may be all you need.

The system sits neatly under your kitchen sink and filters water at that point.

Depending on the Puretec system selected, under-sink filtration can target things including:

• Chlorine
• Sediment
• Bad taste and odour
• Lead and other heavy metals
• And, with more advanced systems, other contaminants

For example, Puretec's X3 uses carbon and KDF filtration and is designed to reduce chlorine, sediment, bad taste, odour, lead and heavy metals down to a nominal 1 micron.

Who is under-sink filtration good for?

Someone who says:

"I just want beautiful filtered water to drink."

"Our tap water tastes like chlorine."

"I want filtered water for cooking and coffee."

"I'm sick of buying bottled water."

"I want something simple."

Then an under-sink system could be the perfect place to start.

But what if you don't just want to filter your drinking water?

WHOLE-HOUSE FILTRATION

One system. Every tap.

This is where filtration starts to get really interesting.

A whole-house system is installed where the water enters your home.

Instead of filtering only the kitchen drinking tap, you're filtering water before it travels throughout the house.

That means filtered water for your:

Kitchen.

Bathrooms.

Showers.

Laundry.

And other household outlets.

Puretec's whole-house systems are designed to target contaminants such as sediment, chlorine and chemicals, with selected systems also designed for PFAS reduction and managing the effects of water hardness.

Why would someone choose whole-house filtration?

Because water isn't something we only drink.

We shower in it.

We wash our hair in it.

We wash our clothes in it.

We run it through our plumbing and appliances.

Whole-house filtration can reduce chlorine in shower water and help reduce sediment entering plumbing and appliances. Selected Puretec FilterWall systems also incorporate technology designed to help manage scale.

So if you want to go beyond filtered drinking water:

Whole-house filtration = filtered water throughout the home.

SEDIMENT

Dirt. Rust. Sand. Fine particles.

Sediment filtration does exactly what the name suggests — it captures physical particles from the water.

Puretec recommends sediment cartridges in different micron ranges depending on the application.

This can be particularly important with rainwater and bore water, but sediment can also be a consideration with mains water.

And sediment filtration is often only one stage of a complete system.

That's why you may see two-stage and three-stage filtration systems.

One stage might capture larger particles.

Another may capture finer sediment.

Another may use carbon to target chlorine, chemicals, taste and odour.

Then, depending on the water source, there may be another treatment stage again.

HEAVY METALS

This is where choosing the right filter really matters.

Heavy metals can be naturally occurring or introduced through other sources, including plumbing.

But here's the important part:

You can't assume that every filter removes heavy metals just because the box says "water filter".

Specific filtration media and Reverse Osmosis systems can be used to target them.

For example, Puretec's X3 is specifically designed to reduce lead and heavy metals, while its RO270 Reverse Osmosis system targets a much broader range of dissolved impurities.

If you're specifically concerned about a contaminant in your water, testing the water and selecting filtration for that concern is much smarter than guessing.

FLUORIDE

Can you filter fluoride from drinking water?

Yes — but not all filters are designed to do it.

Fluoride may be added to Queensland drinking-water supplies within regulated levels to help prevent tooth decay. Queensland Health currently specifies fluoridation levels of 0.6–0.8 ppm where fluoridation is used.

Some households are perfectly happy with fluoridated water.

Others prefer to reduce fluoride from the water they drink.

That's a personal choice.

But if reducing fluoride is your goal, you need to choose filtration specifically designed to do it.

Puretec offers specialised fluoride-reduction media, while Reverse Osmosis provides a more comprehensive option for reducing fluoride along with many other dissolved impurities.

Which brings us to...

REVERSE OSMOSIS

When you want to take drinking-water filtration further.

Reverse Osmosis — commonly called RO — is very different from a standard carbon filter.

RO forces water through an extremely fine membrane, separating many dissolved impurities from the water.

Puretec's RO270 uses an approximately 0.0005 micron membrane and is designed to reduce up to 98% of dissolved impurities, including:

• Fluoride
• PFAS
• Heavy metals
• Salts
• Nitrate
• Chlorine
• Taste and odour
• Bacteria
• Viruses
• Cysts

That's a significant step up from simply improving the taste of tap water.

So... do you need Reverse Osmosis?

Maybe.

Maybe not.

If your main concern is chlorine taste and odour, we may recommend something much simpler.

If you're specifically looking to reduce fluoride, PFAS, dissolved salts or a broad range of dissolved impurities from your drinking water, RO may be worth discussing.

Again:

It's not about buying the biggest filter. It's about choosing the right filtration.

PFAS

You may have heard the term PFAS — sometimes referred to as "forever chemicals" — appearing more frequently in discussions around water quality.

There are filtration technologies designed to reduce PFAS.

Puretec recommends activated-carbon and Reverse Osmosis solutions depending on the level and point of filtration required. For its most comprehensive household approach, Puretec recommends combining whole-house FilterWall filtration with an under-sink RO270 Reverse Osmosis system.

That combination essentially takes two approaches:

Whole house: filtration before water travels through the home.

Kitchen: ultra-fine Reverse Osmosis filtration specifically for drinking and cooking water.

For customers wanting a high level of filtration, that's a very different setup to a simple kitchen filter.

WHAT ABOUT RAINWATER?

This is where filtration changes again.

If your household uses tank water, you're dealing with a different water source and potentially different concerns.

Depending on the situation, rainwater treatment can include:

Sediment filtration → Carbon filtration → Fine filtration → UV disinfection

Puretec's Hybrid E13, for example, uses three filtration stages followed by UV treatment. It is designed to filter sediment, taste, odour, colour, chlorine and chemicals and uses UV technology to kill up to 99.99% of bacteria.

And UV has a very different job.

UV isn't there to make chlorine taste better.

It uses ultraviolet light as a disinfection stage, making it particularly relevant to water sources where microorganisms may be a concern.

That's why tank-water filtration needs to be considered differently from a standard mains-water kitchen filter.

AND BORE WATER?

Test first. Treat second.

This one is particularly important for us at Aqua Power because we work with bore water as well as filtration.

Bore water can vary enormously from property to property.

Depending on the bore, treatment may need to address sediment, minerals, hardness, staining, metals, taste, odour or other water-quality issues.

So we don't recommend assuming that a standard whole-house filter will fix a bore-water problem.

Puretec also recommends conducting a water test before selecting treatment for bore or surface water so that any additional pre-filtration or treatment requirements can be identified.

Know what's in the water first. Then treat it properly.

SO WHICH FILTER DO I ACTUALLY NEED?

This is where we'd like to make things really simple.

You don't need to know.

That's our job.

Start by telling us:

Where does your water come from?

Town? Tank? Bore?

What do you want to improve?

Taste? Smell? Sediment? Chlorine? Hardness? Something specific?

What do you want filtered?

Just your drinking water?

Or your whole home?

How far do you want to take filtration?

A simple under-sink system?

Whole-house?

UV?

Reverse Osmosis?

Or a combination?

From there, we can help work out what actually makes sense.

WHY PURETEC?

Because filtration is what they do.

At Aqua Power, we don't want to install something we're not confident standing behind.

That's why we recommend Puretec for our filtration systems.

Their range allows us to provide solutions across very different applications:

Under-sink drinking water filtration

Whole-house filtration

Reverse Osmosis

Rainwater filtration

UV disinfection

Bore and groundwater treatment

Water softening and conditioning

And importantly, it allows us to tailor the filtration technology to what you're actually trying to remove or improve rather than treating every household the same way.

WHY AQUA POWER?

Because you shouldn't have to become a water filtration expert just to buy a filter.

Aqua Power is your local Puretec Specialist Dealer on the Sunshine Coast.

And we do much more than hand you a box over the counter.

We can help with the whole process:

ADVICE

We'll talk about your water source, household and what you want to achieve.

THE RIGHT SYSTEM

We'll recommend filtration based on your needs — not simply the biggest system available.

SUPPLY

We supply quality Puretec filtration equipment and genuine replacement cartridges.

INSTALLATION

We can organise professional installation so your system is set up correctly.

MAINTENANCE

Filtration isn't "install it and forget it forever". Cartridges and UV components need to be maintained and replaced at appropriate intervals.

REMINDERS

And because remembering when you last changed a filter is probably not high on your list...

We'll remind you when it's due.

That's the Aqua Power difference.

Advice → Supply → Installation → Maintenance → Reminders

READY TO FIND OUT WHAT'S RIGHT FOR YOUR WATER?

You don't need to know whether you need carbon, sediment filtration, Reverse Osmosis, UV, whole-house filtration or something else.

Tell us about your water. We'll take it from there.

Whether you want beautiful filtered drinking water at the kitchen sink or you're ready to look at filtration throughout your entire home, we can recommend a solution to suit your water, property and budget.

GET A FREE , NO-OBLIGATION FILTRATION QUOTE- CLICK HERE

Aqua Power | Puretec Specialist Dealer

Better water. Made easy.